Voters' Silent Support for Donald Trump Makes Him a Formidable Candidate in 2020

The conversation at the bar turned to politics — specifically President Donald Trump.It was my second stop of the night, a venerable Dallas hotel lounge that usually has a good mix of travelers, locals and the rich and somewhat famous. I snagged a seat at the extreme corner of the bar area, allowing me a view of the crowd and the band that would play, local group The British Are Coming.Some folks started talking about Trump, who on Friday declared a national emergency to shift funding in the budget to pay for his wall along the southern border.The bottom line: They didn't care.Like others I've encountered over the last year, they see the fight over the wall as folly for Trump, the media and Democrats. They grumbled that the border security solution should be a mix of technology, agents and barriers. The consensus was that other issues are more important to America, and that Trump has more support than the media and Democrats realize."He's going to do it again," a guy at the bar said, but not wanting his name "mentioned in the newspapers."The interesting Trump talk dramatically subsided, so I paid the bartender, tipped a wonderful server and headed home to Oak Cliff.  Continue reading...