Comments
GELFAND’S WORLD - If you think about the near future, it's hard to avoid a kind of dread. I'm going to suggest that you simply avoid worrying too much, at least at the moment, and treat the next 24 months as equivalent to the next pandemic or post-Soviet incursion.
The reasoning is simple enough. We can't make Trump smart or rational or honest, but we can continue to remind people of what he is.
Republicans are going to have their way on things like lower taxes for the rich, provided they can whip up the votes in the House and Senate. But Democrats and Independents don't have to help them. In fact, they should oppose at every step of the way, even when it is not in the short-term interests of their constituents.
Democrats could even take it a step further and, like a shadow cabinet, promote their own set of proposals: Higher taxes on the very rich, abortion services in military and federal facilities, Medicare for anybody who wants it and is willing to pay for it. And one more thing that ought to be negotiable: The recognition that global warming exists and is a critical danger to all of us and -- here's where there is leverage -- link research and investment in global warming remedies to disaster relief. The argument is simple, considering that the scale of hurricanes and floods has gone up enormously due to global warming. If Florida and the Carolinas did their best to elect the global warming denier to the presidency, then let them pay their fair share of disaster relief. They have certainly done their best to limit any progress we might have made against global warming under a different presidency.
And, of course, the Democrats and Independents should fight furiously to oppose the crackpots and crooks who have been and will be nominated by Trump for high-ranking posts.
Let's consider the latest news (as of Monday morning) with regard to one of Trump's first nominations:
" Former congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) regularly paid for sex, possessed illegal drugs and paid a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to a 42-page report released by the House Ethics Committee on Monday on President-elect Donald Trump’s former pick for attorney general." This was Trump's pick for the nation's highest ranking law enforcement officer. (His picks for the heads of the Defense Department and Health and Human Services were equally bad.)
I suppose I could put together a careful argument to defend the above policy, but I don't think it's necessary. You know how the Republicans in the House operate and you know how self-serving and stupid Trump actually is. We have all those books by people who worked directly under him to inform us. We know his propensities, which include sleeping late and watching television, but do not include careful reading and analysis. We have, once again, a president who goes by his gut -- and it isn't a very good gut -- because he simply doesn't have the brain power or the work ethic to get into the meat of things. The proper strategy is to oppose, oppose, oppose on every crummy cabinet appointment and to make mockery of each bit of nonsense such as Monday morning's Trump proposal that the United States gain ownership of Greenland.\
Greenland?
I have to remind myself that this is repeat-Trump. He actually floated the Greenland proposal in his first term.
Congressional Democrats can get a few jokes out of Trump's sillier proposals as long as they don't act like they are taking him seriously. Nobody on the rational side should be looking to negotiate in good faith with Trump. Good faith is what he doesn't have.
Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post says it deftly:
" Democrats strain credulity if they imagine they can find common ground with someone who vows, among other mind-boggling schemes, to imprison opponents, deploy the military against immigrants, snatch the power of the purse from Congress and pay for tax cuts for billionaires with cuts to entitlements and other programs that serve ordinary Americans. (What would common ground even look like? Deport just 5.5 million people, not 11 million? Cut Social Security only a little bit?)
"The fruitless search for nonexistent common ground instantaneously normalizes Trump. Democrats should not propound the dubious assertion that Trump can operate rationally and in good faith. Mouthing this platitude makes Democrats look weak, foolish and unprepared to stand up to an authoritarian agenda."
Yes, Trump loves to jump into topics that are a big surprise. Why, at a moment when it is possible to protect the interests of Ukraine, should we get bogged down over Panama Canal tolls? Or, to be sure, why should any honorable American want to join in an unconstitutional attempt to punish Liz Cheney for telling the truth?
But here's the thing. As Josh Marshall has pointed out over at Talking Points Memo, Trump likes to fire off flares in groups of ten at a time. And then he sits back and watches the flurry of reactions. And then, once in a while, he will pick one that had some bit of positive response to act on.
So for your own emotional stability, treat each new Trump proposal with the patience (and contempt) it deserves. Do what many of his White House advisers did during his first term, and wait for the bad ideas to evaporate into vapor and disappear.
Maybe we won't be able to see this happen when it comes to a few truly terrible suggestions like the threat to apply tariffs to Canadian imports, but just sit back and remember that we're really not in control over any of these things until (maybe) after the next election.
And meanwhile, continue to pester your Democratic congressional representatives not to bargain, negotiate, or give in on power. Continue to remind them to continue to remind everyone else that when it comes to bad stuff, it's on the Republicans.
Here's another thing. Democrats haven't been very good at warning the voters about how bad Republican policies actually are. They should be shouting from the rooftops that Trump's policies will drive us into an economic downturn. Then, when the downturn happens, they should say, "I told you so!" with volume and fury.
And one other thing. The red state coalition and the tea-partiers and all those other crazies have banded together and extorted right wing concessions whenever they had the chance. Typically it was those votes on extending the debt ceiling.
So here's a slightly rad suggestion: When the debt ceiling measure comes up in a few months, don't help. Leave it to the Republicans in the House to put together a majority vote. And if it should come to pass that the Republicans cannot succeed, then hold out for some truly significant concession. Abortion rights in southern states and in military hospitals would be one example, and link it to funding to fight global warming.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
