February 6, 2018
BUYING THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES:
Help Trump climb down from the wall (IJuan Williams, 2/06/18, The Hill)
With the growing influence of Hispanic voters in southwestern states like Arizona, where Sen. Jeff Flake is retiring and Sen. John McCain is in poor health, Republicans are hesitant to embrace the label of the "party of the wall."In Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller -- arguably the most vulnerable Republican senator up for re-election this year -- is no fan of the wall.
Heller can see that Democrats are targeting his state and congressional districts where the Latino population has increased in recent years. A wall will not help Republicans hold those seats.Former Ariz. Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), who also served as Obama's Homeland Security secretary, gave the Democrats a good line for political advertising in the southwest when she famously said, regarding a border wall: "Show me a 50-foot wall and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."Another problem for Republicans is that much of the land along the U.S.-Mexico border is privately owned, meaning the Trump administration would have to assert sweeping new eminent domain powers to seize the land and build the wall on it.This kind of unprecedented government land grab would tie the government up in years of costly litigation as landowners fight back in the courts.And then there is the fact that Trump is not getting help to pay for the wall from Mexico.Whenever Trump says that Mexico will eventually pay for the wall, former Mexican President Vincente Fox tweets back: "We are not paying for that stupid f-in wall."
For Christians, no amount of money wasted on the wall is too much to pay for citizenship for 11 million neighbors.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2018 3:56 AM