Only Wall Trump’s Building Is Around Himself As Pelosi Poised To Lead House

BestBestPelosi2

 

The infamous White House confrontation when Pelosi told Trump he wouldn’t get money for a wall from Congress. Photo: YouTube
 
As Trump’s Christmas federal government shutdown continues into 2019 prolonging misery for some 800,000 workers over his insane idea that a “wall” will bring security to the Mexican border, the administration’s racist policies led to the December deaths of two immigrant Guatemalan children: Jakelin Caal, 7, and Felipe Gómez Alonzo, 8.
 
These deaths angered Chicago Congressman Luis Gutiérrez who said it was “repugnant to me and astonishing to me that during Christmas…a time in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ…who had to flee for his life with Mary and Joseph. Thank God there wasn’t a wall that stopped him from seeking refuge in Egypt…thank God there wasn’t an administration like this or he would too have perished…Shame on everybody that separates children and allows them to stay on the other side of the border fearing death.”
 
Recall that Native Americans—instead of putting up walls—welcomed European settlers fleeing economic hardship.
 
On Christmas day, after the death of Felipe Gómez Alonzo, President Trump was shamelessly doing what he does best: he was lying once again, claiming federal workers affected by the shutdown “said to me and communicated, stay out until you get the funding for the wall.” By Thursday, in another buffoonish childish bluff, Trump tried to scare Democrats tweeting “most of the people not getting paid are Democrats.”
Trump is now caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If he wasn’t able to produce a wall when both Houses of Congress were in Republican hands how is he going to do it when incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi takes the gavel?
 
He is now crying about wall funding and border security—but for nearly all of his first two years in the White House, he did nothing to build his “big beautiful wall,” that Mexico was supposedly going to pay for. If building a wall was so necessary to border security, as Trump and Republicans were always saying, why wasn’t it the first item on the Republican agenda when Trump was sworn in?
 
This reality likely led to recent conservative criticisms of Trump by rightwing press pundits.
 
In early December, Fox News host Laura Ingram criticized Trump after he lied, on a news clip, that “A lot of wall has been built. We don’t talk about that, but we might as well start. Because it’s being built right now. Big sections of wall!” Ingram responded: “I must have missed the wall being built. What wall?”
 
Conservative darling Anne Coulter was much more brutal. Coulter questioned why, since Trump’s “central campaign promise — repeated every day — was to build a wall, wouldn’t you have spent the entirety of your transition period working on getting it done?” Coulter said: “Trump never intended to build the wall and was scamming voters all along.”
 
Of course, Coulter knows Trump was “scamming voters.” She knows this because: Coulter is very much a part of this phony political rhetoric about “securing out borders.” The rightwing radio and media machine constantly capitalizes on the insecurity of certain White Americans, for political and financial gain. Any insecurity America’s Mexican border has is primarily due to political policies that favor undocumented immigrants coming to America to work for wealthy people, like Trump himself; such people undercut the paychecks of average Americans.
Undocumented immigrant Victorina Morales, until the December 6 publication of a New York Times story, was still working at Trump’s National Golf Club, in Bedminster, New Jersey—as was fellow worker Sandra Diaz. Reportedly, other undocumented immigrants, who worked there for Trump, are now speaking with attorneys and New Jersey officials. These developments probably also encouraged recent criticism we’ve heard from rightwing talking-heads against Trump.
 
Ann Coulter, Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs are all powerful press people with loud megaphones that mesmerize a sizeable portion of White America that is very vulnerable to the bloviating bull they broadcast and publish. Many of these Americans long for the nostalgia of a time when White was always right; even when it resulted in vicious wrongs to non-White people, particularly Blacks. America’s color composition is changing to the chagrin of these folks.
 
Indeed, this lies at the heart of all the vitriol we hear regarding immigration. A few years ago, Republicans were still, largely, pretending their only concern was about so-called illegal immigration. That pretense is gone. Remember when Trump complained about immigrants coming from “shithole countries” on the African continent and from Haiti, while asking why there isn’t more immigration from White countries like Norway?
 
There is a correlation between rightwing hysteria regarding immigrants and internal attacks against African-Americans. For months now, we’ve read, heard and seen numerous news reports about African-Americans being racially profiled everywhere: while barbecuing; while babysitting; while walking home; while shopping; and so forth. Recently, a Black man with Dreadlocks was racially profiled because he tried to cash his paycheck at a bank.
 
In Republican politics, there must always be convenient scapegoats for America’s problems that absolves any responsibility away from the wealthiest Americans. For decades, Republicans have characterized Blacks as the criminally-inclined menaces to American society. Latinos, Mexicans and Muslims are now clearly added to the list.
 
If shutting down the border hurts Democrats, are we to believe Trump wouldn’t have tried to do so before? If closing the border hurts so-called “illegal immigrants” why wouldn’t that have been done before?
 
If Trump’s implying shutting down the border would restrict immigrants, isn’t that exactly what his rightwing base would want done, even as a prelude to building a wall? Trump is now exposing the reality, as Coulter put it, that he was “scamming” Republican and conservative voters, who were dumb enough to believe he would build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it.
 
Republicans often illustrate stunning examples of their hypocrisy and partisan prejudices. They love praising former President Ronald Reagan as their standard-bearer. We should remind them of a famous speech Reagan gave regarding walls—as it relates to theoretically ensuring security between neighboring nations.
 
On June 12, 1987, President Reagan called for the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. From 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall was used as a security barrier dividing East Germany from West Germany. Since East Germany had ties to Russia, Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party, “We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!”
 
One important point that often gets avoided in this immigration debate, especially as it relates to Mexico, is this: has the U.S. been a good neighbor to Mexico?
 
America has good relations with our northern border neighbor Canada. Why don’t we have similar relations with Mexico? Why is it acceptable to characterize Mexicans as possible murderers, rapists and drug dealers, as Trump has done—when we would never do that to Canadians?
Unfortunately, a major part of the answers to these questions lies in the political demonization Republicans have used for decades to achieve power by appealing to the racist fears of the most disadvantaged segment of White America. Latinos have become prime targets of prejudice, alongside African-Americans, because of their growing populations—and the threat this poses to White supremacy.
Trump’s talk of a “wall” is really a cry to “make America White again.”   
 

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