Chuck Schumer vows to continue his government shutdown forever rather than fund a wall:
President Trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall, plain and simple.
Schumer claims the Democrats are “open to discussing any proposal as long as they do not include anything for the wall.” Sure they are.
This is all theater, of course. Hugh Hewitt says the shutdown is Schumer’s fault:
This isn’t a debate, or an argument. It’s a fact: @chuckschumer closed the government b/c he would not allow $5 billion of the $4 trillion the federal govt spends annually to be spent on border barriers. It’s an absurd, political stunt. By @chuckschumer. It is his shutdown.
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 22, 2018
No one doubts how the press will spin the shutdown: no matter who controls Congress, no matter whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican, no matter the circumstances, if the federal government shuts down it is the Republicans’ fault. Beltway Republicans, who care more about the press than the rest of us, have absorbed this lesson, which is why Mitch McConnell hates the idea:
McConnell said, “Well, he can speak for himself, but I think that a government shutdown is not a good option. That’s my view. The American people don’t like it. I don’t know how many times, you remember my favorite country saying, there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. We’ve been down this path before and I don’t believe we’ll go down this path again.”
Nevertheless, we have. President Trump says the shutdown could “last a very long time.” At one point, he was insouciant, suggesting that he would be happy to take responsibility for a shutdown. Now he is tweeting a somewhat different tune:
The Democrats now own the shutdown!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018
I am in the White House, working hard. News reports concerning the Shutdown and Syria are mostly FAKE. We are negotiating with the Democrats on desperately needed Border Security (Gangs, Drugs, Human Trafficking & more) but it could be a long stay. On Syria, we were originally…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2018
And, just an hour ago:
I will not be going to Florida because of the Shutdown – Staying in the White House! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2018
Most Americans have gotten appropriately cynical about “shutdown” theater. The various organs of government continue to operate, for better or worse. As Steve has said, as long as taxes are being deducted from your paycheck, the government has not, in fact, closed down.
It is interesting that, of all the issues that divide the parties, the one that both are willing to go to the mat on is a border wall. Its importance is mostly, but by no means entirely, symbolic. Employer enforcement and defunding sanctuary states and cities are probably more important in stemming illegal immigration. But the border wall has an obvious, tangible significance.
The Democrats have staked their future on importing voters in violation of the law, since the voters they already have mostly prefer not to have many children. Republicans, in turn, have staked their future on preserving the rule of law, and on preserving an America more or less like the one we know. It comes down, ultimately, to a contest between preserving America vs. preserving the Democratic Party. Despite the smoke screen laid down by the media, I think the Republicans should win this one.
Whether they will “win” the current shutdown is a different, and less important, question.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.