Yesterday President Trump vowed to shut down the federal government if Congress refuses to cough up the dough for the southern border wall that the American people have been demanding for decades.

“Build that wall,” Trump said at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix, Arizona. “Now the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it, but believe me if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall.”

A Republican president threatening a Republican Congress with a shutdown is a political rarity like the total eclipse much of the nation experienced the same day Trump made his statement.

And like the eclipse, it’s a beautiful thing.

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) is drinking the lazy, status-quo, statist Kool-Aid. Duffy told Fox News Channel this afternoon that a government shutdown is to be avoided at all costs because it “takes our eye off” other problems. Typical cowardice.

Contrary to the do-nothing propaganda that endlessly dominates the media ecosystem, the shutdown won’t be unpopular; if anything, it’s more likely to be wildly popular.

There is no risk, no political downside at all.

The Big Lie, as my colleague Dr. Steven J. Allen has shown, is that shutdowns hurt Republicans.

As a result of the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare that was blamed on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Republicans gained in the polls.

As Allen wrote at the time: “The polls show that Republicans, on the net generic ballot for Congress, were losing ground prior to the shutdown and continued to lose ground during the shutdown… but, as soon as the shutdown was over, Republicans rose quickly, achieving an advantage in late November 2013 of between 1.14 and 2.14 points.”

So don’t believe the hype.

This item by Matthew Vadum first appeared Aug. 23, 2017, at Bombthrowers.