HOW WE GOT HERE: "We'll always have Paris," he famously said!

FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2025

So too with the southern border: "We'll always have Paris," the Bogart character famously says.

The screenplay for the famous film was assembled on the fly. The film's miraculous ending—part of its miraculously insightful script—was almost a bit of an accident.

According to the American Film Institute, six of the hundred greatest movie quotations of all time came from this one film—or at least that was true as of 2005.

Actually, it was six of the sixty-seven greatest quotations—and that doesn't even include the endlessly cited quotation in which Captain Renault says he's "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."

(According to the AFI, "We'll always have Paris" was the 43rd greatest quotation. "Here's looking at you, kid" was listed at number 5.)

"We'll always have Paris," he famously said. The famous statement brilliantly captures one part of human experience. 

In modern times, the men and women of the Fox News Channel will always have a certain rhetorical helpmate. That's also true of the elected officials of the MAGA world.

They'll always have the southern border—though they have other clear winners too.

More specifically, the tribunes of today's Red America will always have President Biden's unexplained southern border. That drama was played out yesterday right there on the floor of the House.

The House was wasting its time debating a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico. At the end of a pointless debate, Rep. Jared Huffman (D—CA) mocked the foolishness of the bill. 

With that, up jumped Huffman's opposite number, and he delivered the win:

ACTING SPEAKER (5/8/25): The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized.

REP. BRUCE WESTERMAN (R-AR): Mr. Speaker, as we wrap up this so-called debate today, I want to remind everyone of something that you are not seeing on the news every day, like you were several months ago. And that's hordes coming across our southern border...

The southern border had nothing to do with the legislation under review! But whenever the going gets tough, the various tribunes of Red America can always fall back on that topic.

They'll always have the southern border! Rather, they'll always have the unexplained history of the border as it existed under President Biden. It's one of the ways the sitting president is able to maintain his current level of support in the national polls. 

They'll always have the image of those "hordes" coming across that border during the Biden years. Also, they'll always have the violent crimes which were committed by some of the people who came across that unregulated border—and they'll always have our evasive non-responses when they refer to those violent crimes.

Those are easy winning issues for Red America's tribunes. No matter how bad other matters may get, they can always fall back on those points, as Rep. Westerman did.

Also, they'll always have Blue America's refusal to explain the border policy of the Biden years. Almost surely, this helps explain why President Trump's approval rating still stands at 42 percent.

They'll always have the fact that our tribunes in Blue America have never even tried to explain what was happening during those years. No matter how stupid Red America's leadership cadres may get, they'll always have the border to help keep voters on the pro-Trump train. 

President Biden never tried to explain the policy at the border. (We have our own assumption, which could of course be wrong.) 

President Biden never tried to explain! Others claimed, in the face of all appearances, that the border actually was closed and secure.

That was astonishing conduct. We Blues continue to pay for that conduct, even as we keep pretending that none of this really occurred.

They'll always have the border! Nor is that the only gift we Blues have handed our rivals. We've handed them so may "own goals" that President Trump actually managed to get something right on Sunday's Meet the Press,

Gifted with a pair of prizes, the commander offered this:

WELKER (5/4/25): Do you see dissent as an essential part of democracy?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It's a part of democracy. It is. You're always going to have dissent—

WELKER: Is it an important part of democracy?

TRUMP: You’re always going to have—Kristen, you're always going to have dissent. There's nothing you're going to do about that. Am I going to get 100 percent unified? It would be a strange place. I can't even imagine it where 100 percent—

Look. You have people that are good people. They're very smart people. And they honestly believe we should have open borders and the entire world should be allowed to pour into our country. I think it's a 95/5 issue, but they believe it. They're not even bad people—some of them are bad. 

You have people that honestly believe that men should be allowed to play in women's sports. Some of these people—I really, actually I don't know any; I haven't been able to find any—but they exist. They say it's an 80/20 issue. I don't believe that. I think it's a 97/3 issue.

President Trump had the southern border. He also had "men [being] allowed to play in women's sports," as he chose to characterize it.

He said it was a 97/3 issue. According to NBC News, it's actually 75/25—but that depends on the way you phrase the question concerning this relatively new topic. 

(According to Pew, it's 66/15.)

