I feel moved to respond in the negative to David Harsanyi’s remarks at The Federalist:
It’s strange that a president who had such a transformative effect on our national discourse will leave such a negligible policy legacy. But Barack Obama, whose imperial term changed the way Americans interact and in some ways paved the way for the Trump presidency, is now watching his much-celebrated and mythologized two-term legacy be systematically demolished. This, in many ways, tells us that American governance still works.
First, it’s not at all strange. I can only think of the words in Matthew:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
When your actions are based on narrow majorities, executive orders, and, in some cases, contrary to the will of the people, seeing your legacy vanish like the house built on sand isn’t strange at all. It’s to be expected.
However, I also don’t believe that what we’re seeing shows that “American governance still works”. We have had three consecutive presidential elections in which the people were rather clearly calling for change. The Congress is delivering more of the same.
On occasion being a Congressman can be a tough job. Most of the time you can just vote as you care to or, more precisely, as the party leadership tells you to. But every so often you need to swallow and just vote the way your constituents want you to. The Congress, confident in its own elite status, has been refusing to do that for some time. I don’t know if they realize the risks they’re taking.
Rush Limbaugh must have read the same article. On todays radio program he made some of the same observations, adding that President Trump is doing the same, using executive orders that could easily be reversed by President Biden, or President Winfrey in the coming years.