Politics & Power Quote by William L. Jenkins

“Unfortunately” does a lot of political work here: it signals regret while quietly insisting the speaker’s hands are tied by reality. Jenkins frames the “lottery program” not as a policy choice with tradeoffs, but as a design flaw in a machine that’s already out of control. The grammar even helps him: “current format” implies there’s a sensible alternative (reform) while “subject to fraud and abuse” primes the listener to feel that the system is being gamed by people who don’t deserve it. Fraud isn’t just illegality; in American politics it’s a moral accusation, a way to convert administrative complexity into outrage.

Then comes the turn: “leave our nation exposed” isn’t about paperwork, it’s about vulnerability. “Exposed” is the language of breached borders, unlocked doors, a body without armor. The line fuses two anxieties that campaigns love to braid together: the fear of being cheated and the fear of being attacked. By the time we arrive at “those who may seek to do harm on American soil,” the policy argument has been elevated into a national-security imperative. “May seek” is strategically elastic: it doesn’t need evidence of a specific plot, only the possibility of one. That’s the subtextual move: shift the burden of proof onto defenders of the program, who now look like they’re tolerating risk.

Contextually, this reads like late-20th/early-21st century immigration rhetoric, where “lottery” programs (especially visa lotteries) became symbols of randomness, weak vetting, and cultural unease. The intent isn’t merely to fix a program; it’s to make restriction feel like prudence, and disagreement feel like negligence.