Climate change, one issue that gets less focus in favor of immigration
If you follow major news stories for the past few months or longer, you might think the biggest issue of our time is illegal immigration, and specifically Donald Trump‘s desired border wall. After all, Trump and the Republicans created the phony “caravan” issue before the 2018 midterm elections. Then, in December, Trump shut down the federal government over his inability to convince Congress, and the American people, to approve his wall. The shutdown was so disruptive that it forced the news media and the voters to spend more time focusing on the wall and immigration. After the Trump Shutdown hurt Trump and the Republicans in the polls, and amidst the threat of a second Trump Shutdown, Trump caved to the Democrats regarding funding for border “fencing.” However, Trump then declared a fake “National Emergency” as a ploy to circumvent Congressional approval and steal money from other taxpayer funds, such as disaster relief, to try to fund his wall.
In truth, the wall, or illegal immigration generally, is far from the most important issue of our time. Rather, it’s the Culture War shiny object that Master Distracter Trump wants us all to focus on, because it riles up the racist Republican base, and it takes some heat off Trump/Russia, the Trump Crime Family, Stormy Daniels and many other negative stories about Trump. As far as what issues that the media and the voters could be focusing on otherwise, and which affect all of us, several that repeatedly come to mind are: (1) Healthcare; (2) Climate Change; (3) Gun Violence; and (4) Protecting our Democracy, including Trump/Russia, Republican voter suppression, etc. At least the Democrats in Congress are proposing and introducing legislation in these areas. Now it’s up to these elected Democrats, and us, to drive the conversation based on our agenda, not Donald Trump’s.
Photo by julian meehan, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/w4ug0R
