Democrats specialize in a sort of media/political sleight of hand that attempts to force you to focus on one aspect on an issue while oftentimes the main part of an issue goes completely ignored. This allows them to accomplish all sorts of things for their agenda while forcing their opponents to contend with phantom narratives such as charges of racism, xenophobia, or whatever the Democrats need the narrative to be at that moment.

At this moment the agenda is all about preventing the wall proposed by President Donald Trump from going up, and right now, the Democrats need their current agenda point to be about the aforementioned racism and xenophobia of Republicans for even wanting it.

Outside of the claim that the border crisis is a manufactured one, we continuously hear claims by Democrats that the wall is immoral, and stems from some deep-seated hatred of brown people that is making its way to the surface. Nevermind that the Democrats are on record calling border security and even border barriers common sense, it’s racist, and any concern you have that stems from a porous border is simply related to you being a horrible person.

Concerned about drug smuggling? That’s racist. Is sex trafficking a point you’d like to bring up? Racist. The cost of illegals on the American taxpayer? That’s racist and you suck at economics.

Nevermind that Democrats asked for $40 billion during Barack Obama’s term to secure the border against illegal immigration. The $5 billion Republicans want for the wall is too much of the taxpayer’s money to just throw around according to Democrats, whom I have never seen be so concerned about how taxpayer money is spent in all my life.

So what changed for Democrats who once called border security common sense and were willing to spend dozens of billions in order to achieve it?

The simple answer is Trump, but the more accurate answer is Trump getting reelected.

As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said recently, if Trump doesn’t get this wall built now with this shutdown in motion, it will be seen as Trump losing to Democrats. If Trump is seen losing to Democrats on his biggest campaign promise then he’ll look weak, and that loss will hang around his neck, dragging him down all the way into 2020. Besides that, Democrats will have finally won one over on “liderully Hitler,” and they’ll be able to brag that they took down Trump. The energy this would give Democrats would be more than difficult to combat.

It would be a tremendous blow to Republican morale, and Trump would be the paper tiger they claimed he was all along. If the Democrats ran a bowl of macaroni and cheese against him in 2020, we’d probably have President Kraft for four years with his VP Velveeta waiting in the wings for a run at the Oval Office come time for it.

But if Trump does succeed in getting the wall funding, then the blow to Democrats will be devastating.

Republicans already fought and won against the Democrats pulling out all the stops and using every dirty trick in the book when it came to confirming now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The loss the Democrats suffered followed them into the midterms where they didn’t fare as well as they would have without it, with the Senate becoming even more Republican, and a weaker than expected Congress was all they achieved.

Pile the wall on top of the Kavanaugh confirmation, and you have a left that’s starting to wonder what their elected officials are even there for. With infighting already starting to occur within the party in regards to who should run in 2020 thanks to an increasingly ravenous social justice wing of the Democrats, a demoralized and divided left may find itself once again leaderless and rudderless.

Democrats and Republicans both need this win as their success in 2020 depends on it.

What the Democrats have to contend with is the fact that they know, and have previously admitted, that border security is important. They understand the crime, drugs, and sex trade problems as well as anybody else. However, they’ve chosen their hill to die on knowing that if they don’t defend it and Trump fulfills his greatest campaign promise they’ll likely lose power.

To be clear: Democrats would rather gain power than take the necessary steps to keep the nation safe. They’re more concerned about 2020 than they are about you.