BDKJMU wrote:JohnStOnge wrote:
I think the Democrats might compromise once government is funded. That's the thing. The Democrat position is that they're not going to submit to extortion and I can understand them saying that. The Democrats are going to have to compromise on some things to get what THEY want at some point. But I think they're reasonable in saying they're not going to negotiate until all the things both already agree on are funded.
I mean, we all know the principle with respect to extortion. If you submit to it you encourage future instances of it. And we have a situation in which we know that what he's asking for now is just the first installment.
For Pete's sake if he really believes in the wall let him continue to make the case for it so that the People will want it. If the People want it the Democrats will see that. It'll impact their behavior. Right now they can see that most people DON'T want it. It's not the time to push them on it.
Barely. Last Sunday WaPo/ABC has 54% opposed to a “wall”, 42% approve. How the question is asked, and what is included/omitted can make a big difference. Change “wall” to “fence” or “physical barrier” and approval would increase (ever heard the term “fences make good neighbors”?). .Just like more people will approve of protecting wetlands versus a swamp, a rain forest versus a jungle, etc. Can’t find any recent poll that asks about a “physical barrier” or “fence”. They all use “wall”.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... -high-poll
I’d like to see a poll of likely voters, do you approve/disaprove of additonal “physical barrier” to the current 700+ miles already in place.
It's hard to model "likely voters" when there is no election imminent. The most recent poll I've seen that provides wording other than "wall" is a Harvard/Harris poll conducted December 24 - 25 just after the shutdown started. It's at
https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-conten ... opline.pdf.
It asked the question of registered voters in two different ways. It does have the question "Do you support building a security barrier on the Mexican border?" 54% of respondents answered "No" vs. 46% who answered "Yes."
It also asked the question: "Do you support building a wall on the Mexican border?" 56% answered "No" and 44% answered "yes."
So using "barrier" instead of "wall" made some difference. But not all that much.
There are another two questions that I think were interesting in terms of response. One was this:
"The House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution that had $5 billion of boarder wall and security but the Democrats in the Senate blocked it, saying they will not fund the barrier the president wants, triggering the partial shutdown. Do you think that the Democrats should fund the $5 billion for the border security or not?"
55% answered "Should not fund" while 45% answered "Should fund."
Then there is the distribution of answers to this question:
"Do you think Donald Trump should give in and withdraw his demand for 5 billion for the border security?"
58% said "Trump should give in" while 42% said "Should not give in."
There are distributions of answers to questions in another poll of registered voters, one conducted by Qunnipiac during January 9 - 13, that kind of reflect the same general distribution of sentiment. That poll is at
https://poll.qu.edu/images/polling/us/u ... tsc21.pdf/. One question is this:
" As you may know, Democrats in Congress have proposed opening the parts of the government that have nothing to do with border security while continuing to negotiate funding for the wall. President Trump has not agreed. Do you support or oppose this proposal?"
63% said "Support" while 30% said "Oppose."
Another question from that poll:
"Do you support or oppose building a wall along the border with Mexico?"
55% said "Oppose" while 43% said "Support."
Nothing I've seen in subsequent polls suggests a detectable change in the general distribution of sentiment.
Things could change with public opinion at any time. Maybe we'll soon see evidence that Trump helped himself with his presentation today. But Trump has clearly been on the short end of the public opinion stick. Voters may not oppose the wall by an overwhelming margin but it's a solid margin. And it's the majority. Trump has clearly pushing for something that has been against the wishes of the majority of the voters. And things haven't changed much over time. Exit polling during the 2016 Presidential election had those who voted opposing a building a wall along the border by 54% to 41%. It did have reference to building a wall along the "entire" border and maybe that had an impact. But the margin is very similar to what's seen in the Harvard and Qunnipiac polls taken during the past month.
The final thing is that the Harvard poll has 43% saying Trump is mostly to blame and 23% saying Democrats are mostly to blame. The Quinnipiac has it 56% Trump vs. 36% Democrats.
I just don't think he should be doing this during these circumstances. If the public supported his wall proposal he'd have a lot better shot and he wouldn't have to cause all this disruption. Focus on getting the public to support the proposal.