The problem with party zealots is that they’re useful right up until the point that a compromise with the big bad enemy comes along – and then they scream bloody murder about being sold out. So I read this CNN report on the development of a potential compromise to break the government shutdown with some hope, of a perhaps dubious sort, but I’m having my doubts that it’ll immediately go anywhere:
Staring at a prolonged government shutdown, Republican senators are privately planning to court Democratic senators on an immigration deal that would give President Donald Trump money for his border wall and include several measures long-sought by Democrats, according to sources familiar with the matter.
After Trump stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders, GOP senators privately gathered in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office Wednesday to discuss a way out of the logjam. The long-shot idea: propose an immigration deal that would include $5.7 billion for Trump’s border wall along with several provisions that could entice Democrats.
Those items include changes to help those who are a part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as well as immigrants from El Salvador and other countries impacted by the Temporary Protected Status program – along with modifications to H-2B visas.
The plan is in its very early stages. Its chances of success are still very uncertain at best, Republicans cautioned.
As an independent, I do not favor Trump’s Boondoggle, and I wonder if it’s better for the Democrats to hold out in hopes of breaking Trump on this issue. As I view Trump and his ilk as a danger to this country’s most important institutions, it might be a wise thing to do.
But compromise is integral to our style of government, and if the Republican Senators are finally going to get off their asses and offer something up, it’s certainly worth at least considering working with them on it. Possibly the best way to handle this is to offer Trump a paltry $1 billion for his wall in exchange for a few Democratic priorities, and then leave it to Trump to either accept it, and risk the wrath of his base and his Fox News handlers, or veto it and face a possible and humiliating veto override, which would sting especially as the Senate is Republican-controlled. That’d amount to a rejection of Trump by the Senators of his own Party.
Trump remains the center of political life in this country, but no longer as a vortex of chaos for the Democrats, but a cancerous wart on the throat of the Republican Party. Faced with this decision, he may find it impossible to swallow his pride and accept it, and thus split the Republican Party right down the middle.
