{"id":391848,"date":"2019-01-06T20:48:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T19:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=391848"},"modified":"2019-01-06T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T19:56:38","slug":"polling-on-the-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/polling-on-the-border-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Polling on the Border Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

Polling on the border wall shows that Trump\u2019s proposal is very unpopular amongst the American electorate, especially amongst the people who live near the Mexican border; but Republicans nationwide do support his proposal \u2014 and overwhelmingly. Trump\u2019s base is the mass of people who approve of Trump and his initiatives no matter what (they buy the Trump brand, regardless), but even Republicans who live near the Mexican border oppose him on this.<\/span><\/p>\n

During 14-17 October 2018, CBS News asked 1,108 registered voters \u201cDo you favor or oppose building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to try to stop illegal immigration?\u201d and the results<\/span><\/a> were:<\/span><\/p>\n

37% \u201cFavor\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

60% \u201cOppose\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

3% \u201cUnsure\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, amongst ONLY Republicans, the results were:<\/span><\/p>\n

76% \u201cFavor\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

19% \u201cOppose\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

4% \u201dUnsure\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

8 earlier polls that CBS took on this question since late 2016 showed essentially similar results. Public opinion on the border-wall matter has been quite stable over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

On December 19th, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/i> headlined “MOST TEXANS ALONG THE BORDER DON\u2019T WANT TRUMP\u2019S WALL, AND MANY DOUBT IT WILL BE BUILT\u201d<\/span><\/a>, and their reporter, Gordon Dickson opened:<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Texans who live along the U.S.-Mexico border support President Donald Trump, but their affection for the New York real estate mogul-turned-politician comes with a caveat:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

They do not want a wall.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Star-Telegram recently visited a 325-mile stretch of the Lone Star State\u2019s boundary with Mexico to gauge attitudes toward the proposed wall. The trip included stops in Presidio, Big Bend National Park, Del Rio and Eagle Pass in late April, and visits with a farmer, a rancher, a wildlife biologist, a sheriff and people from many other walks of life.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

He wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

Statewide, 61 percent of Texans oppose building a wall, while 35 percent support it and 4 percent don\u2019t know or declined to answer, according to a poll conducted in April by Texas Lyceum, a nonprofit leadership organization.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Residents of the Lone Star State who live, work and play along the international boundary with Mexico say they are happy that the Trump administration\u2019s plans to quickly build the wall have encountered complications in Washington.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

So: right now, it would be reasonable to assume that the opponents of Trump, the Democratic Party in Congress, represent, regarding this issue, the overwhelming majority of the American electorate, and even the overwhelming majority of the voters who live near the border in heavily Republican states such as Texas. By stark contrast, the entire nation\u2019s Republican electorate are even more overwhelmingly supportive of Trump\u2019s position on it than everybody else is against his poroposal on it. <\/span><\/p>\n

This issue now is preventing continued funding of the American Government. Consequently, it\u2019s the nation\u2019s most politically potent issue, until it finally gets resolved \u2014 and the nation is strongly against him on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Republican Party therefore ignores the policy-preferences of the entire American electorate on this, the nation\u2019s most potent issue, and the Republican Party especially ignores the policy-preferences of Americans who would be the most affected by Trump\u2019s proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

This issue, therefore, represents an example of the success, thus far, of one-man dictatorship, if the President manages to achieve his intention on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This matter, since it is the nation\u2019s political centerpiece until it becomes resolved, suggests that the only<\/i> people who support the Trump proposal for a cement wall at the southern border are mere groupies of the Republican Trump. While that\u2019s 76% of the nation\u2019s Republicans, it excludes 63% of the U.S. electorate, and especially violates the will of the voters who actually would be the most affected by Trump\u2019s proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under these circumstances, this issue could become a crushing blow to future Republican Party electoral chances, if congressional Democrats just continue to say no to anything that even resembles Trump\u2019s proposal. The public strongly don\u2019t want Trump\u2019s proposal. The longer that the U.S. Government remains shut down over this issue, the angrier the public will be against Donald Trump, for his not simply giving in to congressional Democrats on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consequently, any Republicans who continue to support Trump on this are supporting the Democratic Party, even though they\u2019re not intelligent enough to recognize that fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse Polling on the border wall shows that Trump\u2019s proposal is very unpopular amongst the American electorate, especially amongst the people who live near the Mexican border; but Republicans nationwide do support his proposal \u2014 and overwhelmingly. Trump\u2019s base is the mass of people who approve of Trump and his initiatives no matter what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":366387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-391848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":391850,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391848\/revisions\/391850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}