Well it is not surprising that you are lawyer because you just keep thinking you are right when you objectively aren't.

Ok.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Okay, you have simply repeated the exact same talking points, how about a discussion? I specifically asked you about worker permits, H1B, student visas (there are others).... none of these require "want to be American", do you oppose them, or wish to reduce them, or expand them? I assure you, most of Trump's base make no distinctions, and cheer the limitations that he has put in place. How about DACA? We have already paid the costs of educating them, and they are contributing (or about to) to the American economy, and they generally "want to be American" more than many folks who have come legally to work or study. Once you move past a canned response, how do you create policy which addresses that reality?

If you want my "sense" (you probably don't) the Trumpian base is now a majority of the GOP and has become virulently anti-immigrant (legal or otherwise), and is simply incapable of ever supporting any solution for these issues that involve compromise. Furthermore, hardly any of them are impacted in any direct way by immigration at all. The end result is a singular fixation on "the wall", which is only a fraction of the real issues surrounding immigration. While some moderates on both sides could come to a compromise solution, this base won't allow it (several comprehensive bills have been passed over the years).Decades of rhetoric have moved the sides further apart, and final result will be many years of gridlock, followed by a partisan victory in which one sides loses utterly. For examples of that dynamic, see DOMA (and the repeal of DADT, or ObamaCare, or the Trump Tax Plan). In this case, I would predict that it will be similar to the gay rights battle, and that the GOP will eventually lose. We would a better country if we could find a path to compromise.

I find it truly amazing how one can rationalize the costs of whatever the fuck they want, yet demonize the costs of whatever the other party wants.

Sounds like something you have spent time thinking about. Hmmm. A fantasy perhaps?

With BK? Good one! :D

I support E-Verify and seriously punitive fines for employer violations of them. Combined with a guest worker program suitable for the demands of our society. Someone needs to do those jobs (typically very laborious) and I didn't raise my children with the aspiration of doing them nor will my grandchildren. Yet, someone needs to do them. Historically, it has been the newest immigrants.

Ohh, so if I can point out a system in another country, you will agree that it works? Can we have New Zealand's health care system?


Only if we can have Canada's immigration policy. Deal?


Trump would never agree to that though, since there's no wall.

Do you think a wall can be built along the Mexican border for $5 billion?


Who the fuck said an entire wall along the border was going to be built? Do any of you lefties ever read what that stupid ass in the White House has been saying, and what DHS has been proposing?


I did read what that stupid ass in the White House (ie. your idol) did say. During the campaign, Trump himself used a figure of $10 billion that was given to him by the National Precast Concrete Association that his Wall would cost.


Then there's an estimate from DHS that a Wall, based on Trump's own description would cost as much as $21.6 billion and take more than 3 years to build. That report was internal and the administration had it.


In all of history, has the final price ever been close to the estimated price, particularly when it is being heavily promoted for political reasons. So the question remains, where is the rest of the money coming from?

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No, it says exactly what I think it says, just not say what you think I want it to say. Read the piece below, and you'll get the same story, it has an example of where some amount of NEW wall would make an appreciable difference (according to this chief CBP guy). If democrats really believe what you say, it could get done. Even the 5.7B could be "negotiated" down, and some new useful sections get built, but dems have gone the other way and said not one new foot, not one penny, so two intransigent sides here.
Trump might have got it done in his first two years, and Obama, with larger majorities, may have too, but it shows it is not a serious priority for either party owing to what they feel they get out of the current chaos/disfunction. Problem for DC is that most Americans do see a problem, and that's one of the things that gave us Trump to begin with.

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https://www.npr.org/...anded-border-barrier

Hate to get too technical on ya but that's not how this happened ;). I don't want to overturn it, mind you, but at virtually no point in the short history of this farcical version of reality we live in did Trump ever command the support of "most Americans". Including in the election. Same could be said about the support for a wall as the singular and highest priority solution to the border security problem (which most Americans DO recognize as an issue - the border security problem, that is).

Carry on ;)

Yeah, I think I can get on board with that.

Shit, we just solved two of the biggest issues facing the US. That took about 3 minutes.

Next!

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

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At no point did I say "Trump" had a majority of anything, you just reiterated my point; most Americans see a serious problem with border security. The pub nominee will generally get more votes from those who see national security as a high/top priority, and Trump made a whole platform of kowtowing to that group, and is mostly why he picked up enough blue collar dems to make the difference.