As we complete Day 23 of the government shutdown, inquiring minds want to know: how popular is the president's signature issue, The Wall?
The answer seems to be, Not very. From Emily Ekins at the Federalist: Americans Used to Support a Border Wall. What Changed Their Minds? Ekins goes on to cite a number of public-opinion survey results and trends that illustrate pretty convincingly that what changed their minds was ... Donald Trump.
Among the items she illustrates:
- A majority of Americans tend to support some sort of a barrier (a bit more in the next bullet on what that barrier is called) - as long as the issue stays out of the public consciousness. Whenever a proposal for a barrier comes to public attention, it becomes unpopular. The worst salespersons for the wall are its biggest proponents, such as Donald Trump and Patrick Buchanan
- Whether it's referred to as a "wall" or a "fence" seems to make a difference. The public opposes a border wall, but is warmer to the idea of a border fence
- Americans are not as anti-immigrant as Donald Trump and his supporters wish we would be
Made me think of Robert Frost;
ReplyDelete"...Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down... "
I don't know why the Ds aren't playing the Sainted One's "Tear Down This Wall!" on an endless loop.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, there is the old adage that fences make good neighbors. Trump should have thought of that before he made the wall into the main clanging symbol of his campaign.
The Democratic Party Establishment has not enough imagination to run the loop. Hopefully, the new blood will change that.
DeleteThe expression on his face in that picture says it all. It's his index finger, but we all know he's flipping the bird to the nation.
ReplyDelete