Sign indicating Washington, D.C. national park land and monuments closed due to Trump Shutdown
When you have the facts on your side, and you communicate them in an effective and dynamic way, it’s good policy and good politics. That is the situation the Democrats are in regarding the current U.S. government shutdown. Democrats have correctly labeled it the “Trump Shutdown.”
Let’s recap how we got here: Trump largely ran his 2016 presidential campaign on building a border wall and having Mexico pay for it. Mexico, of course, refused. Then, last November, Donald Trump suggested shutting down the government if he didn’t receive U.S. taxpayer funding for his proposed wall. By early December, Trump was asking for a $5 billion taxpayer down payment on the wall. However, on December 19, the U.S. Senate, by voice vote, unanimously passed a Continuing Resolution to continue funding the government until February 8, 2019 and avert a government shutdown. That CR did not contain funding for Trump’s border wall. Trump appeared ready to sign the CR. However, some right wingers, including media personalities like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, as well as members of the House Freedom Caucus, openly criticized Trump for planning to cave on the wall. Reportedly in a panic, Trump then met with House Republicans, after which they passed a House version of the CR that contained $5 billion in funding for the wall. That was a non-starter even for the Republican-run Senate, and thus the Republican-majority Congress could not agree on any temporary funding, and the government shut down. On January 3, their first day in office as a majority, House Democrats passed a bill to reopen the government. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he won’t bring the bill to a Senate vote, because Donald Trump won’t sign such a bill that does not contain his requested wall funding.
It’s clear, therefore, that Trump and the Republicans own this government shutdown. However, that hasn’t stopped the Republicans from trying to blame the Democrats for the shutdown. But the Republicans are predictable, and the Democrats knew the Republicans would do this. At their December 11 meeting with Donald Trump, House Minority Leader (now Speaker) Nancy Pelosi called the shutdown the “Trump Shutdown.” Indeed, Trump made it clear at the meeting, for millions to see on video, that he “will shut down the government” and was “not going to blame” the Democrats for such shutdown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVcLcxVvz_o
As the video indicates, however, Trump and the Republicans have been trying to use the term “border security” as a substitute for “the wall,” as if the two were the same thing. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham even tweeted that “the wall has become a metaphor for border security.” Nevertheless, Democrats could point to the fact that they have been consistently for border security, but that a concrete wall was antiquated, ineffective and prohibitively expensive. Here’s the House floor statement by Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan forcefully explaining this:
Likewise, Democrats could point to their support of the 2013 Immigration Reform bill that overwhelmingly passed the Senate by a 68-32 vote. The bill contained billions for border security, including 700 miles of “fencing,” additional technology that is often referred to as a “virtual fence,” and more Border Patrol agents, but no concrete wall. However, Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues blocked the bill from consideration in the House, presumably to deny President Barack Obama a “win.” Again, therefore, it’s been evident for years that Republicans are the stumbling block to border security.
According to the polls, the Democrats’ communication on this issue, including framing the government shutdown as the “Trump Shutdown,” is working. Once again, it helps to have the facts on your side, but since Republicans love to twist, spin and lie, you need to have the facts and then attack.
Photo by Leo Leung, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/LhUq0h
