Trump's Battle That Can't Be Won

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Written by Arturo Tha Cuban   
Wednesday, 23 January 2019 15:32

Originally posted on Medium

Much like Donald Trump’s life story, he seems to have found himself in a situation that he can not get himself out of. The difference this time is that there are no bankruptcy courts to bail him out. No lawyers, confidants, or thugs to save him from himself. Not this time.

Let’s face it, there is no winning for Donald Trump over his government shutdown. Yes, his government shutdown. I know, Trumpers are going to come at me just for saying that, but it’s the truth. He and his cohort Mitch McConnell are the culprits behind a shutdown that has quickly become disastrous for so many government employees and American citizens.

Look, Republicans had control of every aspect of the United States’ legislative body for two years and accomplished nothing in regards to getting the wall going. They weren’t willing to come off of the $25 billion for it either. Democrats at one point were  along with other concessions. Granted, it wasn’t a perfect bill as both the left and the right voiced their respective opposition to — with both sides arguing that it didn’t go far enough.

But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was Donald Trump threatened to veto the bill before it was ever voted on. At the time, there were no less than four bills addressing immigration and with Republicans in control, a compromise was not just limited but nearly non-existent. The shut down is directly because of Trump and McConnell’s unwillingness to budge from their draconian immigration policies.

Donald Trump had his opportunity to put all this to bed a year ago. Yet he refused. The same thing is happening now. Democrats are not helping the situation, but to put the blame on the party who just won back the majority in the house (effective January 3rd) is unfair and blatantly dishonest.

Despite all of that, government employees are standing in food lines to stave off starvation over what amounts to nothing more than a tantrum by a 72-year-old man-child. The subject of immigration is so much deeper than Trump or his supporters are willing to drill down into. It’s not as simple as “give me what I want or people will starve”. It’s a subject that requires in-depth analysis and understanding of where the flaws in the system lie. It’s a topic that has no bearing on the lives of government employees and contractors.

If the shutdown continues much longer, tens of millions of poor and disabled people will be at risk of starvation and lack of proper medical care. He’s in a battle he cannot win.

If he agrees to a DACA deal, his base will automatically attach the word amnesty to it and he’ll be the subject of more lashing out by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and others of their ilk. It’s easy to predict how Trump will respond to backlash from far-right mouthpieces like them. If he doesn’t and continues to hold the country hostage he’ll continue to receive the backlash he’s getting from the "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">FBI, the "); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">Coast Guard, the , and the vast majority of Americans.

One thing is certain, what’s happening now is not sustainable for “months or years” as Trump threatened to keep the government shut down. It may not be sustainable for more than a couple of weeks.

“Just a few weeks ago, they had no qualms in saying, ‘yeah, let’s move [a stopgap funding measure] until the eighth of February’ with nothing. They didn’t ask for anything with that and they were good with that then. And now we’re not good with it?” — Lisa Murkowski said of Senate Republicans

Murkowski is referring to the Senate already passing legislation by a veto-proof majority to keep the government open but has been unwilling to bring it back up once the shutdown over the wall began — Mitch McConnell refuses to bring anything to the Senate floor for a vote unless he gets the go-ahead from Donald Trump.

That is not democracy.

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