Several months into the Trump administration, I started running a daily "Border Wall Construction Update" on Twitter, announcing how many miles of the wall had been completed that day and how many miles since the inauguration. It was always the same numbers: 0 and 0, respectively.

I was immediately attacked by people in the Trump base. You're being unfair, he hasn't had enough time, there's a legislative process, he's doing the best he can.

As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months and months turned to years, and not 1 inch of the wall was built, the "3-D chess" crowd dwindled.

Sometimes Trump would concede he hadn't built any part of the wall. Sometimes he would fib and claim it was being built. There's no way to sugarcoat it: That was a lie.

Drug dealers, drunk drivers, criminals, welfare dependents and low-wage workers driving down American wages continued to flow across our border.

We are now past the midway point of Trump's first term, maybe his only term. If Trump couldn't come up with a legislative fix when he controlled both houses of Congress, he's sure not going to now that he's lost the House.

We are headed for another failed Republican presidency.

President George H.W. Bush promised, "Read my lips, no new taxes"—then raised taxes.

President George W. Bush promised that America would not be "the world's policeman"—then turned the United States into the world's policeman.

Whether these promises weren't kept out of bad faith, incompetence or changed minds is of no consequence. That will be a minor footnote for future historians to debate. All that matters is that it didn't happen. That's why Trump got elected.

It’s the best of times and the worst of times judging from President Donald Trump’s tweets about the ongoing government shutdown. “No Cave!” he vows in a tweet at 6:48 AM Tuesday morning, declaring the wall is desperately needed for border security, as well as to combat the drug problem. Yet on Monday morning, Trump had appeared to stick to slamming Democrats and trusting in political pressure. “#2020TAKEBACKTHEHOUSE” he concluded. Obvious problem: the GOP didn’t do anything when it did control the House only a year ago. Even without the House, however, there are actions the President can take—if he has the will.

Trusting in political pressure is likely to be a failing strategy. Democrats preparing to run for the White House in 2020 don’t want any compromise with Trump, and the increasingly extreme party has now defined the wall itself as immoral, in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s phrase. [Trump slams Pelosi over comment about ‘immoral’ wall, by Bob Fredericks, New York Post, January 21, 2019] Polls also seem to show most people also blame Trump for the shutdown; not surprising since he initially volunteered to take the blame. [CNN Poll: Trump bears most blame for shutdown, by Jennifer Agiesta, CNN, January 14, 2019] The media bias against the president and the sob stories about federal workers suggest it will be difficult for the Republicans to gain an advantage the longer this goes on.

However, this does not mean that President Trump does not have at least some political room in which to maneuver. His compromise offer of extending DACA protections in exchange for wall funding was rejected out-of-hand by Democrats, making them look petty to moderate Republicans who otherwise oppose President Trump. The offer may have been intended to fail. Even new Utah senator Mitt Romney, praised the president for working in good faith. The move likely strengthened President Trump’s hold on his party.

An appropriate thought for Martin Luther King Day: the almost simultaneous Main Stream Media hysterias about Rep. Steve King and the Covington Catholic students are obviously driven by anti-white animus. But the reaction of the Congressional GOP (non-reaction in the case of Covington Catholic) shows that they still have no clue what’s going on.

When GOP congressional leaders stripped King of his committee assignments over a disputed quote in that impartial source, the New York Times, they made all too clear that the Trumpian transformation of the GOP is far from complete. The Main Stream Media decreed King’s remark racist—even, incredibly, if he was just defending Western Civilization as he insisted—so naturally Republicans had to punish him to appease their enemies. [Rep. Steve King removed from committee assignments amid 'white supremacist' controversy, by Matt Richardson and Chad Pergram, Fox News, January 14, 2019]

It’s the same old story that happens time and again with Republicans. The sad part is the man who led the charge against King is a Republican leader who, surprisingly, has come far to embrace Trumpism and immigration patriotism: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible ... make violent revolution inevitable," said John F. Kennedy. 

In 2016, the U.S. and Britain were both witness to peaceful revolutions. 

The British voted 52-48 to sever ties to the European Union, restore their full sovereignty, declare independence and go their own way in the world. Trade and immigration policy would henceforth be decided by a parliament elected by the people, not by bureaucrats in Brussels.

"Brexit" it was called. And British defiance stunned global elites.

Two and a half years later, Britain is still inside the EU, and no one seems to know when or whether the divorce will take place—a victory of London and European elites over the expressed will of the British people. 

Appalled by the Brexit vote, these elites played a waiting game, broadcasting warnings of what could happen, to panic the British public into reconsidering and reversing its democratic decision.