In game theory, chicken is an experiment that everyone is quite familiar with: the only way to make the other player yield is to make a definitive statement that you’re willing to risk mutual destruction. President Trump lost this game of chicken by idiotically submitting to Democrats when he was so close to attaining his goal, essentially making the entire shutdown pointless. Democrats despise the President so much that they were not willing to grant him the equivalent of 12 hours of federal funding (5.6 B), which pales in comparison to the trillions spent on entitlements touted by Democrats. Trump could have come out of this by making an affirmative case for the wall paired with technological enhancement of border security, which is not difficult to do when there are 700 to 800 miles of unguarded border.
The rationale for the wall is similar to building a dam: to concentrate the water flow to a certain point rather than having water uncontrollably flowing at all points. In the same way, illegal immigration should be concentrated at points of entry rather than being spread out over thousands of miles along the border.
“…The rationale for building a wall is similar to building a dam…”
Trump and Republicans have argued that we should know who is coming into our country. Mainstream Democrats like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer used to be very warm to this argument. Once in 2005, Obama even went so far as to say that “we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.” Those seeking amnesty, under its legal definition, can simply go to a point of entry and file for amnesty, a procedure that has been in place for years. I’m all for the free flow of labor as long as we do not confer governmental benefits to those who are seeking economic opportunity and as long as they adhere to basic notions of private property and liberty.
House majority leader Nancy Pelosi began negotiations by saying that “The wall is an immorality,” is idiocy considering the Democrats proceeded to promulgate the notion that those who agree with the building of a wall have a deep-rooted racial animus towards those coming over the border. The Democrats were never going to give an inch and Trump should’ve been aware of that.
Instead of tweeting statements from the White House every day of the shutdown, the President should’ve been at unprotected parts of the border, pointing and saying “This is what the Democrats are not willing to fund,” as well as hosting meetings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Angel moms. Though the president yielded in this game of chicken, we may be in for another shutdown within the next week so be sure to stay tuned for the potential second part of the shutdown saga 2019!
This article was edited for factual clarity on Februrary 18, 2019.
