It’s fitting on the eve of the day we honor Martin Luther King Jr. that Democrats should decide to give in to the extortion being inflicted on the nation by President Donald Trump and complicit Republicans.
Democrats should make the best deal they can with Trump and open the government.
The pain and danger in keeping the government closed, just to build a boondoggle wall the nation doesn’t want, is too great to bear.
For the sake of the nation, Democrats must give Trump the U.S. taxpayer dollars for his wall that he’s repeatedly lied for. Deal with Trump and get the most they can for the millions of DACA and Dreamer children who are truly Americans without documentation.
In exchange, whittle down as much as possible of Trump’s $5.7 billion signature folly that he ridiculously claimed Mexico would pay for and never will — but open the government.
The misery Trump and Republicans are willing to inflict on 800,000 faithful federal government employees is too harsh. The danger Trump and Republicans are willing to force on the entire nation is too great. Too many lives are imperiled. The economy is seriously at risk. Trump’s presidency and GOP credibility are already a lost cause.
Americans understand who’s really to blame for the tragedy Trump and Republicans have created. It’s a circus act for a wall that the majority of Americans don’t want, Democrats don’t want, even much of Trump’s own party doesn’t want. As worrisome and wasteful as it is, it’s not worth bankrupting hundreds of thousands of American families who are federal employees and putting the entire nation in danger.
Americans can’t say they’re surprised Trump would sink to such depravity for what’s not even a matter of politics, but clearly a matter of the president’s warped ego. The entire nation was warned repeatedly about Trump’s lying and temperament long before he won the 2016 presidential election.
But Americans should voice their shock and disdain for those Republicans who have repeatedly given Trump cover, and who are now standing behind Trump’s lowly blackmail scheme.
Congress has the power to open the government almost immediately by passing a previously negotiated bi-partisan funding plan and sending it Trump for approval or veto. With so much at stake, it would be wise and easy for two-thirds of each house of Congress to override a nearly certain Trump veto — and get the government re-opened.
But Republicans like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuse to allow that process even to start.
Colorado voters are entitle to rebuke Republicans like Sen. Cory Gardner, who is willing to give Trump cover for his prolific and unchecked lying, and then feign demand for “compromise,” when there clearly is no compromise offered on the part of Trump, all for a wall that Americans don’t want, and for misguided partisan gain.
Democrats have no choice but to cave to extortion. Trump and Republicans are willing to perpetuate this at any and all costs, and the costs to the nation are too high. Give them their wall, and fight the scourge of his presidency and his cohorts another way, on other day.
Choose Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day to hand over the ransom. The civil rights leader who made it clear the fight would never fail, also made clear that a battle that inflicted collateral damage could never net a victory.
Give Trump his wall, and take the real fight to the public.