from pixabay.com; https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/border-mexico-usa-united-states-62866\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Readers, sometimes I write because I think I have something that\u2019s worth sharing.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t really one of those times.\u00a0 I know I have blind spots and I\u2019m not really in the mood to write that perfect, and perfectly persuasive article. But humor me, please.<\/p>\n
It is clear why Trump is continuing to pursue the shutdown as a means to achieve his border security goals:\u00a0 he needs something for his base.\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s a whole litany of ways in which he\u2019s been incompetent up to this point.\u00a0 Maybe he thought he\u2019d deliver the wall in 2019 so that it\u2019d be fresh in the minds of voters.\u00a0 Maybe \u2014 well, maybe he\u2019s just a screw-up and nothing more.\u00a0 Maybe he procrastinated every bit as much as I\u2019m doing now, with respect to a spreadsheet that looks wrong though I can\u2019t find the error.\u00a0 But here we are.\u00a0 The cost to him of shrugging off his demand is now unacceptably high.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, however much we might be reading stories of the harm the shutdown is causing, or polling showing that a majority of Americans blame Trump and don\u2019t care about a wall, I\u2019m not seeing any reports that he has lost the support of his base \u2013 and even if polling indicated that, I doubt he\u2019d believe it.\u00a0 Besides which, in that case, it would be a no-win situation \u2014 lose some of his base for continuing the shutdown, or lose others for caving.<\/p>\n
The Democrats, on the other hand?\u00a0 They won\u2019t lose if they concede the wall funding.\u00a0 Much as they might say, \u201cyou can\u2019t negotiate with hostage-takers\u201d it\u2019s a flawed analogy.\u00a0 The stakes are not particularly high for them.\u00a0 The notion that if they concede to the least bit of (additional) fencing they\u2019ve set a precedent which will cause incalculable harm is \u2014 well, it\u2019s foolish.\u00a0 They created an analogy \u2013 \u201chostage-taking\u201d \u2013 and have forgotten that it\u2019s just an analogy, not a literal truth.\u00a0 But what\u2019s more, they aren\u2019t going to lose<\/em> if they concede, if they grant some border spending as a \u201ctrust-building measure.\u201d\u00a0 They just won\u2019t win as spectacularly as they hope to if they succeed in reaching their objective of destroying Trump politically.<\/p>\nThey\u2019re also very convinced that the more they tell \u201cShutdown Stories\u201d the greater the pressure they\u2019ll apply to Trump.\u00a0 Government workers who can\u2019t feed their families, security lines that stretch on so long it disrupts travel, government money that is essentially wasted spending, when it provides for back pay for workers who did nothing productive to earn it \u2014 all at the service of winning a battle against Trump.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re very public with their non-negotiation \u2014 first Puerto Rico, now a (cancelled) foreign policy trip, while at the same time, Trump is using words like \u201cnegotiate\u201d and \u201ccompromise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hubris.<\/p>\n
So maybe they win, and maybe they don\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to predict what Trump will do.\u00a0 If this were Greek mythology, Pelosi and the Democrats would be struck down for their pride.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not.\u00a0 So what next?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Readers, sometimes I write because I think I have something that\u2019s worth sharing.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t really one of those times.\u00a0 I know I have blind spots and I\u2019m not really in the mood to write that perfect, and perfectly persuasive article. But humor me, please. It is clear why Trump is continuing to pursue the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1174,494,1071],"class_list":["post-12478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019-shutdown","tag-donald-trump","tag-politics-red"],"yoast_head":"\n
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