The surprising election of Donald Trump has caused all sorts of people to discover that the United States has three branches of government, as though setting foot on a foreign shore for the first time. One of these is Norm Ornstein, who in his Washington Post op-ed calls for Senators to curb the worst excesses of a Trump presidency:
Senate Republicans should also make sure that destructive policies, whether to increase the debt with unpaid-for tax cuts, blow up agencies, make mindless cuts in regulations, pursue trade wars, accept torture, move us closer to an all-out war with Islam or curtail civil liberties, do not get jammed through Congress. They cannot succumb to the pressure sure to come from the radical right to blow up the filibuster not just for nominations but also for legislative actions. Not every Senate Republican will heed this call. But from a group including Graham, Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), John McCain (Ariz.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), among others, there should be sufficient numbers to provide a check and balance against authoritarian and divisive rule.
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What about Senate Democrats? They will be tempted to adopt the 2009 Republican playbook, when Democrats controlled Washington: Vote in unison against everything, filibuster everything, even those things you like, to obstruct action and make it look ugly, allow damage to the country in the short term to reap political rewards in the next election. That would be a mistake.
Democrats have a chance to use their filibuster power not just to obstruct but also to improve. The first opportunity to do that will likely be on an infrastructure bill. Financing a good portion of the package through repatriated corporate profits invested in long-term, low-interest infrastructure bonds is one key. Making sure that a significant share of the program goes to green energy, broadband, cybersecurity and the electrical grid should be strong demands. So should a guarantee that any corporate tax reform that is a part of the deal not be simply another giant tax cut and giveaway.
I don’t think he needs to worry. Each sitting senator has won his or her own elections and few of them are aligned with Trump. Those who are will likely be drawn into the incoming administration.
Senators tend to see themselves as presidents-in-waiting, are jealous of their prerogatives, and some of them, like Orrin Hatch or Patrick Leahy, have been in the Senate since before Donald Trump had been married the first time. They can’t be told what to do.
I anticipate a new-found regard for the power of the Congress and why we are a nation of laws rather than of men.
How is adopting a pro-Assad, pro-Russian (hence tacitly “soft-on-Hezbollah”) policy pulling us toward a war with Islam, Mr. Ornstein?
How is attempting to reassert some form of hierarchy (Milwaukee-Clarke ref) being “racially divisive” at least any more so than government forced integration?
I do agree with Ornstein that there should be no tax cuts for the super-rich and the infrastructure should be rebuilt, but his fear of implementation of America First economic nationalism fits this global capitalist liberal. Luckily, Democrat Sherrod Brown has offered Trump his support in these areas.