The Insurmountable Obstacle to a Compromise on Trump’s Wall
Congress can’t agree on what Trump’s wall is because Trump can’t admit what it’s for
By Eric Levitz
As America’s government shutdown enters its sixth day, the debate in Congress has turned metaphysical. Now, it looks like 420,000 federal workers will have to get by without paychecks until our nation’s (philistinic excuse for) philosopher kings reach agreement on that age-old, ontological question: What is a wall?
As the New York Times reports:
[T]he impasse over funding a wall at the southwestern border has highlighted the debate over effective border security, with a breakthrough possibly hinging on a semantic argument: What is a wall?
…While a final decision has not been made, Ms. Pelosi will most likely seek a swift vote on the legislation the House spurned before funding lapsed: the Senate’s stopgap spending bill would provide funding through Feb. 8, according to a House Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations…Whether Mr. Trump signs the bill might depend on whether he and Democrats can agree to disagree on what a border barrier is called. Democrats have accepted fencing in the past. Mr. Trump has taken to intermittently calling his barrier a wall or “aesthetically pleasing…
