The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll asked about people’s opinions on the border wall and who they blamed for the shutdown. The analysis contained a worrying trend — support for the wall is up 8% from last year and opposition to the wall is down 9%:
Support for building a wall on the border, which is the principal sticking point in the stalemate between the president and Democrats, has increased over the past year. Today, 42 percent say they support a wall, up from 34 percent last January. A slight majority of Americans (54 percent) oppose the idea, down from 63 percent a year ago.
The increase in support is sharpest among Republicans, whose backing for Trump’s long-standing campaign promise jumped 16 points in the past year, from 71 percent to 87 percent. Not only has GOP support increased, it has also hardened. Today, 70 percent of Republicans say they strongly support the wall, an increase of 12 points since January 2018.
Democratic politicians’ messaging about how immoral, expensive, and unnecessary additional wall construction would be isn’t working. Dems frequently suck at messaging, but they’re really tone-deaf about one thing they all know in their core: campaigning against something is only marginally effective. To get public support, give the public something to get behind. Unfortunately, what the public is hearing from Dems is “there’s no real crisis” and “Pelosi said No.” The message is “Dems are against the wall.” But they’re not making the case for why their ideas for increasing border security are better.
Meanwhile, the GOP is out there fearmongering like their lives depended on it. People watch network news and consider themselves informed, and aside from local shutdown stories, what they see is “drug smugglers and rapists are storming our borders trying to get in.” Small wonder they’re starting to think maybe a wall isn’t such a bad idea.
What I think we need is for prominent Dems to reinforce each other around something like this:
We support strengthening border security. We don’t support open borders; that’s a lie. The bill that the House passed on Jan. 3 included the following:
- More than $1.3 billion for new fencing in the Rio Grande Valley and funding to replace secondary fencing in San Diego and other existing pedestrian fencing.
- $366.5 million for border security technology.
- $7.7 million to hire 328 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection customs officers.
- $224.6 million for "non-intrusive Inspection equipment" at ports of entry.
- $7.08 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Drugs aren’t carried by people on foot, they’re driven through points of entry hidden in vehicles, and a wall wouldn’t do anything to prevent this. However, the technology and equipment we’ve approved would allow border officials to detect hidden drugs more efficiently.
However, most illegal immigration is due to people who entered the country legally with a visa, but remained here after their visa expired. A wall wouldn’t remove these people. However, hiring additional ICE personnel would enable locating and expelling these “visa overstays.”
The measures that we’ve proposed would do more to curb illegal immigration than the wall, and at far less taxpayer expense. Shame on the administration for refusing to take effective action to increase our border security and protect us!
Yes, it’s too wordy, but any marketing consultant could trim or chunk it into soundbites that make the network news.
Dems must also address these people:
Partisan differences also shape the choices ahead. Of the 54 percent of Americans who oppose the wall, 27 percent say Democrats should continue to resist Trump’s demands for $5.7 billion for a barrier, and 23 percent say Democrats should compromise with the president.
I’m not sure how a wall opponent thinks that Dems could compromise with a president whose attitude is “border wall or nothing!” The Dem response should be, “We have offered significant compromises, particularly by increasing the number of agents in both CBP and ICE! Not to mention adding new barriers, using new technology, and installing new equipment. The president said No. It’s like he’s stuck, not on border security but on a wall.”
About where people level the blame for the shutdown:
53 percent say Trump and the Republicans are mainly at fault, and 29 percent blame the Democrats in Congress. Thirteen percent say both sides bear equal responsibility for the shutdown.
That’s our “well-informed” public weighing in. Democratic politicians had better reframe their message in order to penetrate the fearmongering.