ANNOUNCING DEPORTNATION’S FIRST ANNUAL #MAGA ESSAY CONTEST (WITH AN ACTUAL CASH PRIZE AND EVERYTHING)
This is an *actual writing competition* with an *actual cash prize* opened in good faith to Trump voters (and/or current supporters) ONLY. (No exceptions!) Please share anywhere and everywhere you think it might be of interest, and feel free to tag in anyone you think might be up to the challenge.
ESSAY PROMPTS
Choose THREE of following five writing prompts to incorporate into a rational, coherent essay presenting a cognizable argument grounded entirely in verifiable facts and/or law. (Rationality, coherence, and sourcing will be evaluated by an independent panel of judges employing criteria described further below.)
(1) Examine the chart above and (explicitly referencing the included CBP data) explain why, for the first time in U.S. history, we have a “crisis” on the Southern border which would justify the presidential declaration of a national emergency in that region.
(2) Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump insisted both at his public rallies and in a memo posted on his campaign website that the Mexican government would make a one-time payment of $5 billion toward a border wall once the U.S. threatened to cut off all international wire transfers from undocumented non-citizens.
Explain how Trump’s current strategy of shutting down the federal government until Democrats agree to force U.S. taxpayers to fund the wall either works toward this specific goal or the plain and unmistakable guarantee that “Mexico will pay for it.”
(3) Draw from your favorite conservative writers, philosophers, academics, jurists, and other thought leaders to find support for the Trump proposal to (apparently) declare martial law at the southern border, seize hundreds of thousands of acres of private property, and entrench U.S. military personnel on U.S. soil for the purpose of constructing a multi-billion dollar public works project at taxpayer expense.
(4) In her beloved dissent in Kelo v. New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), Reagan Supreme Court appointee Sandra Day O’Connor (joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas) wrote the following:
“The most natural reading of the [Constitution’s Public Use] Clause is that it allows the government to take property only if the government owns, or the public has a legal right to use, the property, as opposed to taking it for any public purpose or necessity whatsoever.”
Explain either why O’Connor, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas were wrong OR how Trump’s proposal to have the U.S. military seize hundreds of thousands of acres of private land at gunpoint (“the military version of eminent domain”) may be distinguished from this position.
(5) The Department of Homeland Security reported in 2012 that the U.S. had reached the practical limits of what it could do on the Southern border with a physical barrier, and recommended that the existing fence be upgraded (and in some places, completed) and strengthened with a series of (mostly non-wall-based) higher-tech solutions. Senate Democrats passed a bill which included all of these solutions in 2013, but John Boehner kept it from a vote on the House floor.
Explain where DHS went wrong in its 2012 recommendations, and why Trump and the Republican Party are now correct in pushing for a physical wall in lieu of less expensive (and potentially more efficient and effective) 21st-century solutions.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions will be reviewed for presentation, grammar, punctuation, style, voice, etc., but the winning essay will be chosen primarily based upon the author’s logic, factual sourcing, and philosophical consistency. No winner will be chosen if the judges determine that no single essay has been submitted which presents an argument which meets these criteria while squarely addressing at least three of the above five writing prompts.
Any assertions of fact must be supported by credible mainstream (preferably government) sources.
Arguments may not be based (explicitly or implicitly) in racism, prejudice, and/or xenophobia. Any averments as to the nature, intentions, or proclivities of would-be immigrants and/or asylum seekers must be sourced. (Anecdotes, including email forwards and/or undated Fox News clips of individual migrants saying and doing things that you don’t like, will not be considered “sources” for this purpose.)
PRIZE
A prize equivalent to the dollar amount of the aggregate total number of individuals connected to the Trump campaign and/or administration indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller AND the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York as of the contest deadline will be awarded via Venmo no later than April 1, 2019. (Minimum prize will be $45 even in the unlikely event that a total of 45 individuals have not been indicted by that time. There is, against my better judgment, no maximum limit.)
The winning essay will also be published without comment or response on my website and Facebook page as a sincere example of an intellectual argument for Trump’s border wall. (All legal rights to the final published work will be retained solely by the author.)
Judges also reserve the right to designate a runner-up, which will be awarded publication rights as described in the paragraph above.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Forward all essay contest submissions to my attention at MAGAEssay@gmail.com. Submissions must be in 12-point Garamond and attached to the email as an MS Word document.
DEADLINE
Contest will close at 11:00 PM EST on the earliest of the following dates: the Ides of March (3/15/19) OR the day that Donald Trump is indicted, impeached, or voluntarily resigns from office.
