Musicmystery
Posts: 30259
Joined: 3/14/2005
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So...here's the thing.
GOP voters elected representatives to block things -- the Teas, the Freedom Caucus, these are opposition groups, people who promised to block funding, block actions, knock things down, and above all, never compromise. No sell-outs!
Except these people don't all want the same thing. And were elected to never negotiate away their solid, intractable position.
Then they elected Trump, who is a self-described deal-maker. But first, you can't make deals with people who won't budge.
And second, his "deals" were largely walking away and stiffing vendors and clients. That doesn't work so well in leadership.
In short, the Orange-in-Chief's only remaining power would be to say, "Look, either work with me on what I was elected to do, or I walk." And the GOP leadership would wave, and work with Pence. And the base would look at each other, confused, and make up bizarre social media theories to share as memes.
Or...he can sit down (without Bannon, if that's possible) and figure out what he really wants to do, take the list to Pelosi and Schumer and ask, "Which of these things can you work with me on?" Infrastructure, for example is on that list. So is fixing the ACA, if he wants to fix it rather than trash it.
Then he can take that adjusted list back to the various Congressional GOP factions, and ask each of them, "What's here you can work with me on?" Then count the votes. Wherever he has a collation, he can move forward. That would be actual government.
Except for one problem. Ryan and McConnell can still halt things in committee instead of letting them come to a vote. And it's the favorite GOP leadership tactic. And, neither one is afraid of playing chicken with the American public. Further, they are both dicks, and unlikely to change just for the good of America. So, he'll have to see whether there's anything on that list that they will allow him to move forward to accomplish. So much for dictatorship -- it's the reign of Ryan and McConnell when they want to say no. In fact, it's their main talent. And Trump can angrily tweet about it -- his main talent -- but that won't move things forward.
He could also check and see where he's close, and work against the re-election of those opposing him, regardless of party. THAT might get Ryan/McConnell's attention.
Or, the American people could do it on their own -- but given that they set up this ridiculous "deal but don't compromise" scenario, that's unlikely in the short run. If Democrats win seats in 2018, that might change the math, but short of taking both chambers (which seems unlikely), that would only matter on items where Trump almost has votes. And even then, the electoral map for 2018 doesn't favor it.
So the most likely scenario is -- the clown show continues until at least 2020. And the American people just watch things get worse and worse.
Bannon will be happy.
So that's one.
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Prez vs. Congress vs. Base - 
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