Trump and McConnell
Will the show of unity last? Will they manage to pass any important legislation? Or will the split GOP, with its barely-there, small, shaky majority, end up deadlocked again?
A fifty-two vote majority isn’t much in the Senate. It means that to prevail without Democratic votes (and usually the GOP must function without the help of any Democrats) there must be near-unanimity in the party. Even a couple of moderates (or any sort of outlier) are going to have a great deal of power because the GOP majority is so tiny. And senators love power, and most of them are going to milk that power for all it’s worth, trying to get concessions for their states and basking in the glow of their fame. After all, going along with the pack doesn’t get you many headlines, does it? And these people””especially Collins, with whom I’m most familiar””really are moderate politically, so it’s not as though they’re compromising many of their own principles to vote against the more conservative wing of the GOP.
If the GOP wants to avoid this problem, the only solution is to get a bigger majority in the Senate. That’s the reality as I see it.
Clearly you’re right about a larger majority being needed neo.
“senators love power and most of them are going to milk that power for all it’s worth, trying to get concessions for their states and basking in the glow of their fame.”
Human nature being what it is, those personal characteristics are to be expected. But being part of human nature, they’ve always been present. What in my perception has changed is the percentage who place personal gain and ideology to the exclusion of the nation’s welfare.
Every Republican Congressman knows that unrestricted illegal immigration is bad for the country, yet the majority place serving their big donors desires before the country’s welfare.
Every Democrat Congressman knows that unrestricted illegal immigration will eventually destroy our cultural heritage and the cultural bonds that have binded us together as one nation. But in their case, that is the reason they favor it…
One party is profoundly corrupt and the other, ideologically opposed to individual liberty.
GB, piling on?
Funny, that you choose immigration as an illustration of GOP malfeance. Remember, it was Ronald Reagan who first solved the immigration problem by granting amnesty to all who were here illegally, in return for the Democrat Congress closing the loopholes. That did not happen, and Reagan did not hold their feet to the fire. Nor did Reagan repair the sieve at the border using the resources available to him.
(Reminds me of G. H. W. Bush who thought that he had an agreement on taxes and the budget. That cost him a second term. There is nothing new under the political sun.)
In truth we have ample federal laws to deal with illegal immigration. Congressional action is a side issue. What we need is the will at the Federal level to enforce them, and to confront the seditious state authorities who defy them.
The fact is the GOP Senate has been reasonably responsible, and reasonably united on important issues–except for a small group of “mavericks”. (I put that in quotes because I use the term as a euphemism for what I really think of them.)
The Democrats play their games because they think there is no cost. They are confident that their base will blame the GOP, and also confident that enough Conservatives will as well, to think they are safe. Well, it didn’t work in 2014 and 2016; and there is still time to cut them off in 2018.
I am getting the sense in the past week that McConnell is fed up, and that he is going to start adjusting some of the arcane rules–in some cases not even rules, but practices–to get things moving.
The press session with Trump and McConnell together was encouraging to me. If Trump will quit calling them names in public, stroke a few egos, and work to build party consensus on key issues, the situation may be salvaged.
Oldflyer Says: Lots of Good Things
October 17th, 2017 at 8:09 pm
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Is this Trump actually plying the Art of the Deal, or McConnell Speaking Truth to Power?
So long as the constitutional laws are enforced the unconstitutional ones repealed, and the illegal executive actions stopped, I don’t care which of them gets the credit.