Post 9-11, we could have ended the massive third-world migration that will permanently flip the Electoral College and end the USA. The political capital was there.
But instead, we had the Bush family’s stuttering drunk stammer at us about “Islam is Peace”, and “Compassionate Conservatism” while, as you noted, whoring for open-borders. Instead of saving the country, he spent his political capital getting thousands of Americans killed to rid his beloved (9-11 involved) Saudis of their enemy Saddam Hussein - while young Saudi men hung out in shopping malls.