Or are they just going along with it because they're afraid of Trump/protecting Trump from another embarrassing failure? I don't really hear about Republicans sounding like they're actually much in favor of Trump's Wall so much as they are using it to keep the government shut down (probably to cripple it purposefully) and attack Democrats as "weak" on Border Security. Thoughts?

He did a LOT in his first two years in office with a Democratic Congress and kept the country from falling into the abyss economically. And things were mostly peaceful and government was stable and staffed with actual competent people and we didn't suffer any major disasters. Much of what he didn't- or couldn't accomplish- had more to do with endless Republican Tea Party obstructionism in Congress and the Courts than what he actually might have supported/enacted if he had had more bipartisan cooperation from Congress. Perfect? No. Better than what came before and after? That's a resounding hell yes! Also, we can't keep electing Presidents and then being upset that they are failing to deliver certain policy goals when the obstruction party keeps getting (re-)elected to Congress over and over again. President Obama's biggest sin, at least in the eyes of many people, is that he was a pragmatist/realist who came to understand the truth that only certain things can get done so fast and that things like Medicare For All was likely going to crash and burn and opted for more "conservative" legislation that would at least move the ball down the field. If and when the progressive utopia some people are wishing for comes, it will be a gradual process, not an overnight one.

but I'd also be concerned that it would be a rehash of 2016- as unfair as that would be- with the outcome uncertain. A Trump/Hillary rematch would probably be just like "catnip" for the Trump base and would likely divide us. I have come to the sad but unmistakable conclusion that that 2020 should feature a new and clean slate of candidates (which also means no Bernie as well). Hillary, Gore, Kerry would have all been better Presidents than what we ended up getting in 2000, 2004, and 2016 but I feel that their time has, regrettably, come and gone. :-/

This shutdown was the unforced error of unforced errors. He had two years to get his Wall Funding from Republicans in Congress but didn't decide it was necessary until after Democrats won the midterms, almost as though he was looking to create problems. If he isn't an actual agent of the Kremlin, he's doing a damn good job of acting like it. And now he's supposedly retweeting articles suggesting that permanently losing some of the currently furloughed federal employees would be a good thing is a particularly ominous sign IMHO.

I don’t even have a clue as to how they will wrap things up. I can guess, maybe predict a few things (The Whitewalkers will be defeated/stopped.....somehow) but for the most part the story/characters could go so many different ways at this point IMHO.

April can’t come soon enough.

They oppose tougher anti-bullying policies in schools as well- because it infringes on their “G-D-given right” to harass and discriminate and, yes kill LGBTQ persons. And even anti -lynching laws get in the way of their ability to harm us and get away with it. Some of them are ON RECORD as advocating for the death penalty for LGNTQ persons. They no doubt view what is happening in Russia/Chechnya to LGBTQ persons with envy.

so I won't set myself up to be disappointed. Not exactly sure how they will polish the orange turd this time to be acceptable for another 4 year term over the election of just about any Democrat, however. He's two years in and can't keep people in his (mis-)Administration and/or find new people to work for him, a level of dysfunction that we didn't have even with Dubya. There's almost no Democrat we could elect that would rival, let alone surpass the Trump clusterf**k.

It seems like, politically, he and the Republicans in Congress are taking a beating on this issue and it's only going to get worse for them. The shutdown now has gone on longer than any previous ones. And it's over something that Trump wants that the public doesn't. What will be their tipping point? *What* will get McConnell/GOP to force a vote and potential override vote to (fully) re-open our government? Trump says that this may last "months or years" but there's no way *that* can happen...........is there?

esp. Mitch McConnell (though more out of complicity than cowardice IMHO)