The TV ad I want to see from the Democratic Party now begins with news footage of President Donald Trump from his Dec. 11 meeting with Democratic leaders in the White House: “I am proud to shut down the government,” Trump says. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it.”
Then come clips of news anchors describing federal workers who are struggling to pay bills and in some cases being forced to work without pay during the shutdown of 25 percent of the federal government, followed by footage of a Democratic House member telling reporters that his party has repeatedly voted to end the shutdown and allow negotiations on border-wall funding to proceed but that the Republican Senate, which not long ago OK’d the idea, refuses to take it up.
Cut to images of a border wall. “There are already nearly 700 miles of walls and fences along our southern border with Mexico,” says the narrator. “Democrats believe in border security and are open to discussions about the best way to enhance it. But not when President Trump is holding hundreds of thousands of federal workers hostage unless his demands are met.”
Then the ad closes with Trump on a tape loop: “I am proud to shut down the government. I am proud to shut down the government. I am proud to shut down the government ….”
Implicit in this hypothetical commercial is that if Democrats compromise now and give Trump money to build a symbol of his harsh positions on immigration, they’ll set a dangerous precedent. An emboldened Trump will then be likely to pull another “or else ...” stunt when the federal government once again hits the debt ceiling in March.
At some point, this destructive lever needs to be pried from Trump’s tiny hands, and the sooner the better.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/zorn/ct-why-aren-t-the-democrats-running-this-commercial-non-stop-on-tv-20190119-story.html