The Wall

Scott Walker, a person who is pretending to be a serious candidate for leading the world's most powerful nation, has suggested building a wall across the entire US - Canada border.

To keep out illegal immigrants, you see.

That would be 8,891 kilometers of wall.  Much of it in absolutely impossible terrain like the Rocky Mountains or the extremely wild border between Canada and Alaska.  What would it cost to build such a thing?  Many many billions for sure.  Could it be a trillion?  Maybe?  Then what would it cost to guard and maintain that entire length for eternity?

This idea is completely ludicrous.  Putting up such a barrier between two nations with extremely closely linked economies, good relations, and no significant border issues is completely absurd.

But Scott Walker knows that.

He isn't suggesting this abomination because he thinks it might get built!  Nobody wants that wall built once they consider the cost, even if for some reason they like the idea in theory.  No, the wall is just Scott Walker trying to be Donald Trump.  Trump has managed to become hugely important in the presidential race mostly by being an idiot and saying all kinds of ridiculous things that touch on hot button issues in the US.  Trump actually plans to have Mexico build a wall along their entire border to keep people out of the US, and at Mexico's expense.  The wall blocking off Canada is actually a fair bit more ridiculous but they are honestly in the same ballpark, and now Walker's name is splashed across the pages of the internet.

People are laughing at Walker, but they laughed at Trump too, and Trump still is polling in the lead.  Walker desperately wants to be known, to be considered a threat, and he is hoping he can do that by being even more rabidly racist and xenophobic than Trump.  The theory, I am sure, is that he can actually put forth reasonable (for him, I would almost certainly hate his platform) planks once anyone cares what he has to say, and he can get them listening by harping on idiotic ideas that get people with strong anti-immigrant politics riled up.

So Walker is a genius, in this way.  I am even writing about him and I don't live in the US.  That is the hilarious thing about this joke of a policy idea - it is getting Walker exactly what he wants.

Trump may do even more damage to the American electoral system than anyone ever gave him credit for even if he loses soundly.