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"In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."

— President Ronald Reagan

Farewell Address, Jan. 11, 1989

Ronald Reagan didn't like walls. They got in people's way. The line from his 1987 speech at the Brandenberg Gate, the one urging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" was among his most quoted and inspiring.

Now Reagan's position, as president and as the leader of the Republican Party, is held by a man who is all about walls. And bans on travel. And picking fights with other nations and with the whole of the planet's 1.6 billion Muslims, all in a vainglorious attempt to Make America Great Again by turning his back on what made America great in the first place.

The White House claims that President Donald Trump's Friday order blocking the flow of refugees and other travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority nations is not a Muslim ban. Even though that's exactly what Trump called for during his campaign and even though, in effect, it has only interfered with the free movement of people who are Muslims.

Republicans, including members of the Utah congressional delegation, should be leading the domestic push-back on Trump's clumsy and self-defeating action. The wishy-washy responses from Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch should be sounding a lot more like the brave talk coming from Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, who rightly described Trump's order as "a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism."

Trump's order clearly plays into the hands of the Islamic State and other extremist movements by helping them make their case that the world is at war, that it is the United States vs. all Muslims.

Even if the administration is able to walk back some of the effects, even if it explains away Trump statements that clearly favor the admission of persecuted Christians while slamming the door on Muslims fleeing war-torn nations, the order is not going to be seen as anything other than an attempt to blame all Muslims for the violence perpetrated by a few, in violation of American ideals of religious freedom and its interests in boosting trade, science and education.

Clearly, the administration made no effort to consult with allied nations, with Congress or even with some of the agencies that are supposed to be carrying it out before dropping this stink bomb of a policy.

Among those aghast at what Trump had done was German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who lived on the other side of the wall that Reagan wanted demolished — who reportedly has tried to explain to Trump that his actions violate reason, good tactics and the Geneva Conventions.

At least Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, long on record as a voice of decency and sympathy for refugees from Syria and elsewhere, had the heart to express some displeasure with Trump's move.

"We all agree we should secure the borders. I don't think anybody disagrees with that," Herbert said Friday, adding, in Reagan-like terms, "But what I don't hear enough talking about is the gate. It's not just the fence. It's the gate."

The United States and Utah were both founded by people seeking freedom, religious and otherwise. Those who aspire to lead either, especially members of Trump's own party, should be speaking out forcefully against this ill-advised, counterproductive and cruel order.