Trump’s Wall and the Republican Failure
Does Trump really want a wall? I think the answer is no. I think he wants the fight to divide and sow hate. Do Republicans want to build a Trump-like wall? I think the answer is also no, Republicans do not want to spend $40 billion on a Trump-like wall, and they understand it’s not possible to build a Trump-like wall. That’s the reason Republicans did not give Trump his Trump-like wall in the first two years.
Trump claims the building of the wall has started when the truth is not one inch has been started. In 2018, the Republicans were given $1.6 billion for border security and spent only a small percentage. If border security was truly important and starved of cash, why didn’t they use up that budget?
“The wall is not built, not even started, and Mexico will not pay for it.”
The wall is primarily a political wedge issue, not a real issue. Trump campaign advisors only invented the border wall idea to make sure Trump slammed immigrants in speeches. It was always intended for Trump to use it to garner votes. Racists like it because it enables their cause. And yes, Democrats understand not everyone that supports the wall is a racist, only some. Some Democrats say that because they can’t figure out another reason for it. The wall will likely never get built because it is too expensive. The only issue left after that is criminals. Rather than spending $50 billion on a wall that the true criminals will find a way around, how about we spend a billion a year fighting them directly? Most believe it wouldn’t take a billion and would work better.
Also, remember 40% or more of all illegals here right now and historically came legally, then overstayed their visa, then slipped into the shadows. Many by plane and boat too. If we do eVerify, they have very little reason to stay. Problem solved.
I think nearly all Democrats, most Independents, and moderate Republicans agree. Heck, I don’t even think Trump cares. He’s using immigration as an emotional wedge issue rather than coming up with real compromise solutions. His goal is to divide, which is selfish. Politics is and will always be about selflessness and compromise. No one wants a dictator. A good leader listens to all voters, tries to persuade as many as possible, then finds a solution most can live with.
“Politics is and will always be about selflessness and compromise.”
Trump’s Leadership Failure
Trump and Republicans were in charge for two years and could have changed any laws they wanted. But, rather than leading the discussion pushing for their views and changing the law, they sowed racism, division, and general anger. That’s a problem because we did re not talk about the details of current policy and debate what to change.
“Rather than leading the discussion pushing for his views, Trump simply repeats ‘build wall’.”
Trump is a complete failure on most issues because he doesn’t lead. He is not a natural nor a trained leader. He does not understand the current law, what led to it, doesn’t really know what he wants to change, and doesn’t know the correct path to change.
Trump is a GREAT NEGOTIATOR and he’s just sticking to his guns and fighting for his base
The Dems have offered solutions! They offered $25 billion for a Trump-like wall in exchange for keeping DACA–something we already had at the time. Trump initially accepted, but then talk show hosts got mad, so he passed.
Dems then offered $5.6 billion in exchange for keeping the government open, Trump initially accepted, the Senate passed it 100% bipartisan, then 2 talk show hosts got mad, Trump passed.
Dems then offered $2.8 billion, Trump passed because he then wanted $5.6 billion. He got nothing and the government reopened.
Now the Dems are offering about $1.3 billion to keep the gov open…we really get nothing. Will Trump take a win?
Trump, the great negotiator, knows NOTHING about compromise or negotiations. Nothing. He is an utterly failed president. He LITERALLY negotiated his way from $25 billion for a Trump-like wall to $1.3 billion on fencing and the like, but definitely not a Trump-like wall. Wow. I’m not surprised though. If you honestly look at Trump and his character, it’s clear why he’s such a bad President.
Dreamers
About 79% of Americans support Obama’s action on Dreamers including most Democrats, most independents, and most Republicans. Even Trump. It’s only the Freedom Caucus driven by racism that does not want that. They spin it up and get good people like you to get behind what Obama “already” gave them. Most don’t want to go back on our word. There is a strong bipartisan political will to fix the dreamers issue.
Steel is See Through
Sometimes the 70% that oppose a Trump-like wall make fun of Trump for saying a steel wall can be see through. On this point, Trump is right. Trump is talking about a steel design that has holes. A design of that nature is more difficult with a cement wall. There is a GREAT advantage to border patrol if they can see through the wall and see what’s coming.
