Publictakeover's Weblog

Before Christmas 2018

The government shut down today over failure to pass a spending bill. Trump wanted $5 billion for his border wall and the Democrats wouldn’t vote for it. There was no ability to compromise.

Of course our entire system is suspect now since the revelations of Russian influence in the 2016 election, and afterward.

For example, it’s understood that border security is one of the major platforms of Putin in Russia, as well as other authoritarian leaders in Europe. It causes a psychological dependence-through-fear on the part of the dictator’s popular political base.

This is why Trump continues to elevate this issue. It plays strongly to the nationalist, Caucasian racists who comprise his base, and it further ramps up reinforcement of the “us vs. them” mindset engendered by fascist dictators.

Not only does this solidify his base of support, but it lays the groundwork for future xenophobic regulations that will generally weaken the freedom and political rights of Americans. For example, this is one of the main reasons for voter I.d.laws: to keep illegal immigrants from voting , to combat “voter fraud.” But since there is virtually no voter fraud, it’s understood that it’s to keep poor, minority, student and elderly from voting, favoring Trump’s base, who are largely working class Caucasians.