I do not think anyone can claim to be surprised this is where we ended up. Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, President Trump sitting in the Oval Office and a fight over the Southern border wall are all a recipe for disaster. We have been skating across thin ice for two long years, and now it is starting to crack. In fact, we may have finally submerged into the ice-cold swampy waters that were supposed to be drained two years ago.
For a man who claims to be such a good negotiator, Trump does not do a very good job of it. Let me briefly remind you his summit with Kim Jong-un was merely for show because both parties had different ideas of what their agreement meant. While Trump thought it meant North Korea would immediately start reducing its nuclear arsenal, Kim thought the United States would lessen sanctions. Now, they are heading for a second summit.
While this may be a little beside the point, it actually proves my point. Trump, for some reason, believes he can come to the table and ask for what he wants while offering nothing in return. Why would the Democrats agree to that, especially considering they have a foothold now and believe they have a good shot in 2020 for both the Senate and White House? They believe their message resonates with a majority of Americans. Disband your personal political opinions for a moment and consider what I am saying. Would you budge in this scenario if you were the Democrats? No, you would not.
Also, I am not sure how effective a wall would be at doing what Trump thinks it will do. I am not sure he really believes what he says, either. A wall just does not make sense at some parts of the border, like along the Rio Grande. You cannot build a wall in a river. A wall also does not solve people coming here legally with visas and then overstaying them.
Of course, no one is actually watching the national airspace now because TSA agents cannot recieve pay. They may have to come to work, but how good of a job would you do if you were not getting paid? What is the incentive to even come to work, especially when you have people to take care of? That motivation will run out quick.
I would like to see an itemized list of what that $5 billion is for. What is that even supposed to cover? What kind of wall is he trying to build, and why does it have to cost $5 billion?
If anything, the wall is merely a cultural symbol of a white, ethnocentric and male-dominated society that believes we live in a zero-sum world in which you only get ahead by tripping the person next to you. That idea, shared among the Ann Coulters of the world, is not a popular one in our society.
Trump had shown signs of agreeing to some sort of resolution to this wall fiasco before conservative personalities, like Ann Coulter, called him something like “amnesty Donald,†so suddenly he doubled down again on wall funding. Trump has entered into an echo chamber where he can only hear those who support him. It is funny when the President of the whole country is willing to give his most ardent supporters more say in the matter than those who are actually affected by the shutdown he caused, some 800,000 people directly.
A physical wall is merely a representation of a metaphorical wall; a wall people who feel left behind by society wish to build to reclaim their position in the world. However, if you trap yourself within that wall surrounded only by those who look like you, you will have to sit with what is really bothering you. All the things you have blamed on others really exist inside of you, and you have to own your side of the street for how you feel. You will realize inside your own personal walls that the lights may have been on, but no one was home.
And that’s the tea on that.
