A number of people familiar with my longstanding support of President Trump and before him, President Bush (the son) are surprised to learn that in 2008 I voted for Barack Obama. “I voted for him the first time,” I remind people, which leads them to assume that I went for his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in 2012. I think I’d rather be accused of supporting AOC or Bernie Sanders than a feckless chameleon opportunist like Romney, and so I’m quick to add that I voted third party in 2012.

When I mention the candidate for whom I voted, Virgil Goode, I often get blank stares.

A quick primer on Goode: he was a six-term Congressman from Virginia, whose claim to fame in today’s world of sensationalist, scandal-driven journalism, was his criticism of Keith Ellison’s use of the Quran in his swearing-in ceremony. Ellison, now Minnesota’s attorney general, was the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006.

The smear campaign against Goode was that he didn’t want Muslims in Congress. I was thinking of voting for him, but I was clearly bothered by that accusation, so I set out to interview him myself, and did. We published the interview in TNH shortly before Election Day 2012.

Goode reassured me that his objection to Ellison taking the oath on the Quran was about the tradition of using the Bible or nothing at all. He said it wouldn’t make a difference if the non-Bible book used was the Quran or Moby Dick.

I wouldn’t bet the ranch one way or the other whether Goode was being sincere with me, but then again, I could say the same about any politician. I took him at face value and voted for him.

The question, though, that many people asked me, was: why did I want to vote for Goode in the first place? One word: immigration.

For decades now, I’ve been outraged by the lack of responsibility by our elected officials – particularly our presidents and, notably, of both major parties – to secure our borders. I long maintained that ending illegal entry and stay harms both Democrats and Republicans, which is why they look the other way.  It harms the former because they want to harvest votes from Persons Here Illegally (PHIs) they eventually hope to make legal, and because of their pathological aversion to the Western European imprint on American history, which they figure a massive influx of brown people ought to counterbalance. The latter, or at least their establishmentarian subset, because they’re all about the macroeconomic bottom line, and what better to achieve that than cheap, exploited labor?

So, along came Virgil Goode, beholden to neither the politically overcorrect Democrats who want to eradicate America’s Anglo legacy, nor to the Country Club Republicans who place profits above all else. I knew Goode wasn’t going to win, but if he took enough votes away from Romney in Virginia to tip the state to Obama, at least he would’ve made a statement.

Ultimately, Obama won Virginia by a greater difference than the Romney and Goode votes combined, so it really didn’t matter. And I really didn’t care: truth be told, if my choices were Obama or Romney and no one else, I would’ve voted for Obama for a second term, even though he disappointed me by underperforming, than pull the lever for that plastic charlatan Romney.

You can imagine, then, that my wildest political dreams came true in 2016, when a staunch opponent of illegal entry and stay not only generated buzz, but actually won the election! Unfortunately, in fending off lethal blows from Democrats, spineless establishmentarian Republicans, the media, academia, Hollywood, and Wall Street, Trump didn’t have enough of a chance to cement his clear vision that: “if we don’t have borders, we don’t have a country.”

Why is stopping illegal entry and stay so important to me? Those familiar with my life and works know better than to even suggest that I have a problem with ‘brown people.’ After all, besides being the swarthy, Mediterranean son of immigrants, as an immigration attorney I personally obtained lawful immigration status for many clients, including Mexicans and Muslims, to the point that I could earn my ‘woke’ stripes – which, of course, I’d never accept, and which I wouldn’t be given if the grantors were aware that I own an extensive collection of MAGA hats.

The reason I think turning a blind eye to PHIs (Persons Here Illegally) is arguably the most serious problem facing our country, is because I’ve studied this phenomenon so extensively that I understand how it consistently creates countless other problems, as is the case right now, in that the Biden Administration is helpless as droves of PHIs pour across our Southern border. As Biden tries to grasp rising Covid cases, multitudes of PHIs cross the border illegally, unvaxxed and, even more importantly, unvetted (even though to the Vax Police, not having gotten the Fauci Ouchie is far more important than, say, being a rogue terrorist-in-waiting).

That blue state governors – both ones facing simultaneous sexual harassment and nursing home criminal negligence charges and ones not – are gearing to impose new masking and social distancing mandates, while masses continue to infiltrate our borders is political malpractice of such an alarming caliber that I don’t think even a genius like Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling could have conceptualized it.

We’ve heard from numerous Democrats that the Squad and their woke minions are an aberration; merely a squeaky but insignificant wheel of the real Democratic Party majority that supports law and order, prosperity, and traditional values, but softens the edges of the harsher elements of cutthroat capitalism, and unequivocally condemns bigotry. Fine. Prove it.

Centrist Democrats got what they wanted. One of their own in the White House, and the Orange-haired Monster purportedly neutralized. So, now it’s time to walk the walk. Show us that you’re really outraged by transnational trespass. That you’re really worthy of protecting our national boundaries. Otherwise, you’ll have proven my point and reaffirmed the wisdom of my vote for Goode in 2012 and Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Constantinos E. Scaros' latest book, How to Talk Politics without Arguing, is available on amazon.com. For a complete list of his books, visit www.listentodino.com.