border wall

Changing tactics would be the best way for Trump to end the stalemate that has shut down one-fourth of the government for more than two weeks. He should brand Congress as irresponsible on the issue of border security and say he’s been forced to direct the Defense Department to use some of its unallocated funds for border construction projects. Doing it that way, the president would probably score points on the political argument and ensure that, come the 2020 election, he will have actually built something along the border rather than just talking about it.

The Left has made its opposition to the border wall clear. So, the President should use tonight's address to make Democrats own the effects of their policies and brand them as the Party of the murder, drug pushing, economic upheaval and chaos that their policies have brought to our country. Only by using the proven technique of a primetime TV address pioneered by President Ronald Reagan can President Trump make those dangers known to the American people.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday, “We’ll have offers on the table when we find somebody that’s not crazy to deal with…” judging by what the Democrats’ leaders are saying it looks like it is going to be a long shutdown, if it can’t end until someone who is not crazy represents them at the negotiating table.

Much as we dislike the substance of the Democrats’ promises, as Republican Rep. Tom Reed’s flirtation with voting for the Democratic rules package demonstrates, it is hard to argue with the appeal of politicians who actually do what they say they will do, even if what they promise is a disaster waiting to happen.

The House Republicans first day in the minority got off to an inauspicious start via Rep. Liz Cheney’s nomination of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Our recommendation is that Rep. Liz Cheney fire whoever wrote the McCarthy nomination speech for her because there was certainly nothing in what she said yesterday that would drive any news cycle.

President Trump, if he takes the control of the conversation, can win this political fight because the truth, and the American people, are on his side. In fact, border security is such a common sense policy that even Chuck Schumer aggressively made the case less than a decade ago, stating, “above all else, the American people want their government to be serious about protecting the public, enforcing the rule of law and creating a rational system of legal immigration that will proactively meet our needs rather than reactively responding to future waves of illegal immigration. People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally.”

In order to keep those illegals flowing in, our miserable elite is as willing to let democracy die as it is to let you die. Who thinks this will end well? Anyone? It won’t. It can’t. The American people are not blind. They see the truth, and they are not going to be denied justice forever. The election of Donald Trump was not the worst case scenario. It was the first case scenario. What comes next, if the elite keep denying the will of the people, will be even more disruptive, even more divisive. They might win today's skirmish over the wall, but tomorrow there will be new corpses and greater anger.

The Republicans could have done something to further the cause of immigration enforcement that a majority of American voters clearly support. Unfortunately, though, the cowards have opted instead to adhere to the wishes of the oligarchs who fund most Republican political activities these days. The GOP has decided to allow the clock to run down and Donald Trump, the president that most of them hate with extreme prejudice (more than the Democrats do), to look bad. Trump cannot waver, even in the face of horrible GOP opposition. Ultimately, the GOP is not on Trump’s side any more than the Democrats are. If Trump cannot deliver on key victories heading into 2020, he will be seen as weak and vulnerable. America needs a real border wall now.

Nancy Pelosi, the likely next speaker, has called the wall “immoral,” yet in a statement she vows to “fight for a strategic, robust national security policy, including strong and smart border security, and strong support for our service members and veterans.” That’s not even mush. It’s a word salad meant to suggest toughness without offering a single specific example of what Dems would do to plug the border. She won’t admit it, but she has no plan except to further weaken the disastrous policies now in place. Trump sees morality as putting Americans First, while Pelosi sees morality as offering a better welcome wagon for those who come illegally. Build the wall because we have tried everything else.

Democrats stand with “sanctuary cities” and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement over laws and equal justice. It is true that they are playing word games today. But their silly sophomoric semantics are not over words like “wall” or “fence” or “slats” or “barrier.” There is only one word that they are having fits over today. That word is “Trump.” Democrats would rather shut down the federal government, sacrifice justice and slay the law in the name of “sanctuary” for illegal aliens. It has become their latest religion. Anything to keep from standing beside President Trump on the side of equal justice under law.

Stanislaus County, California Sheriff Adam Christianson got it right when he blamed California's sanctuary law for preventing local authorities from reporting alleged cop killer Gustavo Arriaga to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for his previous arrests. Christianson said if he had been deported, Newton, California police Corporal Ron Singh would still be alive.

In Washington, reporters like to focus on the process story of who gets the blame for a shutdown. But Mr. Trump is betting that the issue matters more to people across the country than the perception in Washington. This shutdown battle won’t matter a year from now; the outcome will. The new Congress puts Democrats in a new position. Talk is cheap. They will now have to lead, for the good of the country. Let us hope that their phony and politically opportunistic opposition to border security is only temporary. Mr. Trump has a winning hand on border security and he should let it ride.

As Sen. Marco Rubio pointed out, insisting on no border wall is like demanding no TSA agents at airports — ridiculous. No matter how it turns out, Democrats are smearing large swaths of voters as racist and immoral because they support the wall. It’s a repeat of when Hillary Clinton labeled her rival’s supporters a “basket of deplorables” — meaning racists, cranks and ­xenophobes. Sixty days after she hurled that insult, Clinton lost the heartland states and, with them, the 2016 election. The debate over the wall is the deplorables redux. Liberals take note: Insults aren’t a winning strategy.

The truth simply doesn't matter. Fakery is the shameless order of business in this industry today. Anything goes in the continuing assault against President Trump and his policies, most especially where the left's top-shelf issues, immigration and abortion, are concerned. The government counted at least 281 people who have died in 2018 while attempting to cross the border, often under harsh desert conditions. The vast majority doesn't make the news, because there is a better anecdote when the victim is 7 and she was in federal custody. And it is that which must be discussed.

The left is always on the hunt to find truth-tellers and punish them. Meanwhile, last-place hosts on cable, such as the puffed-chest phony Chris Cuomo (who gravely informed his audience that he doesn’t regard Carlson as a fellow “journalist”), try to convince everyone that they speak from the commanding heights of power. In truth, they speak for a shrinking, deluded elite, who listen to sophomoric podcasts about the glories of illegal immigration and the dangers of walls while they drive home safely past the gates of their mansions.

All prior efforts to ensure border security -- sanctions against employers, threats to cut off foreign aid to Mexico and Central America, and talk of tamper-proof identity cards -- have failed. Instead, amnesties, expanded entitlements and hundreds of sanctuary jurisdictions offer incentives for waves of undocumented immigrants. The reason a secure borer wall has not been -- and may not be -- built is not apprehension that it would not work, but rather real fear that it would work only too well.

Sensible Americans must join with President Trump and demand that Congressional Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader-elect Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell do their job by securing our southern border immediately.  We must band together to tell Congress to work through Christmas and pull all-nighters if necessary, but their only priority between now and December 31st should be to put people over politics and secure our nation by securing our borders—build the wall now.

Forty-three percent of voters support building the border wall, while 54% oppose it, 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.

All those ideas are useful, and there are no doubt others. Whatever the direct mechanism, I find the suggestion of a People’s Wall intriguing. If nothing else, it certainly keeps faith with the spirit of the Trump revolution — to shake up Washington and both parties. And if Congress won’t secure the borders, then it is necessary for the public to step in. It would be a modern and critical twist on the Founders’ ideal of self-government. Where do I send my check?

Some of the same Democrats who decry President Donald J. Trump’s proposed concrete wall as a 30-foot-tall human-rights violation actually approved 700 miles of steel barriers under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (SFA). Given the inadequacy of today’s steel barrier, it is more vital than ever to erect a solid concrete wall to shield America from those who ceaselessly break into our country with neither permission nor papers. On this matter, today’s Democrats should heed their former selves.