Should transgender girls and women be allowed to participate in girls' and women's sports? It's a relatively new public policy question, spinning off from a relatively new public policy topic. 

We Blues ted to act like this is all settled material. (If you don't agree, you're a very bad person.) Once again, here's what Michelle Goldberg recently said:

What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?

[...]

As a matter of both political expediency and simple honesty, Democrats should be able to acknowledge that it’s unfair to expect elite female athletes to compete against trans women who’ve gone through male puberty. But at a time when the Trump administration has singled trans people out for persecution, Democrats need to couple their recognition of physical difference with a broader defense of trans rights.

Is it "unfair to expect elite female athletes to compete against trans women who’ve gone through male puberty?" Should Democrats "be able to acknowledge" something like that?

In our view, that doesn't seem like a crazy stance. For ourselves, we'd say that Democrats should at least be able to acknowledge that there's an unresolved question lingering there—a question we need to address as a nation, not as two warring tribes. 

But of one thing we can be certain—at present, this topic represents an easy political win for Red America. In the foreseeable future, Red America will always have this safe (political) space to run to. In his recent interview with Mediaite, Charlie Sykes included this topic in his list of places where he said we Blues have basically failed:

Is ‘Never Trump’ Dead? Charlie Sykes On The One Thing That Could Actually Restrain Trump

[,,,]

SYKES: I mean, the reality is there are a lot of swing voters that actually were concerned about inflation. So simply denying that inflation was a problem was a mistake. 

There are swing voters that were concerned about crime, and simply telling them that crime is a myth is basically says we don’t care about what you think. 

The border was a real problem during the Biden years, and that needs to be addressed. 

There was a reason why the Trump campaign spent more than a hundred million dollars on one ad, one ad involving transgender surgeries and athletes. And yet, if you listen to Democrats and folks on the left, that issue didn’t exist at all.

So simply saying "These are fake issues, don’t pay any attention to them" means that you shut yourself off from things that voters are talking about. 

He also mentioned the southern border. Also, he mentioned "the Joe Biden age story," another ginormous own goal for which we Blues are still being battered, with more such losses to come.

Astoundingly ugly behavior can now be found among Red America's corporate cadres. As we noted yesterday, on the nation's most-watched "cable news" program, one co-host spouted this late Wednesday afternoon:

JUDGE JEANINE (5/7/25): So, Greg, because [former president Biden] wants to be more active and involved, would you go listen?

GUTFELD: Fine! Do it on his time, don't do it on our time. Go out literally to a pasture and pass away! He chose BBC because it stands for "Biden—Bury or Cremate?" 

[...]

As long as Joe emerges from the crypt with his old man smell—nobody is listening to what he's saying. They're just looking at it and going, "Christ! This actually was president?"

WATTERS: [Snickering]

President Biden should wander off in a pasture and die! Enough with his "old man smell!"

Garbage like that comes out of the can on a regular basis. Five hours later, that extremely strange co-host introduced a pseudo-discussion on his own Gutfeld! program by reciting this singsong rhyme:

GUTFELD (5/7/25): His pants full of turds, Biden speaks more words.

We know—you think we're making that up! Go ahead—click that link! 

As this garbage keeps spilling out of the can, the exalted orgs (and the stars) of Blue America just keep looking away. To appearances, life is still good where those tribunes live, and they don't want to grapple with Fox.

The Crazy or perhaps its first cousins are all around us at this point in time. The Crazy has emerged from the can and it's ruling humankind. 

Also, there's the endless array of imperfect judgments committed by us, the vastly self-impressed Blues.

We Blues have a whole lot of splainin' to do! That said, there are few signs that we understand any such fact, or that we plan to react—but in this report, we've barely scratched the surface of the ways our imperfections are helping to keep President Trump afloat. 

Bogie and Bergman will always have Paris. People like Gutfeld and Judge Jeanine will always have the southern border, plus many more gifts beyond that. 

Does our tribal blindness help explain why President Trump hasn't dropped, let's say, down to 35 percent? We'd have to assume that it does.

We Blues! Our political judgment is often quite poor, and our tribunes have frequently misbehaved. In our view, the other tribe is substantially worse at this time—but we Blues are rich in imperfections and acts of deception too.

We aren't the giants we claim to be.  Everyone knows this but us!