The conservative consensus is that Democrats don't want to fund President Trump's  wall because they hate him.  Well, yes, Democrats do indeed hate President Trump, and yes, it's a deep-seated hatred, a visceral, soul-rotting hatred, but that's not the real reason they won't fund the wall. 

The biggest reason Democrats won't even partially fund the wall is their absolute certainty that given the money, the president will actually build the thing. 

President Trump's  not some out-of-the-loop politician who can be outmaneuvered by a Deep State whose embedded bureaucrats will tell him everything's going swimmingly while they sabotage the project with cost overruns and endless delays.  No, the president will know how much it should and will cost, how long it should and will take, and how to overcome government roadblocks.  This is his wheelhouse.  He's done it his whole adult life.

And, since the wall is his signature issue, his personal passion, President Trump's going to be all over the construction.  That looming steel show-stopper will be blocking invaders in record time, under budget and ahead of schedule. 

Knowing that the wall will become a reality if the President gets the cash brings out the cheap-labor-express, wealthy power brokers like the Billionaires for Open Borders: Michael Bloomberg; Rupert Murdoch; other distinguished members of the Forbes 500; and, as Lou Dobbs often reminds us, the "globalists, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, Koch brothers and Wall Street." 

But it's not just the Washington insiders who like cheap renewable labor.  Retail giants like Target, Walmart, and others reap the benefits of illegal immigration.  In fact, most industries get in on the deal.

A 2012 study shows a breakdown of unauthorized alien workers:

• 22% in legal services, advertising, employment services, landscaping and waste management, dry cleaning, nail salons, car washes and religious organizations.
• 18% in the leisure and hospitality sector, lodging, food services, theme parks, transportation, and other tourism oriented products and services
• 16% in the construction industry 
• 12% wholesale and retail trade

So most of the corporate world has some interest in stopping a border wall.  It's a top priority for many.  These interests make for a powerful force, and they will not back down.

The second reason Democrats will never fund the wall is their voter base – not unions or teachers, but illegal aliens, who broke our laws, crashed our border, and now infringe on American's sacred right to elect their government by illegally casting votes. 

One glaring example was the 2016 presidential election, where Hillary Clinton "garnered more than 800,000 votes from non-citizens."  How many of those illegal votes decided congressional or state races? 

Democrats continue to find creative ways for illegals to vote.  There's ballot-harvesting, where a third party collects ballots from voters then drops them off at polling places.  Once on the rolls, political campaigns have free license to go find that person, or even if they don't find him, just turn in a ballot in his name.

Then there's the Motor-Voter debacle: a million illegal aliens in California have Driver's Licenses.  California admitted that over 1,500 people were illegally registered under new automatic voter registration. 

California's not an anomaly.  Twelve states and the District of Columbia have now enacted laws to allow illegal aliens to obtain a driver's license – the gold standard for identification. 

So there's cheap labor and a growing Democrat base, but those issues were there when Democrats voted for previous "barriers," so what's the real problem? 

The deal-breaker is a missing out clause.  As I said, construction is President Trump's wheelhouse, so the wall will go up quickly.  No time to pull the legislation back or rewrite it, as they did with President Bush.

Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 into law after it was passed by huge bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate.  The law ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to construct 700 miles of fencing along the southern border and authorized the addition of lights, cameras, and sensors to enhance security.  The law explicitly required the wall to be constructed of "at least two layers of reinforced fencing."

When Democrats took control of Congress a few months later, an amendment was added to the 2008 spending bill that gutted the law.  So Democrats and open-border Republicans were able to avoid a politically unpopular vote against the wall, then quietly gut its construction.  President Trump will not allow that recourse.

Herein lies the real threat to the open-border gang: that the wall will be built and is a permanent fixture, not a fence drug dealers can build a ramp to roll over and deliver their poisonous drugs.  It is not a fence easily scaled or easily dismantled by future Democrat presidents.

No, the Trump wall will be steel, will be permanent.  If a Democrat is elected POTUS at a future date, he will not be able to simply undo the wall and reopen the border.  That's the non-negotiable piece: the fact that a steel wall is irreversible.  No escape clause. 

Is the Trump wall impenetrable?  No, even a steel wall can be breached.   A Department of Homeland Security test of a steel slat prototype proved that it could be cut through with a saw, a "common tool".

DHS Spokeswoman Katie Waldman responded:

The steel bollard design is internally reinforced with materials that require time and multiple industrial tools to breach, thereby providing U.S. Border Patrol agents additional response time to affect a successful law enforcement resolution.  In the event that one of the steel bollards becomes damaged, it is quick and cost-effective to repair.

Rush Limbaugh said the conventional wisdom is that the president will declare a national emergency to build the wall, then reopen the government, making Schumer and Pelosi the winners on the government shutdown, the ones who held the line. 

I'm all in for the national emergency, but hopefully the President will then resume negotiations.  At that point, the wall will no longer be a sticking point, so surely Democrats will fund drones, 750 U.S. Border Patrol agents, 2,000 new officers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more judges and attorneys to reduce the 650,000 immigration case backlog;" and new technology along the southern border".

After all, Democrats advocate for many of these solutions instead of a wall, so why wouldn't they eagerly embrace these security measures once the wall's off the table?  Or is their position going to be no border security of any kind?

The standoff over the wall looks like a lose-lose, a Mexican standoff, but the president can be totally victorious in this battle.

In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins. Ulysses S. Grant

Stay strong, Mr. President, the American people are with you.