A Wall Helps Prevent Terrorism
The White House has said 4,000 terrorists were caught in 2018 on the southern border. That’s a lie. Zero have been caught. How do we know? The state department says this is a lie!!! It’s true that 6 people were stopped on a list of suspected terrorists, but no arrests because they were not terrorists!
El Paso is Safer after they Built their Wall
This is a lie. The wall went up in 2009, and the crime actually went up slightly after the wall went up. How do we know? The mayor and Chief of Police said so. The reality is that El Paso was the 2nd safest city in America with a population over 500,000 before and after the wall went up.
In his 2019 State of the Union, Trump lied:
“The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities.” –Trump
Immigration is a National Emergency
Every statistic backs up the fact that there is no emergency. Perhaps the clearest fact is that illegal immigration went from 1.6 million in 2000 down to about 320k in 2018.
CA Note: I live in California, 2018 was the 5th lowest number of illegal crossings in 46 years! This is an important fact to note because Trump supporters lie about this all the time. If you know this fact, you know who you can trust. Having trusted authorities is important to expedite one’s search for truth.
Immigration vs Homeless + Homeless Vets
Meme: I’ll start caring about the struggles of illegal immigration when all 39,000 homeless vets are taken care of.
I fully understand this sentiment essentially saying we should take care of our own. I think we all agree. But, I think this meme is a logical fallacy, specifically a false choice. I don’t think it’s either/or, but I get it. Take care of our homeless, especially homeless vets.
Perhaps this meme should be rewritten to say something like,
“Before we spend more on our military than the next 7 counties combined, let’s take care of the homeless vets.”
Instead of spending $710 billion per year on our military, how about we spend $708 billion and give EVERY homeless vet $55k per year worth of benefits aimed at getting them back on their feet.
We need to get started!
Answer: How? Trump has no plans. Meaning, he asks for money but does not say how he is going to spend it. He wouldn’t fund a new building or casino without plans, why does he expect our representatives to fund a wall with no plans? That’s a concern for both Democratic and Republican congress members.
Also, immigration has been refined many times. We have started. Trump is just repeating “build wall”. That’s stupid. He is a failure. Meaning, Trump is pushing ONLY for a wall. That’s the wrong approach. It needs to be more than that. Compromise is not a bad word. Until Republicans realize that and base what they want on facts, it’s hopeless.
Anecdotal Evidence: Trump Supporters Blame Immigrants
Heartbreaking. But, one should not make decisions based on anecdotal evidence.
For example, in Jan 2017 two Texas residents shot each other accidentally because they were super paranoid. They then blamed illegal immigrants. Their story was shared thousands of times online after Texas Commissioner of Agriculture and Donald Trump ally Sid Miller wrote about it on Facebook. A family friend set up a GoFundMe page stating that Mr. Daughtery and his group were involved in a shoot-out with some illegal immigrants that were trying to steal his RV with his clients still inside it. The two are likely to spend 5 years in prison.
Here’s a UK article on what happened. The world is watching and laughing.
Democrats Want a 100% Open Border? No!
Our country started with open borders, but that was changed in 1924. This really isn’t a real debate. It’s a wedge issue ONLY. The few that want a 100% free open borders like we had prior to 1924 are fighting a losing battle–it will never happen. Also, when Republicans say Democrats want an open border, sometimes they mean Democrats want more of an open border than Republicans. I’m not sure that’s true either, but in general, Democrats are more supportive of fair, humane, and non-racial based immigration policies. Moderate Republicans do too. For example, President Bush, Jr. and many Republicans used the term “Compassionate conservatism” which focused on fairness and family values.
The Scary Caravans!
The truth is that these caravans happen all the time. Usually, they don’t make it to our border. The caravan around the 2016 election started with 7,000, quickly went down to about 4,000, then 2,500, and was mostly women and children fleeing the violence. Most were absorbed by Mexico, or Mexico sent them back. Mexico has the same issue. Only those claiming asylum (part of the Geneva convention) will be listened to, or at least we are required to listen to them by international law. Then we accept them, detain them, or turn them back. It’s how most of us got here.
Trump Sends Military to the Border
In 2018, Trump sent more troops to the border, then was fighting ISIS and the Taliban. Clearly a political stunt. The President of the U.S. deployed the military on American soil and the right didn’t care at all! That’s crazy to me! Trump admitted he lied and made up things like the lie that ISIS and MS13 are mixed in with the caravan under discussion at the time.
