Walls work. That's why Democrats oppose them.

Let's travel to the future, about 18 months from today, to a presidential debate between President Trump and whichever candidate the DNC finally throws its gold bricks behind. Two alternate timelines exist: one where Trump has built the wall and an unlikely one where he has not. In the first, Democrats will be crushed. President Trump will remind them that they told the American people that the wall is "ineffective" and "expensive." But crime has fallen; so have substance abuse-related deaths. Illegal immigration is manageable for the first time in close to a century. This Democratic nominee might argue that Trump failed to make Mexico pay for the wall. His retort? The U.S. has now officially negotiated lucrative trade agreements with our southern neighbor that have paid for the wall tenfold. He may even mention the massive burden that illegal immigration costs Americans each year has been lifted.

In the second future, where somehow the wall hasn't been built, the Democrat will hound Trump and ask him why he did not deliver on his campaign promise. Besides their own party's obstruction of the process, they will suggest that the president is not able to get things done with bipartisan support. They could even suggest that is they, if elected to replace President Trump, who will really get the job of a border wall done. Based on the Democratic support for border barriers in the past, it's within the realm of possibility that they will readopt the platform issue since it's still the number-one issue voters care about. The Democrats are against the wall because they know it will work. Their concern isn't altruistic and about the morality of the wall; it is merely a point to set up and argue during the next election. If they really believed that a wall would not work, they wouldn't stand in the way and let President Trump fail when it didn't deliver what we all know it will. Lower crime. Lower drug deaths. Lower illegal immigration. And lower taxpayer burden when government funds have been spent combating these problems. They're fighting it because they cannot survive if the president, and America, succeeds. The Democratic Party hasn't just suddenly developed a sense of fiscal responsibility when it claims that the wall is too expensive. They wrote the book on wild spending, like sex ed for prostitutes or speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's wild $100K tab of in-flight drinks and dinners. When Democrats claim to be against the barriers because of their concern for DACA recipients and then simultaneously shoot down an offer for their stability, it should be a sign. Then, when they claim that their opposition to the wall comes from some moral high ground, all Americans should be able to see through this poor argument, considering the high walls around their own homes. On Friday afternoon, President Trump reopened the government with a continuing resolution for until mid-February. He reiterated his determination to follow through on his options to secure the southern border. To show that he is merciful, he is extending an olive branch to the House and Senate Democrats by giving them a chance fulfill their promise to negotiate when the partial government shutdown had ended. However, having promptly reneged on their own promises, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer held a press conference shortly after the President's Rose Garden address, and Pelosi said, "I've been clear about the wall," at which Schumer helpfully clarified: "Democrats don't want the wall." Democrats can't agree over any other of their own platform issues from health care to raising minimum wage, so why are they so carefully organized around opposition of the wall? Because a wall would secure President Trump's re-election in 2020. It is the last item to be checked off from a long list of promises that have been satisfied during President Trump's first term. In this current reality, the wall will be built. President Trump hasn't let the liberal media about a lost battle stop him from winning the war. He has issued an ultimatum to Congress: secure $5.7B for the wall, or he will issue an emergency proclamation, which has already located $7 billion in various funds. Either way, it's happening. What we will witness now is either the Democratic Party supporting a bill with the funding as requested and when the next election roles around, they can at least pretend they helped procure the benefits that have followed. Or they will continue to fight against it with even nastier means than we've witnessed yet. Don't anticipate Democrats doing the smart thing and backpedaling on their fear-mongering and divisive politics now to save face as they work toward a secure border. Instead, prepare for an even more desperate display of anti-American rhetoric and bald-faced denials of the problems we face from unfettered illegal immigration. Democratic leaders care about only the votes, not the voters. Image: Lorie Schall via Flickr.