Public Sentiment Against Trump's Government Shutdown Grows-- But So Does Anxiety From Freshmen In The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party

First Dem (New Dem) who wants to give in to Trump's blackmail & hostage-taking

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a piece by Natalie Andrews and Kristina Peterson, Wall Impasse Frustrates Many Newly Elected House Democrats, about how the conservaDem freshmen recruited and backed by the DCCC are more concerned that "the tone of negotiations hasn’t conveyed their willingness to compromise on tighter border security." Andrews and Peterson wrote that "many new Democratic lawmakers who beat Republicans in the 2018 midterm want their leadership to be more aggressive in at least trying to strike a compromise. Most of the Dems who flipped districts are status quo hacks, far closer in many ways to a Republicans than to activist freshmen like AOC or Rashida Tlaib. One worthless New Dem former CIA operative Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI) told them that "there's a number of us on the Democratic side who are quite concerned that we’re not working on negotiated positions and taking the bull by the horns and trying to think about what it would look like." Garbage candidates like Slotkin, make garbage members of Congress and dog the party further into the toilet with her and other new New Dems and Blue Dogs.

While weak links like Slotkin, Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA), Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY), Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ) and Max Rose (Blue-Dog-NY) wring their hands and whine, public opinion is clearly with the Democrats on this-- everywhere. Maybe Sherrill and Brindisi should check in with their local newspaper editorial boards. This weekend the Albany Times-Union wrote that Real people are feeling the real pain of this needless brinkmanship.

Americans hoping that their leaders would find a way out of what is now the longest government shutdown in the nation's history should chew a bit on the word salad President Donald Trump tossed out on Thursday:

"When during the campaign, I would say 'Mexico is going to pay for it,' obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they're gonna write out a check, I said they're going to pay for it. They are."

Of course Mr. Trump did say Mexico would pay for the wall, and that it would do so in the form of "a one time payment," as he put it in writing in a 2016 memo. And, yes, he has also thrown a bunch of other more abstract payment possibilities at the wall, so to speak, perhaps in the hope that one might stick and give him a face-saving way out of an absurd promise that was the centerpiece of his campaign.

The larger point is this: A president who can't own up to the fact that he said what everyone heard him say, who changes his mind from day to day and who storms out of "negotiations" in which he doesn't negotiate is not trying to govern in good faith. He concocted a national crisis and is treating it like a plot on reality TV: The audience is watching, and that's what really matters.

This isn't TV though. It's a real-life drama that's hurting more than 800,000 federal workers who as of last week are no longer receiving the paychecks they need to cover their mortgages or rent, their grocery and day care bills, and all the other costs many Americans juggle paycheck to paycheck just to get by. It's affected countless other people who work under contract with the federal government, and all the people and businesses that all those workers and contractors do business with. The administration's answer? Have a garage sale or take up dog walking, actual suggestions offered to Coast Guard employees.

The New Jersey Star Ledger warned that "the border wall, which the president has used as his justification to shut down the federal government, was never meant to be anything other than a memory trick for an undisciplined mind. One advisor, Sam Nunberg, told the New York Times Saturday that he and Roger Stone meant the wall to be used only as a tool to remind Trump to talk tough about immigration. But what started out as a symbol has become a dangerous fixation, one responsible for mothballing massive sectors of our government and keeping 800,000 federal employees at home without paychecks – despite Congress steadfastly refusing to fund his wall, despite consistent public opposition, and despite overwhelming evidence that the impact on drug trafficking would be negligible. Yet here we are, hostages to a presidential brain spasm-- or temper tantrum, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested-- and fated to be horrified bystanders to a humanitarian crisis of Trump’s own creation. Ask yourself: Has a president ever used falsehoods, invented a crisis, and imposed a shutdown to bypass the legislative process and hold a government hostage?" Ask yourself that Mikie, before you start voting with the GOP. And the Jersey Journal wrote that it's Shameful for Trump to hold federal employees hostage. Trump, they wrote, is "so far away from the idea of cashing a paycheck before paying the rent, buying groceries or getting growing kids new shoes that he’s clueless or he simply doesn’t care about his 800,000 federal employees. Of course, it’s an accusation that’s been hurled at him scores of times in the past. Remember the lawsuits from contractors in Atlantic City saying casino developer Trump stiffed them? And Labor Department citations saying he didn’t pay overtime or minimum wage? The continuing shutdown of the federal government is a clear indicator of the kind of man Trump is. His shameful refusal to sign or even consider legislation to get furloughed workers back on their jobs and “essential” employees paid on schedule is just another sign that he is unfit to lead the country. Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, are beyond enabling; they are complicit in Trump’s disregard for decency." You sure you want to be part of that, Congressman Sherrill?

