President Trump has made it clear that he still wants to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico, and he is willing to risk a government shutdown if that is what it will take to get the job done.
While the prospect has made his own party nervous and many Republican leaders are leery of taking such drastic action right before the mid-term elections, there is a very real chance that a shutdown may indeed take place due to the heated debate. As the country has seen in the past, the president doesn’t really care about political considerations like most politicians do, and all it takes for a shutdown to happen is for him to refuse to sign whatever spending bill Congress and Senate present him with — if they can even agree on something in the first place.
If a shutdown were to occur, the public would face the same inconveniences that it does every single time a shutdown happens. National parks would be closed, passport applications would be delayed, and other non-vital government services would come to a halt. At the same time, vital government services would still be provided, and the Department of Defense would ensure its essential services remain in place. However, government workers would either be forced to take a furlough during the shutdown or asked to work without pay until government funding is restored.
Despite all of this, the fact that this shutdown would take place right before the mid-term elections adds a new dimension to the issue. People who are inconvenienced by the shutdown will naturally be upset at the party that they feel is responsible for the problem, and take their anger out by voting for the opposition party in the coming month’s election.
The mainstream media is already gleefully reporting that most people will blame the Republicans for the shutdown and that the shutdown, should it occur, would result in the Republican Party losing control over the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate. Republican politicians seem inclined to agree, as is evidenced by the fact that Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan visited the president shortly before his public statements on Twitter and urged him to leave immigration concerns aside.
On the other hand, there are many Republican voters who are eager to see the president take action to get his promised border wall. These voters, instead of being deterred by the shutdown, will be inspired to see that the president is serious about building a wall on the US-Mexico border. What is more, a recent poll has found that immigration is one of the top issues for both Democrat and Republican voters. While a shutdown will certainly highly immigration issues, these issues will be on voters’ minds even if the government doesn’t shut down on October 1.
There is no way to predict with 100% accuracy that the President will indeed shut down the government if he does not get funding for a border wall by October 1. While the odds of solving the nation’s complex immigration system in the next three months are slim, the president may be swayed by politicians from his party and accept another short-term spending bill. At the same time, there is also a very real chance that President Trump will make good on his threat and refuse to sign any spending bill that does not include funding for the wall on his terms. If he does so, it is sure to impact the results of the mid-term elections, but it does not necessarily guarantee that the Democrats will get their highly anticipated “blue wave” in November.
Immigration is a top concern among Republican voters, and many may be willing to turn out in large numbers to support the President’s tough immigration stance even as Democrats attempt to use the issue to increase voter turnout on their end.
~ Liberty Planet
