Democrats should give Trump money for his wall in exchange for citizenship for Dreamers.
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| Give Trump money for his Wall |
Democrats won't look weak. They will look smart. Trump will end up looking incompetent.
Win-win for Democrats.
Merry Christmas. How about the Democrats give Trump a Christmas pony? Give him a couple billion dollars for his Wall.
Hurry, before he wises up.
First, let's address the "waste of money" argument. Of course it is a waste of money.
The federal government wastes two or three billion dollars all the time and everybody knows it. Democrats should wise up and quit pretending they are the nitpicker no-wasteful-project Party. It simply isn't believable. Democrats are exposed for tolerating presumed waste when it comes to things like "midnight basketball" programs or academic research into things people don't care about, and Republicans are exposed when a weapons program has $300 hammers. Voters know there is waste. Both Parties have their waste. The don't-want-to-waste-money excuse looks phony, because it is.
Democrats should remind themselves who they are and what they want. Democrats are the party of compassion, people who generally favor immigration and who want to care for innocent victims. Dreamers are a classic example of whom they want to serve, innocent young children brought here by parents, who then went to school, behaved themselves, and will be productive citizens. Democratic leaders should give their voters what they want: a deal for dreamers.
Doesn't this give Trump a big victory? Yes. So what? Giving him a victory documents that Democrats are not unreasonable and recalcitrant and obstructionist. Plus it sets the hook. Trump will crow about it. The more the better.
Democrats keep forgetting that building and managing a border wall is a nightmare. The closer Trump is associated with it, the better.
1.The Wall will divide private property. It will create furious private landowners. There will be cost overruns. If the Wall had been easy and practical to build, it would have been built already. Trump has described his beautiful Wall, "pre-casts going 35-40 feet in the air." This is not a quick, easy project.
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| Click: Fort Worth Star Telegram |
Notice that people in Texas, who will actually experience the Wall, are very mixed on it. Democrats should take the hint: Republican Texan Senator Cornyn talks about "wholistic" and integrated approaches to border security, a "technology base, radar, ground sensors. . . you name it," not a Wall.
2. The Wall will be paid for by Americans, not Mexicans. Democrats have an opportunity. The chant at rallies was that Trump would build a Wall and "Mexico will pay for it." The Wall is not a promise kept. It is a con man's bait and switch. Democrats: "He built a Wall and you paid for it." Democrats can brand it another "Trump steak" con job.
3. Trump's Wall won't work well. Walls never work well. People come to America on airplanes and overstay their visas. They go around or over the Wall, or through its gates daily for work, then stay. The news media will have every opportunity to nitpick Trump's Wall.
Democratic branding. Meanwhile, it finally puts Democrats on the public scoreboard as have some practical modest step toward "comprehensive immigration reform." Democrats will have protected Dreamers. A deal on the Wall would show Democrats do, in fact, support measures on border security. Most voters don't want open, lawless borders, which is why Republican trolls accuse Democrats of wanting exactly that. GOP Meme "Giving in" on the Wall gives Democrats a clear, physical body-language response to things Democrats have said five and ten years ago when they supported money for a border structures.
Christmas Present, 2018. Trump wanted a pony for Christmas. Give it to him.
Soon enough he will discover that the pony eats and poops and is more fun to wish for than to own.
2 comments:
If a good dreamers' bill can pass with wall funding, I agree, Peter. Besides, the wall is not such a waste as you suggest. Think of it as a roadway on its side. It means jobs, directly and indirectly. Democrats should think of it as infrastructure funding which creates jobs. A road or bridge to nowhere still creates jobs.
I think the reason markets are tanking is because there is a realization that America's economy will be crushed if we lose Western trading partners. Investors are cashing out and will sit out probably through the election.
As for motives...
Trump's businesses are in former soviet (poor, corrupt) countries and if he's not being extorted by Russia he is wooing them in an expectation that they will reassert dominance in that part of the world, and he's helping if he can. It's self serving, and our allies know it.
The budget fight over the border wall is symbolic, despite the real disruptions caused by the shutdown. Democrats should hold firm because Republicans (2020!), FOX (ratings $$$), Pundits (Books $$$) etc., are working to turn Trumplicans against him, having manipulated him into a corner where no matter what he does he will lose. There is no reason to compromise and in fact it will only drag out an inevitability. On Jan. 3rd Trump's world collapses and everyone knows it but him.
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