Damn The Torpedoes!
Well, it was just a matter of time. President Trump “blinked” first. He had to. “Reopening” the government without funding for the wall was inevitable. As I indicated in my recent post (Demonize Them!, 1/20/19) the Trump strategy to force border wall funding by closing the government was not set up properly to be effective. The whole narrative had, right from the start, to be aimed at blaming the Democrats, and the Democrats ONLY, for intransigence, obstructionism, and indifference to the plight of every day Americans, thereby forcing them to “spend” more “political capital” than the Republicans as the shut down inevitably dragged on. As a consequence, the Democrats were taking on less “damage” than the Republicans with each passing day, and, accordingly, were in no hurry to negotiate (despite what they say, they really don’t care a hoot about government employees, American citizens, nor, for that matter, ANYTHING other than their own hegemony). So, Mr. Trump’s chosen tactics were not the right ones with which to fight this battle. The negotiating strategies that served him well in the business sphere don’t seem to cut it in the crucible of national politics. As a friend of mine put it: “Trump has to rewrite his ‘Art of the Deal’ book as it pertains to negotiating INSIDE the beltway.” (Thanks DB).
So, at this point, reopening the government is a fait accompli. But the “wall” should still, rightly, be a priority for America. In his excellent book, “Who Are We?” (Simon and Schuster, 2004) Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington puts it very plainly: “If each year a million Mexican soldiers attempted to invade the United States and more than 150,000 of them succeeded and established themselves on American territory, and the Mexican government then demanded that the United States recognize the legality of this invasion, Americans would be outraged and would mobilize whatever resources were necessary to expel the invaders and to establish the integrity of their borders. Yet an illegal demographic invasion of comparable dimensions occurs each year”. So, dear reader, it’s clear that it is NECESSARY to secure our border, and it is RIGHT to secure our border. Yet this exigency is being thwarted by Pelosi and Schumer (both of whom, remarkably, DID vote wall funding during the Obama Presidency), for political gain and political gain only.
So, what to do next? As far as I can see, a strategy that Mr. Trump has mentioned previously, is the best way forward: declare a national emergency and appropriate the 5.7 billion the President is empowered by the Constitution to do. It will be challenged in court, of course. So be it! The suits may slow, but will NOT stop, the wall. As Admiral Farragut famously said: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead”!
And, as a little bonus, reopening the government will then allow the State of the Union Address to take place, thereby providing Mr. Trump with a “bully pulpit” with which to hammer home his position on the wall. “Damn the Torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”