MR. TRUMP, BUILD ‘THE WALL!!!’

It’s oh so simple and yet many Republican politicians still don’t get it.  Promising to build the wall on our southern border is why Republicans won and failing to make good on that promise is why they lost, and will continue to lose.  That said, support for building a wall on our southern border has now at its highest level on record, so says a Quinnipiac University released on Tuesday.  In reporting the results of its latest poll it said, “This is the highest level of support for the wall since the independent Quinnipiac University National Poll first asked the question in November 2016.”

Forty-three percent of voters now support building the border wall, while 54% oppose it, that according to the national survey of 1,147 voters, conducted Dec. 12-17, 2018.  The record 43% support represents a five-point jump from its August 15, 2018 level of 38% and is up seven points from its year-ago level of 36% (Dec. 13, 2017). Back on April 20, 2017, only 33% of voters nationwide supported building a border wall.  By party affiliation, Republicans overwhelmingly support building the wall, Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it, and Independents are divided:

•Republican Support: 86%

•Democrat Opposition: 90%

•Independents: 47% Support, 51% Oppose

And it was yet another poll, the Morning Consult poll, that revealed Republican voters view immigration reform and the building of a wall along America’s southern border as being two of their top issues.  This as Congress faces a December 21 deadline to partially fund the government.  President Trump has demanded $5 Billion in border wall funding; however, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested on Tuesday that they might accept something less than $5 Billion and would then look for what she described as an ‘alternative’ means of funding the border wall. 

Forty-eight percent of Republican voters said that immigration is a “top priority” for Congress, 48 percent said reducing the deficit is a top issue, and 43 percent of Republican voters said building a wall was among the highest for Congress, and 43 percent of Republican voters ranked healthcare reform as a top priority.  Entitlement reform and infrastructure spending ranked 37 percent and 35 percent, respectively, for Republican voters.  They ranked the investigation into alleged collusion between President Trump and the Russian government as their lowest priority at 11 percent.

Republicans also listed finance reform, gun control, and amnesty for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens, otherwise known as “Dreamers,” amongst their lowest priorities for Congress.  All of which, along with the impeachment of President Trump, just happens to be all of the items that are right up there at the very top of the Democrats ‘To Do’ list.  By handing to the Democrats control of the House in the last election, demonstrates, I think, a willingness by the American voter to bite their collective nose to spite their face.   

Look, I can see why many folks may seem ready to give up on the president over this border wall issue, trust me when I say I’m none too pleased myself.  But the Democrats, and many RINOs, DO NOT want this border wall to be either funded nor built because they see it as a way of fracturing the president’s base and therefore his support.  So while we may be frustrated with the lack of progress, perhaps we should be a bit more focused in our determining at whom that frustration should be aimed.  As I have said before President Trump has delivered on much of what he promised.  

We all knew ‘The Wall’ was going to be a difficult fight.  Perhaps if President Trump were to call for a national televised address during which he could show the American people the chaos taking place at our southern border.  And he could show why that concrete bollard wall works to help agents control the border and how stupid loopholes in the asylum laws are luring this growing number of immigrants, who get sent home anyway after tremendous expense and trouble. This is a national emergency.  If the wall goes unbuilt, Trump likely will not get reelected.

He might also want to take the opportunity to explain some basic facts.  Such as how Mexico is in a state of disintegration due to drug money and corruption, how 27,000 Mexicans were murdered last year, how over 70,000 Americans have died due to opioid overdoes, the cost of medical care, incarceration, border protection and related police costs inside the U.S. and welfare costs easily exceed 25 Billion a year.  Any American or politician or foreign citizen critical of the effort to build the wall and serious rework of our immigration laws is, in short, contributing to death.

Our Republican lead Congress has had two full years to get it done only to fail, and rather spectacularly so.  And so thanks to their inability, and/or unwillingness, to make good on the promise made to the American people, and because they chose to punt on this issue, we will now have a House controlled by the Democrats and whose Speaker will now be someone who is nothing more than a rabid leftwing political ideologue whose primary purpose in life will be to construct the necessary evidence to bring about the impeachment of our current, and duly elected, president.  

And just like how we had Republicans, for several years, talking about doing away with Obamacare, until we had a Republican in the White House who could have made that a reality, we have long had Democrats talking about border security until we had that same Republican in the White House who could make it happen.  But it’s ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ on both sides that has become the chief impediment to achieving both.  Neither the ‘Never Trumpers’ nor the Democrats seem willing to allow President Trump the ability to claim any level of accomplishment.