She is correct that there are problems far greater than the operation of a single small business in a national park. She misses the point completely. The use of illicit drugs does not stem from the supply; there is a demand issue that needs to be resolved. Anyone with a sense of economics will know that as long as there is demand, there will be efforts to supply. The amount of drugs coming through the desert over back roads or no roads is a drop in the bucket compared to what is coming through regular ports of entry. Let’s at least be honest. “The wall” is about legal and illegal immigration, fear and racism.

The gift shop in Yosemite National Park is actually open, despite Coulter’s assumption that we are not. The shutdown has had a small impact on us so far. Visitors can still enter the park, even if they find services reduced. The shutdown is having a far greater impact on the hundreds of Yosemite National Park Service employees and their families, on the contractors that need signoffs on work done in order to be paid, on the primary concessioner, which is laying people off. The shutdown compounds problems not helped by floods in April and fires in July and August that closed the park. And this is just one national park, among more than 400 park units, and just one agency of the Department of Interior. The shutdown affects millions of people, so being concerned (or not, in this case) about its impact on a single small business is complete nonsense.