Monday, October 29, 2018

What You Will Get If You Vote for Democrats

To hear President Trump tell it, if Democrats take control of one or both houses of Congress, we will have job-killing socialism, open borders, higher taxes, rampant crime and, of course, impeachment.

If the party wins a House majority, it will because of Democrats who won in districts that Trump won two years ago.

Even if House Democrats coalesce around impeachment at that point, Trump will remain highly likely to emerge the victor in any Senate impeachment trial, since Democrats will be well short of the two-thirds supermajority needed for conviction.

In any event, if Democrats were able to agree among themselves, whatever they proposed wouldn't get past a Republican filibuster and to Trump's desk.

The unknown is: Faced with a divided Congress, what would Trump want? Would he shrug off pleas for legislative output and pugnaciously pick partisan fights to keep Democrats on the defensive? Or would he try to entice moderate Democrats with compromise legislative proposals in order to get something done before the 2020 general election? Might there be a real "Infrastructure Week" on the horizon?

If Trump did try to lure Democrats, how would they respond? Would they decide that emulating the obstructionist tactics they've long decried would be a bad look, and meet Trump halfway? Would the speaker crack the whip, keep Democrats united to prevent giving Trump wins? And while we're on the subject, who would the speaker be? If it's not Nancy Pelosi, would an amateur speaker have the skills to keep the caucus unified?

We can take guesses, but before Nov. 6 we can't know what Trump would do, or how Democrats would respond, in a Washington where power is divided between the two parties.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/29/what_you_will_get_if_you_vote_for_democrats_138484.html

No comments: