Posted on 01/25/2018 5:38:18 AM PST by Kaslin
President Trump didn't respond to the so-called shutdown of the federal government in the way that the political class thought he should. He didn't get personally involved in detailed negotiations to end the impasse and didn't convey a sense of crisis to the American people.
When all was said and done, this skirmish showed the dangers of underestimating President Trump and his ability to connect with voters on issues the political elites ignore. His approach worked because he instinctively understood the strategic situation far better than Senate Democrats, establishment Republicans and his other beltway critics.
First, the president recognized that the term "shutdown" is a dramatic overstatement of what really was going on. It's true that the budget dispute created stress for government employees who were to be furloughed, but the overwhelming majority of government services continued uninterrupted. In fact, outside of the DC area, nobody really noticed any impact.
If you "shut down the government" and nobody notices, that creates far bigger ideological problems for Democrats than Republicans. So, the president directed his Administration to minimize the impact of Congressional dysfunction on the American people.
Second, the president understood that the fate of the Dreamers is only one part of a much larger immigration issue. As Clinton pollster Mark Penn has noted, the American people want an immigration deal that protects the Dreamers but also includes serious border security measures. Voters reject the open border policy espoused by many Democrats.
If Chuck Schumer's party wants to protect the Dreamers, all they have to do is accept a border wall and other security measures. If they don't, the president will happily bring the dispute to voters in November and the Republicans will likely pick up a few Senate seats.
President Trump also understood the appeal of fighting back against politics as usual. Republican voters have varying degrees of discomfort with President Trump's demeanor, but they love it when he fights the media and the political class.
Rather than cowering and seeking to appease the Washington Post and New York Times, the president brashly blamed the Democrats for whatever problems resulted. That attitude is something many Republican and independent voters can applaud. In practical terms, it's likely to increase GOP enthusiasm as Election Day approaches.
I am not suggesting that President Trump has suddenly become popular with the American people. His approval ratings have rebounded a bit but remain low by historical standards. It is hard to imagine them moving significantly higher by November.
But it's important to remember that most voters had an unfavorable view of the president on the day they elected him. A significant number didn't believe he was qualified to be president but still thought he was preferable to Hillary Clinton.
That reality should haunt Democrats in the wake of the "shutdown" debacle. President Trump, dealmaker in chief, broke all the political class rules about how to handle the situation. And, in so doing, he highlighted some of the least attractive features of his opponents' position. If he is able to keep it up, the Democrats may be at risk of once again making Republicans the lesser of two evils.
I don’t want an immigration deal that protects the mis-named, mis-represented Dreamers.
I want the criminal bastards gone.
Flame away.
Truly, the most underestimated man in Washington
It's not flaming to point out the reality that a lot of them will be staying.
It's not flaming to point out that, if anyone else were the President, they would be staying with no concessions by the Uniparty on the real immigration issues.
The "dreamers" were never going to be deported. Trump has been signalling that since 2015.
Nice white ladies care about the blushing innocent DREAMERS the rest of the Democratic coalition of looters will in a month run them over with their cars. The D party comes together for the loot and nothing more, Trump is just stoking the tension amongst the criminal rivalries of the D party.
Business as usual won’t cut it with Trump. He was sent to the White House to do what he said during the campaign. If they don’t get it, they should go back and listen to the relentless repetition of those tenets.
Art of the Deal
Me, too. Send them home with their parents to remake their own countries now that they have been educated for free in America.
What Trump did was walk away from the table, something he wrote in a book that was published 30 years ago.
Just because Hillary’s on the sideline doesn’t mean the Dems don’t live and breathe polls.
Unfortunately, they didn’t check the polls before they initiated the overhyped, overstated, ‘shutdown’ but obviously got the hell scared out of them over the weekend when they realized the voters were onto them.
Their problem is a big one: with Obama term-limited the only politically-connected Democrats with personality are...celebrities ie those not in office and those not running for office. That leaves only the obviously addled Pelosi and the dull Schumer droning on from their prepared scripts. They couldn’t inspire a bird to fly out of a forest fire.
Apparently they think that scolding, moaning and generally being unpleasant will bring about a ‘blue wave.’ Even their media cheerleaders aren’t so certain.
Great points!
Phooey....President Trump is wildly popular in my coffee shop.
Clinton pollster Mark Penn is a lying weasel and Scott Rasmussen is another one.
No Scotty We DON"T want tattooed gang bangers that claim they were under the age of 18 when they broke into our country "protected".
We want them sent back to their respective holes.
I don’t want anyone that won’t follow the law here, what is really rich is the illegal immigrants that want to go to law school
“They couldn’t inspire a bird to fly out of a forest fire.”
lol
That's good! Made me LOL. Yours?
“...what is really rich is the illegal immigrants that want to go to law school”
VINCENT: Don’t let me work for this guy no more Uncle Michael, let me come work for you.
MICHAEL. For me?
VINCENT. Yeah.
MICHAEL. As what? Tough guy? I don’t need tough guys — I need more lawyers.
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