Tell Congress: Not One Cent For Trump’s “Wall”

Today, we honor the birth of Abraham Lincoln. When our 16th President said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he was referring to slavery, not a border wall. Still, his demand for unity—not division—is applicable to today. Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is closely monitoring negotiations to avert another crippling government shutdown—a symptom of principled opposition to Trump’s gross injustice.

Talks apparently yielded an agreement late Monday, one that would approve approximately the same amount of funding for “border security” as Congressional Democrats proposed before the shutdown last December. Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters that Trump “is going to build the Wall … with or without Congress.” We beg to differ.

Article One of the U.S. Constitution grants all appropriations authority to the Congress—not the President. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines boondoggle as, “[A] wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft….” That describes Trump’s “Wall” perfectly. Contact your members of Congress today and tell them not to fund Trump’s boondoggle “Wall”.

Use our Action Alert to tell your members of Congress
don’t cave in to Trump’s demands for a useless “Wall”

This whole “Wall” fetish arose from Trump’s stump speeches in 2016 when his zealous followers loudly cheered whenever he mentioned this divisive and vindictive symbol of xenophobia and racism. Trump had earlier launched his campaign with an outlandish, racist attack against “Mexicans” as drug dealers and violent criminals—exposing his astonishingly ignorant beliefs about the diverse societies and peoples south of the U.S. border.

The Trump rallies’ reactions grew ever louder as Trump embellished his promises by claiming Mexico would pay for the “Wall”. Since his election, Trump has broken nearly every promise he made to his voters, so he remains desperate to turn this applause line into policy—even though border crossings and undocumented immigration remain at historic lows.

While federal prosecutors investigate Trump’s nefarious campaign and business practices, and while Trump’s policies cause unimaginable damage to our people and planet, the Diverter-In-Chief keeps focusing unwarranted attention on The “Wall”—which has also been called a barrier, slats, and other terms.

We continue to oppose this expensive, impotent, and ineffective Boondoggle Border “Wall”.No “Wall” will address the underlying causes of desperate human migration. Poverty, violence, and social dysfunction—often due to U.S. imperialism and accelerating climate change—are the root causes. Illegal U.S. intervention in nations including Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and now Venezuela destabilize societies and drive the people there to flee northward.

We oppose all of these illegal, brutal policies—as well as the degradation of our democratic institutions and attacks on the rule of law—that Trump is using to force through his dangerous schemes.

To build this “Wall”, the Trump administration is eagerly attacking the U.S. Constitution, as well as trampling property rights by seizing private lands via eminent domain, overruling sovereign Native treaty provisions, and destroying precious and irreplaceable wildlife habitat. Shockingly, Trump’s policies are inflicting horrendous harm on children—forcing them into cages after ripping them from their parents’ arms, and in some cases killing them.

We oppose Trump’s politics of fear and anger. Trump exacerbates existing fear arising from social and economic insecurity, and misdirects the resultant anger to target minorities, immigrants, and other scapegoats. The fear and anger are visceral—impervious to logic or fact—and Trump weaponizes these overheated emotions in textbook fascist-style demagoguery.

The anger may seem cathartic, but it accomplishes nothing positive because it distracts from the actual underlying causes of economic insecurity. In fact, by empowering exploitation, this xenophobic racism only makes the underlying problems worse. Contact your members of Congress now. Tell them to stand firm AGAINST the Boondoggle Border “Wall” and FOR the rule of law, democracy, and due process.

In solidarity with the people, history, ecology, and life of our border lands,

Debra Schrishuhn for Alan, Mike F, Mike H, Janis, Dan, Dr Bill, Kimberly, Bryan, and Shayna—your PDA National Team

P.S. We’re here to help you make progress in your state and locality! If you need help organizing a new PDA chapter or energizing your existing chapter, please contact PDA Field Coordinator Dan O’Neal. Join the PDA Phone Team making easy, effective calls from your own home with Mike “Phone Guy” Fox. Also please pitch in $1000, $100, or whatever you can afford to support our organizing.

Join PDA Making Progress