Democrats these days are the party of disappointments. They’ve had three big ones. The first was President Trump’s election. Then came the success of Trump’s economic program. The third was Robert Mueller’s finding of no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 campaign.
In each of these, Democrats were counting on the opposite to happen. With each disappointment, their despondency got worse, since the Democratic view of Trump is harsh and simple: He is evil. The better he does, the worse they feel.
It’s reminiscent of how foes of Andrew Jackson felt when he won the presidency in 1828. In The Age of Jackson, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. described the gloom two months after the election in early 1829. “It was no year for righteous men: everywhere they sat in darkness. … The ungodly were now in the ascendency, and those who walked not in their counsels had little but Scripture for consolation.”
For Democrats, their frame of mind affected their response to Trump. They set their sights on trying to thwart him or undo the consequences of what actually has happened in the Trump era. But more often than not, this strategy hasn’t made political sense nor has it hindered Trump, except in his desire to build a wall on the southern border.
Let’s start with the refusal by Democrats to accept the legitimacy of Trump’s election. Within days, a massive women’s protest was staged in Washington. Calls for impeachment soon followed, though Inauguration Day was two months away. Only a small minority of Democrats suggested working with Trump for the good of the country.
Far more serious was an attempt to keep the Electoral College from ratifying the outcome of the election. Hollywood celebrities appeared in TV and radio ads urging electors to violate their constitutional duty to vote for the candidate who won in their state. This effort failed, but a dim view of the Electoral College has endured. Democrats are eager to abolish it.
Democrats adopted a strategy of ceaseless opposition, acting as the “Resistance,” as if he’d taken power in a coup. They vowed to refuse to compromise or make deals with him. This made Democrats feel good, but it’s been a strategic mess.
It’s kept Democrats from getting Trump to legalize hundreds of thousands of young immigrants whose parents had brought them across the border illegally as children. And by boycotting deliberations regarding tax reform legislation, Democrats left themselves with no influence on a bill that crushed their priorities.
Next came Trump and the economy. During the campaign, he talked of doubling the rate of economic growth while cracking down on countries whose trade policies kill American jobs. Trump also replaced President Barack Obama’s economic policies and proposed tax cuts and deregulation.
Almost in unison, Democratic economists predicted an economic disaster thanks to Trump. “We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight,” Nobel winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said. “On economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has happened.”
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers agreed. “I would expect a protracted recession to begin in 18 months,” he said. “The damage would be felt far beyond the United States.”
A Washington Post editorial was even more negative: “President Trump could destroy the world economy.”
None of this has happened. Though the Trump economy hasn’t grown as fast as he promised, the boom in new jobs has. We knew the Trump economy was a success when Obama claimed he had laid the groundwork for it. Meanwhile, the stock market continues to soar.
Next to Trump’s election, the worst disappointment for Democrats was the Mueller verdict of no collusion. They were counting on him to bring Trump down. Still, they won’t let go of the collusion narrative entirely. After all, it was a Republican, Attorney General William Barr, who disclosed Mueller’s decision.
This response from Democrats is a bit pathetic. They insist Barr didn’t interpret Mueller’s report correctly. The parameters of his investigation were too narrow. And Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, vows to uncover evidence that Mueller couldn’t find.
Besides blocking the Trump wall, Democrats have found one other saving grace: the pickup of 40 House seats in the midterm election. Instead of Mueller, it was voters who delivered a stern verdict on Trump.
Voters have a habit of doing this. They hammered Reagan, Clinton, and Obama in their midterms, only to reelect them two years later. Now Trump’s reelection threatens be the fourth disappointment for Democrats.
Fred Barnes, a Washington Examiner senior columnist, was a founder and executive editor of the Weekly Standard.
