The Wall and the benefits of incompetent evil

As the government shutdown continues and both sides remain dug in I see more and more articles and commentary about how the president may actually be finding benefits in it and that it really isn't about the wall at all. For the most part the "benefits" are pretty dumb, but I admit to seeing some potential in a government shutdown from the standpoint of a competent evil person.

But therein lies the rub, the country isn't led by a competent evil person at all. The president is surely evil, but not the other thing and that means that all this commentary of him playing 4th dimensional chess with the country are proceeding from a fundamentally flawed assumption.

"But if they really wanted the wall, why wasn't it done when they controlled both houses?" I hear you ask. Look... you were here over the last two years right? The president and GOP could barely pass any of their agenda with the power they had, let alone the wall, do you think all of that was some sinister plan? Or only the inability to fund the wall?

Being united against the Democrats doing anything is not the same as being united behind a coherent policy and individuals in the GOP had their own specific agendas to push, John McCain is a good example, I am increasingly convinced that his only goal was a cementing of his legacy as a "maverick" before he died and his eleventh hour vote to save the ACA was only in support of that. He died as he lived in his political career, thinking of himself first and literally nothing else second. But he was hardly the only one, the GOP didn't present as united a front as it could have, with control over all branches of government individuals felt less pressure to walk in lockstep and they pursued their own agenda, they didn't feel any urgency to pass huge bills with some things in it they disagreed on, so they felt free to infight over little things, that, combined with the complete inability to reach across the aisle meant that very little could pass that had a chance of beating a filibuster in the Senate.

Meanwhile the president was kept more or less under control by the various "sane" members of his team, all of whom you may recall have been pushed out since then, they were surely telling him that he could get his wall "on the next bill" or session or whatever and hoping he would forget about it entirely eventually. This was not the case, Trump is now more in control of his agenda than he ever was, and there is no one left who is interested and able to limit him.

He does not have a secret plan to gain support from Putin with the shutdown, or to push the conservative idea that smaller government works, he wants his stupid fucking wall and that is the beginning and the end of it. He literally ran on this promise from day one and it has been virtually the only "policy" he has been even semi-consistent on, it remains I think the only thing he truly believes in.

The president's style has never lent itself to subtlety, it has always been barge into the room, make a demand, throw money and power around until the demand is met without compromise then move on to the next demand. He doesn't play games to accomplish multiple goals at once because he never bothered to learn the rules or why they work. Looking for a secret agenda in his behavior now is an exercise in futility.

For which we can all be grateful.