In 2016 candidate Trump promised the American people that if elected he would build a big, beautiful wall on the border between America and Mexico - and Mexico would pay for it.
Donald Trump was elected president, but things have changed. Now he has shut down the money spigot and put eight hundred thousand American employees of the government on furlough because he demands that the American taxpayers contribute billions of dollars to complete building that wall.
A few decades ago we were disparaging the Communist countries of eastern Europe for building walls to keep their citizens from escaping to the west. Today, Trump wants to build a wall to prevent people from Mexico and other parts of South America from crossing the border and applying for the right to migrate to the United States. He claims the masses huddled at the border are rapists, thugs and drug smugglers.
There is no suggestion of building a similar wall between America and Canada. Trump wanted to build that Mexican wall in concrete and now he has changed his appeal to the American steel industry and demands it be a steel wall. He seems to have conveniently forgotten that promise that it would be paid for - by Mexico.
We are now entering the third week of a shutdown which is very selective in its outcome. The American armed services and most government employees are still at work and receiving their pay cheques. The people missing out collect garbage and staff the country's museums and a host of tourist attractions. Most national parks are now closed, but the air traffic controllers are an essential industry and are forced to work without being paid. Uncollected garbage on the streets of America is creating a rat plague. This strike by the government is quickly becoming a health issue.
It all boils down to politics. The Democrats are in opposition and withholding their vote on the money bill which Trump has tied to releasing the billions he needs to build that wall. He is promising to continue this shut down indefinitely, possibly running it for years. It is sheer brinkmanship and both Republicans and Democrats are becoming nervous about the damage it is inflicting on citizens lives.
Many people live from pay day to pay day and this money shortage will be a disaster. Rents will go unpaid and unpaid bills will quickly mount. No doubt the tension will end some marriages and the people on the receiving end of this pay strike by the government will find themselves with adverse credit ratings.
The America that was long the champion of world freedom seems to have retreated into isolationism again. Between the two world wars it refused to take its place in the old League of Nations and now it seems to be rejecting those who speak Spanish and have a brown skin from crossing its southern border.
The Trump white house is certainly a retreat from the America that claimed leadership of the free world. No improvement seems possible until the dysfunctional Trump leaves office. Sadly, two years remain until the resident in the oval office faces the voting public.
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