Research polls show that the economy and terrorism are the top two national issues among voters this fall.

James Carville, a political strategist, coined the phrase “It’s the economy stupid” for the 1992 presidential race and that slogan still rings true 24 years later.The 9/11 attacks 15 years ago also brought the term homeland terrorism to our social lexicon.Now, terrorist-related incidents are occurring in our homeland with shocking regularity. The most recent incidents involved the stabbing of nine people in a Minnesota shopping mall and a bomb explosion in Manhattan that wounded 29 people.These latest attacks have once again elevated national security and the war against radical Islam as crucial issues on the presidential debate stage and the campaign trail.Homegrown or self-radicalized terrorists like Ahmad Khan Rahami, the New York City suspect, are most dangerous since these are citizens already assimilated into our society.Rahami’s intent to kill the maximum number of Americans was obvious. He had reportedly planted a second unexploded bomb and had a backpack filled with IEDs in Elizabeth, New Jersey, ready to go before being stopped.Minnesotans are thankful that Jason Falconer, an off-duty police officer, was able to stop Dahir Adan, before he slashed anymore victims during his knifing rampage at a mall in St. Cloud.Police and witnesses say Adan, a self-proclaimed “soldier of the Islamic state, made a reference to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he attacked.Officer Falconer was commended for his heroic action in stopping the carnage.St. Cloud Dave Mayor said Falconer was the right man at the right time at place when he brought down the knife-wielding suspect.“He protected others from being injured,” the mayor said. “Clearly, a hero.”Also looming large under the terrorism umbrella in this election are the subjects of open borders and the acceptance of more foreign refugees.In light of the latest terrorist attacks, the administration’s plan to bring at least 10,000 Syria refugees into the U.S. by the end of this fiscal year — a nearly 500 percent increase over last year — is not sitting well with most Americans.There are reasons to be alarmed. Some ranking officials, including FBI Director James Comey, have voiced a concern over “gaps” in the vetting process. Experts say U.S. intelligence in Syria isn’t very good and because the U.S. lacks much of a presence on the ground, there’s no way to compile a thorough watch list of possible terrorists.Alabama Sen. Sam Sessions calls it dangerous to admit as many refugees as possible from areas of the world where terrorists roam freely, and is equally problematic to grant a temporary amnesty to Syrians living in this country illegally.Just last week, an internal audit revealed how easy it is for mistakes to occur within the system.In this latest snafu, more than 800 illegal immigrants from “special interest countries or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud, who were set for deportation, were mistakenly granted U.S. citizenship. The discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.We agree with Sen. Sessions’ assertion that the growing numbers of refugees will only heighten the anxiety level among American people when it comes to safety and security.In these uncertain times and with Islamic terrorism threatening the civilized world, opening our borders to Syrian refugees should receive backlash.Sen. Sessions’ offers a more common-sense approach. Instead of relying on a slipshod vetting regimen that allows the wrong people to enter the U.S., the administration should be seeking out locations of refuge for displaced migrants close to their homelands so that they might be able to return there once the radical threat is eliminated.By JIM ZBICK |

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