A Note to My Congresswoman: Don't be Quick to Make a Deal with the Devil

That's because it's more important to fight directly -- right now -- with the schoolyard bully side of Trump's personality. He needs to learn that every time he threatens or invents a new insult, it will cost him. 

Trump has to be taught that the world is fundamentally different with a Democratically controlled House of Representatives. 

Over the next few days, you and your congressional colleagues will be feeling pressure to end the government shutdown and get the federal workers paid. This is important, sure, but it's more important to establish the Constitutional authority of the House. Trump has to be educated to the fact that without your cooperation, there is absolutely nothing he can win legislatively. More importantly, he has to be educated to the fact that crude bullying will cost more than it gains. 

The Rest of Us Need to Stay Vigilant 

Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post, referring to Trump as a dealmaker who can't seem to make a deal, write, "The shutdown also has accentuated several fundamental traits of Trump’s presidency: his apparent shortage of empathy, in this case for furloughed workers; his difficulty accepting responsibility, this time for a crisis he had said he would be proud to instigate; his tendency for revenge when it comes to one-upping political foes; and his seeming misunderstanding of Democrats’ motivations."  

I think that Nancy Pelosi gets it. When she labeled Trump's latest grandstanding offer a "non-starter," she was sending a message that was not so much about the issue itself, but about power and who has it. 

Good News, Bad News 

Two years from now, on January 20, 2021, the next president will take office. We're half way there. 

Over the past two years we've avoided nuclear war and beaten back some of the worst excesses of this presidency. But we've also endured damage to our environmental regulatory system the likes of which haven't been seen in decades. We've had a direct attack on the justice system and on the idea of a free press. The list goes on and on. 

All the volunteers who refer to themselves as the resistance, or as Indivisible, must keep on fighting. 

Who Does He Think He's Kidding? 

When Trump announced his Saturday evening address to the nation about the government shutdown, we were entitled to wonder what approach he would take. There was a lot of speculation. But how many of us would have imagined Donald J Trump speaking of a humanitarian crisis? This is the guy who made cruelty the center piece of his campaign, the guy who concentrated his fire against Mexico and its inhabitants. This is the same guy who didn't want to spend a dollar on Puerto Rico after the last hurricane season. 

It leaves us to wonder how this message about humanitarianism was meant to be understood by Trump's hard core followers. My best guess is that Trump's speech writers were following a well established script in which you provide some moral justification for your worst policies. In this case, it's kind of hard to make a religious case for building that 30 foot high cement wall (for 2000 miles) in order to keep the needy out of the U.S. So let's pretend it's because we are humanitarians! Admittedly it's nothing like "Give me your tired, your poor," but we'll toss in a scrap or two of DACA which will be carefully crafted to agree with what the courts have already put in place. 

Apparently the Trump followers were expected to see through the hypocrisy of the offer and to quietly laugh it off. They were given the chance to claim that Trump was reaching out to the other side in a good faith offer. How can one respond to this pathetic scripting but to type Gimme a Break! 

The Award for Ironic Humor Goes To -- 

Dean Obeidallah wins for his article Nancy Pelosi Should Negotiate With Ann Coulter. There is a wicked subtext that Trump is basically a big chicken who freaked out when Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh criticized him. 

This subtext also bears on my opening remarks here. Trump has shown how quick he is to cave to the right wing. It's time for the left to apply some pressure of its own to diaper Don. 

Last word: Some of my colleagues want to remind you that Trump could have funded the wall during the past two years of Republican control of congress. We're also asked to remember that Trump businesses have used undocumented employees. Perhaps this was an earlier attempt to deal with the humanitarian crisis.

(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])

-cw