OK. About to piss a few people off. But it’s time to see who the adults in the room are going to be.
It’s time for Democrats to drop their moral stand against the Department of Homeland Security that no longer is making a point and not really hurting the people who should be hurting – Donald Trump and his horde of knuckle-dragging small-minded goons.
We are now more than a month into the Democrats’ protest against the funding proposed that would continue the horrific abuses of ICE and destruction of the Constitution.
Transportation Safety Administration workers, particularly screeners at airports, are quitting or calling in sick now that they are in the first pay period where zero checks went out. The impact on them and their families is both unfair and cruel, moral game points aside.
Across the nation Americans are seeing travel plans not just threatened but blown up. Vacations, trips to see sick relatives, business trips – all are being turned into garbage by the closures.
Democrats have been lambasting Donald Trump for not having a strategy for getting through the Iran disaster, but do they really have a plan for their shutdown? I am saying “their shutdown” because it is.
Republicans have proposed funding for DHS that is one of the largest allocations in American history. It is going to a lawless agency. It is disgusting. But, and this is a huge BUT, life goes on when it comes to ICE, its killings, woundings and detentions. It already had funding from a special allocation.
It’s time to end it. And Democrats can end it in a way that puts another nail in the Republican coffin, if they just take time to end it as a part of a grander strategy.
That begins with being realistic. If this budget allocation is passed, it can be unpassed. If Democrats take control of the House and Senate in November they can undo it.
By ending the shutdown now and voting “aye,” they can make it clear they are doing so on behalf of innocent Federal employees caught in the political drive by. They can also tell people they are reopening travel for everyday Americans. That’s a win.
Let the Republicans have this one. It’s a bag of cow poop that’s not going to smell good no matter how much Donald Trump breathes on it.
Here’s another point. Things have changed since Dems stood down and let things close down. Trump took us to war. Americans are dying. Lives are disrupted. Energy prices are soaring and along with it costs on everything else. Bombing Iran was the most powerful statement Trump could make about how he views “affordability,” or as he pronounces if “affooordabiliteee.” He doesn’t care and the war shows it.
He also once again has lined up with Russia and Putin. He lifted sanctions on Russia so Putin is getting $175 million a day in oil revenues, which he can then turn to the destruction of Ukraine. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is getting his long-wanted war on Iran and because of it, his date with prison over corruption is pushed back.
This is not an insignificant thing. Given the impact on Americans at all levels Dems could make some real hay by reopening government and campaigning seriously and in-your-face on the issues Americans are struggling with. Not to mention on the saving of Democracy, our nation, the planet and possibly pushing back World War III.
If we want to study war, sometimes a tactical retreat is needed to implement the strategy that crushes the enemy. Trump is America’s biggest enemy. We are reading a point in the shutdown where it could help him. Americans are reaching a point of “a pox on all of them.”
Trump and all those around him are corrupt. They are evil. They are bodies without souls. They are grifters and pedophiles. We won’t get rid of them by increasing the suffering of our fellow citizens.
March in and vote the Republicans their money then make them choke on it.