No politician is bigger than the game. This is not a lesson unique to President Donald Trump, though he doubtless has a new appreciation for how entrenched Washington is in its ways. But it may be a revelation to some of the millions who voted for him, energized by a pledge that this would finally be the guy to shake up the system. In the last two months, Trump has been taking the country on a wild ride. But the roller coaster is still in the same amusement park.
Consider:
The infighting that has inhibited the congressional GOP in recent years has remained and perhaps been exacerbated. CNN reporter Eric Bradner captured this well on Twitter last week with a screenshot, which he summarized as follows:
First came the president’s tweet: “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” (Never mind that the House Freedom Caucus and Democrats together comprise a majority of members in the lower chamber.) This provoked a retort to Trump from Freedom Caucus member Rep. Justin Amash: “It didn’t take long for the swamp to drain [you]. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment.” There followed a note of concern from House speaker Paul Ryan: “What I worry about . . . is that if we don’t do this, then [Trump] will just go to work with Democrats to try & change Obamacare.” That provoked an admonition from Sen. Bob Corker: “We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem.” It’s an even longer way when one party faction, the moderate GOP Tuesday Group, vows not to work with another, the conservative Freedom Caucus, as National Journal‘s Daniel Newhauser reported. “If that call comes in, just hang up,” Rep. Chris Collins of the Tuesday Group reportedly said.
All these comments follow the failure of the American Health Care Act, the latest instance of what has become a chronic issue for Republicans: trouble passing significant bills. In 2012, then-speaker John Boehner pulled tax legislation from the floor during the infamous, Christmastime “fiscal cliff” saga. In 2013, Boehner pulled a temporary government spending bill over the “defund Obamacare” fight. In 2014, he pulled a border bill. In 2015, Boehner resigned. In 2016, Ryan began his first full year as speaker, and Trump won the White House. Mere weeks into 2017, the pattern has repeated with the Republican health bill. Some call these times uncertain. The counterargument is that they’re quite predictable.
The same goes for the politicking of Democrats, which has been unaffected by the passing of the leadership baton from Sen. Harry Reid to Sen. Chuck Schumer. In Judge Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court has a justice-in-waiting who has been roundly praised by liberal lawyers, former students, and even by some Democratic senators, such as Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, who are now skeptical of him. Eleven years ago, during the confirmation process of Samuel Alito, Feinstein said a High Court nominee would need to have engaged in “moral turpitude” to warrant a filibuster. “Now, I mean, this is a man I might disagree with,” she said then. “That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be on the court.” She described Alito as “clearly qualified” and possessing “an even demeanor”; she described Gorsuch recently as “a very caring person” and “obviously legally very smart.” So naturally, she helped delay her committee’s vote on Gorsuch’s appointment by a week, as Democrats ponder a filibuster. She cited three reasons for doing so. Not one of them was “moral turpitude.”
On the horizon: The possibility of yet another government shutdown—what is this, number 5,144?—looms. Federal funding is set to expire in less than a month, on April 28. There has been chatter that money for Trump’s border wall would be stuffed into a must-pass measure to keep Washington open, a certain nonstarter for Democrats. Ryan indicated on March 30 that Republicans would avoid such maneuvers. “We’re not going to have a government shutdown,” he said. Then there’s the federal debt limit, which had been suspended in 2015 and supposedly became effective again on March 16, though in fact it is being ignored. The Treasury Department is taking so-called “extraordinary measures” to forestall default on certain obligations. Those measures of course aren’t so extraordinary when they’re taken all the time, like in 2011, 2013, and 2015. It’s now 2017. Must be a biennial party.
There’s no denying that Trump’s presidency is in many ways a seismic event. And there’s no denying the sometimes cataclysmic effect of earthquakes: They can topple tall buildings, generate deadly tsunamis, and destroy bridges and highways. Swamps, on the other hand, are relatively unaffected.