And that's not just the feeling from editorial boards in the Northeast. Over the weekend, the editors of the Montana Standard wrote that "There is not a crisis on the border. Violent crime is not up, there or elsewhere in the country. It is at a 14-year low. Immigrants here illegally do not commit a disproportionate amount of crimes. In fact, they commit less, on a per capita basis, than native-born Americans do. And a wall is not viewed by experts as the best tool to use in enforcing border security. Why, then, is this worth shutting down the government? Many federal workers here in Montana are working without pay. Others have simply been furloughed. Either way, their families are suffering needless hardship."

The editors of the Chicago Sun-Times concurred: "Take it from Illinois, this federal government shutdown is nothing but bad. And the man at the top will get most of the blame, as he should. For those of us who just lived through four years of such stupidity in Illinois, there’s a sense of deja vu in a partial government shutdown forced by a self-adoring man of business habituated to getting his way."

Same kind of message from the Santa Fe New Mexican: "Democrats are right to rebut the ugly message that Trump spews when he discusses the southern border, as he did Tuesday night in a prime-time address from the Oval Office (complete with fundraising appeals before and after).” Consistent on so little, the president began his presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers. Then, demeaning the Oval Office, he recited a litany of crimes committed by people here illegally, making it clear that he believes immigrants from the south desire to hurt the good citizens of the nation. That, despite clear statistics that show undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens. There were other falsehoods in the nine-minute address. Trump said the wall is needed to keep out illegal drugs; most drugs come through official ports of entry, not along the border between entry points. As we have pointed out before, too, illegal immigration is hardly a crisis, despite Trump’s claims. Border crossings are at their lowest point in decades. The humanitarian crisis Trump said he is addressing has been caused by his administration’s wrongheaded policies. That’s what Democrats must keep pointing out."

And the latest polling from Quinnipiac-- released yesterday-- is more bad news for Trump and his enablers. They found that voters support 63-30% a Democratic proposal to reopen parts of the government that do not involve border security while negotiating funding for Trump's vanity wall and voters oppose 63-32% shutting down the government to force funding for ridiculous project. The GOP is losing the battle-- 56% of voters say Trump and Republicans in Congress are responsible for the shutdown, while 36% say Democrats are responsible. After Trump's brain-dead Oval Office address, voters believed Pelosi/Schumer more than Trump, 46-36%, including 48-33% among independent voters. But at the heart of TRump's and the GOP's problem is that American voters say by a mammoth 73-16%-- including 57-28% among Republicans-- that immigration is good for the country.





UPDATE: How About Opening The Government This Way Too?

This evening, Miss McConnell had a rebellion in the ranks as 11 Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with all the Democrats to start debate on Schumer's resolution to disapprove of the Treasury Department lifting sanctions against Russia. The Motion to Proceed passed 57-42.  This is a big warning shot over Trump's bow. The Republicans voting against McConnell (and Trump/Putin):

• John Boozman (AR)
• Susan Collins (ME)
• Tom Cotton (AR)
• Steve Daines (MT)
• Cory Gardner (CO)
• Josh Hawley (MO)
• John Kennedy (LA)
• Martha McSally (AZ)
• Jerry Moran (KS)
• Marco Rubio (FL)
• Ben Sasse (NE)