It’s easy to hate Edmund Pevensie. He’s the sibling in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe who betrays his brother and sisters, and indeed all the innocent creatures in Narnia, to the evil plans of the Witch. He even snitches to her that Aslan (the lion savior of Narnia) has been spotted, which escalates the Witch’s persecution of talking beasts and other friends of Aslan.

Why does Edmund become a traitor and an informant, a collaborator with a genocidal occupational government? For a spot of the sticky retro dessert Turkish Delight. The Witch dangles the promise, and Edmund stuffs his face. It’s smeared all over his cheeks at one point in the story.

Oh, there are other motives. No author as skilled as Lewis would leave a major character one-dimensional. Edmund treasures some envy and sibling rivalry and feels overshadowed by his older, more charismatic brother Peter. In the end, we’re left to ponder Edmund’s betrayal as an instance of the mystery of iniquity.

Senator Lankford Stuffed His Face with Turkish Delight

And that’s how we must weigh the actions of Republican Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, who negotiated with Democrats and RINOs an immigration surrender as unconditional as the one the Japanese signed on board a ship with General Macarthur in 1945. Oh, it can’t have been that bad, can it? Lankford’s a loudly pro-life Christian. He’s “one of us,” isn’t he?

Senator James Lankford … threw away his career in the Senate for nothing. Mitch McConnell put him in charge of negotiating on behalf of the GOP for a border security bill.

Then when Mitch realized everyone hated it, he told all of the GOP senators to announce they are against… pic.twitter.com/EY4hsV24iM

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) February 6, 2024

That’s just an appeal to tribal loyalty. Put it aside, and instead be a patriot. The deal Lankford championed and willingly became the public face of was outrageous, unspeakable, and every bit as indefensible as Edmund’s serving as a spy for the Witch in Narnia. Let me cite just a few reliable, mainstream conservative sources, and what they said about the bill.

Here’s Daniel Horowitz at The Blaze (but seriously, go read the whole brilliant essay):

In exchange for us agreeing to an endless flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, Democrats will get another $60 billion for Ukraine. Some call that bipartisanship, but we call it disenfranchisement of the forgotten American who is always placed last in the ultimate abrogation of the social compact.

…

Lankford’s bill would allow the Biden administration to reap the benefits of its own crime. Vitiating current law and bringing in millions of illegal aliens, the bill would essentially allow up to 5,000 illegal aliens per day to enter the country. It explicitly grants the Homeland Security secretary authorization to provide them with work permits. In fact, page 41 of the bill stipulates that “if the alien receives a positive protection determination, the alien shall be issued employment authorization.”

The authority to shut off the flow after 5,000 invaders per day is countermanded by the discretionary authority accorded to Biden to suspend any emergency declaration.

Page 27 of the bill mandates that those seeking asylum “shall be released from physical custody.” This destroys current law, which directs, “In the case of an alien who is an applicant for admission, if the examining immigration officer determines that an alien seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted, the alien shall be detained for a [removal] proceeding.” The bill also would give full discretionary authority to immigration officials to detain all those presumed to be in the country illegally “pending a decision on whether the alien is to be removed.”

In addition to weakening asylum laws by mandating that anyone with intent to declare asylum be released and given work authorization in six months, the bill would also allow the DHS secretary to grant parole to anyone with an “urgent humanitarian reason.”

The bill grants $1.29 billion for “alternatives to detention,” which would amount to a handout to the NGOs engaging in smuggling to continue harboring and facilitating the invasion.

Further turning border agents into babysitters rather than law enforcement, the bill would mandate training for “the non-lethal use of force” and “de-escalation strategies and methods.”

To the extent states or citizens could ever challenge Biden’s liberal asylum determinations made under this bill, all claims would be routed to the D.C. Circuit, which is about as liberal as the Ninth Circuit. This is clearly designed to take these cases away from the Texas-based Fifth Circuit.

The bill would give the Office of Refugee Resettlement another $2.3 billion to further empower unscrupulous NGOs to colonize our communities.

Page 149 of the bill codifies the “Flores agreement,” which incentivizes illegal aliens to traffic their kids over the border knowing that they must be released because the DHS lacks the facilities mandated for them under the 1997 lawsuit settlement. This has been a big incentive for the invasion not just under Biden but also under Trump in 2018 and 2019.

For reasons only Allah knows, while we are dealing with the border flow, Lankford’s bill would invite in another 50,000 people on green cards. It would also expand worker visa programs and bring in even more Afghan refugees on top of the 100,000 Biden already admitted.

The Heritage Foundation reports:

With more than $7 billion for the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Justice, and Health and Human Services, the Biden Administration would again fund “sanctuary” jurisdictions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have been facilitating mass illegal immigration, using federal grants provided by these departments. Sanctuary mayors and governors have decried the volume and cost of illegal aliens amassed in their jurisdictions, yet they do not terminate their sanctuary policies. Instead, they demand more federal taxpayer money to pay for sheltering, transporting, and providing social services to the ever-increasing number of illegal aliens. This bill would deliver for these mayors and governors.

Both the Biden Administration and the sanctuary officials work with a network of secretive NGOs that built and staff the considerable infrastructure that facilitates the mass illegal immigration from as far south as South America to, and throughout, the United States. Multiple videos have shown that NGO staff at shelters, hotels, and airports refuse to answer questions about the illegal aliens they guard and grow physically abusive when filmed. Congress should be investigating and shutting down this sanctuary-NGO machinery, not giving it more money to continue operating.

Breitbart pointed out back in 2018, while Trump was in office, that Lankford was a leading force seeking a blanket amnesty for 2 million DACA beneficiaries, rewarding their families for sneaking them into the country as minors.

Trump Says “No!” in Thunder

Donald Trump was clear and cogent in his response to Lankford’s unconditional surrender:

“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Yes, plenty of GOP senators from deep-red states embraced this radical bill, far to the left of anything Barack Obama ever proposed. And that’s something which GOP voters in those states need to think long and hard about, en route to finding patriotic replacements for the next GOP primaries.

What profits a man to say that he’s “pro-life,” if he favors flooding the country with people who are statistically certain to vote for leftist, pro-abortion and pro-transgenderist Democrats for at least one or two generations? That’s like saying you’re an abolitionist, but want to admit a bunch of slave states to the Union — which would keep slavery alive indefinitely. In other words, you’re either a hypocrite or a fool.

Aslan Had to Die to Redeem Edmund. Must America Die to Redeem Lankford?

But what about Lankford? Should we hate him now? Should we cast him out of our tribe? The Pevensies were certainly angry with Edmund. They saw the massive cost his betrayal imposed on Narnia — not just in the form of innocent Narnians killed by the Witch, but in a much more dramatic form. Because Edmund had served her, the Witch was entitled by Narnian law to put Edmund to death as a traitor. And the only way to redeem him was for Aslan himself to let the Witch kill him instead. (That’s a clear allegory of Christ’s substitutionary death for our sins.)

Aslan did it. The Pevensies mourned — Edmund perhaps more than any of them. He was bitterly repentant, and Aslan forgave him. So did his siblings.

If James Lankford, duly removed from office by rightfully outraged Oklahoma voters, ever repents, he should be forgiven by American patriots because it’s the Christian thing to do. We should be praying for him even now, as he bears the shame he earned for serving as a puppet of the Democrats and Mitch McConnell. Maybe if he reforms his life, he can lead a Bible study at a small local church.

But he has no place in public office ever again.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His upcoming book is No Second Amendment, No First.