Posse Comitatus Act: The army is NOT allowed to protect your family on American soil. That’s the law. Trump deploying the military to the border a few days before the 2018 election was a $200 million photo op and a political stunt. The Posse Comitatus Act is a federal law prohibiting the use of the military in civilian law enforcement. Passed in 1878 to forbid the Federal government from policing southern states. PLEASE support the separation of Federal and State by not supporting unlawful political stunts.
Where were all these brave armed people when white men took over the government building in Utah or when the white militia took over federal land in Arizona and refused to pay their fair share of the land rent? Has that all been forgiven and forgotten? If Republicans are not racist, then why the different standards for whites and non-whites?
Democrats Say I’m a Racist, I’m not!
A reasonable reply to a Trump supporter falsely accused of being racists:
Without solid evidence, I cannot fairly say whether any Trump supporter is a racist, or not. But, facts matter. Trump is not opposing white people immigration. In fact, he wants MORE white people. He has openly said, why do we get people from shithole countries and not more people like those in Switzerland. That’s racist. So, your point is valid for you, but not for Trump. Trump is a racist and racists support Trump.
Regarding ignoring racism. My point is that I don’t want to get stuck on racism. For me to say you are a racist, is an ad hominem attack where I lump you in with all the racists. My suggestion is that it is a good idea to acknowledge the very real racism because that would help folks like me understand your viewpoint better. I should not tell you what you should do, but I don’t want to get stuck on the racism issue. Getting stuck on racism is a red herring, a distraction. To me, bad racism outweighs the good wall. Can you explain to me why you want a Trump-like wall?
Detention Beds are for Violent Criminals
In Feb 2019, Trump and Lindsey Graham said that Trump will not give up a single detention bed because they are for violent criminals. They both went on to say that if we lower the number of detention beds, we will let violent criminals on the streets. Fear mongering, again.
This is a lie. If you think there is even one ounce of truth to that, you are wrong. The only explanation I can think of as to why one would buy into this lie is that you are either an extreme blinded drink-the-Kool-Aid partisan or a racist. If there’s another explanation, please educate me.
Mexico Get $80 Billion a Year in Aid, Trump will pay for it with that money
Mexico does not get $80 billion in aid. That’s yet another lie. Who do you listen to? Where did you get that number? The reality is we give them less than $300 million per year.
a. Aid has a specific political reason. It’s used to control the world. Rand Paul and isolationists want to kill all aid. Most that know want to increase it. I suspect you and I are in the middle someplace.
b. Moving money around is not fiscal responsibility. Another reason I’m a Democrat is that we pay for the bills we pass. Republicans for many decades have relied on Vudu economics and magic that NEVER works to pay for shifting money to the top 1%. I truly wish you could see that.
A Trump-like Wall is Picking Up in Popularity
That’s a hopeful lie intended to coax opinion. Most understand that we do not have an emergency on the Southern border and taking all the focus off of real threats as outlined by Trump’s own cabinet to Congress is dangerous. You believe people want to spend $50 billion on a tribute to Trump that will do nearly nothing and is impossible to build. I believe the will isn’t there for many reasons including the fact that his own party did not take up this issue during the two years they were in charge.
E-Verify Enforcement Will Not Work; We have it now! It doesn’t work!
It’s true that E-Verify Enforcement by itself will not prevent 100% of undocumented residents from working. But, don’t throw out the good in pursuit of the perfect. Yes, there will always be a few that break the laws.
As for “we have this now”, that’s just not true. There is NO penalty for American employers breaking the law right now. Trump knew he was hiring illegals. I want a law that sends people like Trump to jail for knowingly hiring illegals and undocumented residents. Heck, even Trump supporters give him a pass on this. Why? Trump and people like him are the problem!
We Need to Change Immigration Law to prevent more people from coming in Legally
First, not many think this. But, I do agree 100% that laws can be changed. If you want to change the law, change it. Go through the process. Just-do-it!
Trump Should Take Money from Other Places
That’s unconstitutional. The House has the exclusive power to allocate money. If he tries this, it would immediately get tied up in court, then he would lose. I doubt it would even make it to the Supreme Court. It’s not debatable.
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