As early as 2014, the republican President Donald Trump and his advisers had come up with the concept of his US southern wall to sell his anti-immigration message. His getting tough on immigration, was to become his signature issue at the start of his presidential campaign.
They had astutely figured out that his stand against immigration would sell well to lots of Americans who were looking for a bogeyman to blame for the lack of their economic security.
Even today, it is the anti-immigration faction of his base that he continues to cater to, even though they comprise only about 25% of the American population which equals about 35% of the current Republican Party. He needs to be viewed from the perspective of his base that he is fighting hard to build this wall. IT IS A CAMPAIGN STUNT.
I know that the president’s touting of the immigration crisis at the border is a made-up scenario because during the years of 2014-2015, migrant refugees seeking asylum at the US southwestern border were at much higher numbers than those of today. But under the Democratic Party President Barack Obama’s administration, little was heard about a crisis at the border. At no time, did President Obama order active military personnel to be deployed to the southern border. At no time, did he ever consider declaring an emergency situation. At no point, did he threaten to order a US government shutdown where hard working public servants would have their pay held, over this issue.
The president has done virtually nothing of substance to lift up those hard working folks who voted for him. All they’ve gotten is a lot of empty promises. However, he has continued to work hard to keep his anti-immigration base in tact. This is his power base. Without them, he has nothing.
It is no coincidence that the Republican Party has been seen as a safe haven for racists and antisemitic citizens as they also tend to be anti-immigration zealots.
I have often wondered if the wealthy GOP conservative donors have been supporting him and his anti-immigration ugly rhetoric, while they manage to get their wish list enacted like a major 2017 tax cuts bill, deregulation measures and the placement of conservative justices in the federal court system.
The rest of us, can eat the cake crumbs. Here’s the rest of the story…
On January 5, 2019, Julie Hirshfeld Davis and Peter Baker of the New York Times penned the following report, “The Border Wall: How a Potent Symbol Is Now Boxing Trump In”
Excerpts:
“Before it became the chief sticking point in a government shutdown drama that threatens to consume his presidency at a critical moment, President Trump’s promise to build a wall on the southwestern border was a memory trick for an undisciplined candidate.”
“As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate — who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder — would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration, which was to be a signature issue in his nascent campaign.”
“How do we get him to continue to talk about immigration?” Sam Nunberg, one of Mr. Trump’s early political advisers, recalled telling Roger J. Stone Jr., another adviser. “We’re going to get him to talk about he’s going to build a wall.”
“Talk Mr. Trump did, and the line drew rapturous cheers from conservative audiences, thrilling the candidate and soon becoming a staple of campaign speeches. Chants of “Build the wall!” echoed through arenas throughout the country.”
“Now, Mr. Trump’s fixation with a border wall — the material embodiment of his keep-them-out immigration agenda — has run headlong into the new realities of divided government, pitting him against Democrats who reject the idea out of hand. The impasse is particularly remarkable given that even some immigration hard-liners do not regard the wall as their highest priority and fear that Mr. Trump’s preoccupation with it will prompt him to cut a deal that trades a relatively ineffectual measure for major concessions on immigration.”
“I’ve always thought it created a danger that he would trade almost anything in order to get the wall — I think that’s still a potential danger,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that argues for less immigration. “I’m still worried about that now.”
“That fear has been realized at times when Mr. Trump has explored a deal with Democrats on granting permanent legal status for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, known as Dreamers. The president has always walked away at the last moment from committing to preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, but on Friday, FAIR, an anti-immigration group, warned him again that it would be a mistake.”
“To many conservative activists who have pressed for decades for sharp reductions in both illegal and legal immigration — and some of the Republican lawmakers who are allied with them — a physical barrier on the border with Mexico is barely relevant, little more than a footnote to a long list of policy changes they believe are needed to fix a broken system.”
Gronda Morin 