THANK GOD FOR THE STUPID PARTY
There’s an old story, likely apocryphal, of the Russian visitor to the U.S. Senate shortly after the Soviet Union imploded in the early 1990s who asked a Republican staff member to explain America’s two-party system. The answer:
“It’s very simple. In America we have the Evil Party and the Stupid Party. Sometimes these two parties get together and do something really evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship.”
True enough. And ever since John Stuart Mill attached the Stupid Party label to the Tories in England, Republicans have been the Stupid Party here. But I wonder whether the Democrats haven’t taken the crown away from Republicans.
Conservatives are grateful, and pleasantly reassured, that Donald Trump, the least ideological president in modern times, has assembled a cabinet and senior staff that is in most regards to the right of Ronald Reagan’s cabinet, and is pursuing an unapologetic conservative policy agenda (with a couple of significant caveats on entitlement reform and the budget deficit overall). And I credit John’s theory that the left’s hysterical reaction to Trump drove him firmly to the right.
Here’s to hoping the blind rage of the Democrats keep them at full boil, and thereby keep Trump allied with conservatives. Here’s to hoping Democratic women continue recalling the Democrats’ Klan-friendly days by dressing up as Nurse Ratched. Here’s to hoping the media and the left’s leading “thinkers” continue screaming that Trump is a fascist. (At very worst, he might be Juan Peron, but that’s too recondite a comparison for today’s liberals, and besides, they did try to give us President Evita after all). Here’s to hoping Meryl Streep and Hollywood continue alienating millions of NFL and WWF fans. Here’s to hoping the campus left continues beclowning itself and making it easier for Republican legislatures to cut university funding. Above all, here’s to hoping the agitated left continues hammering Sen. Chuck Schumer for even thinking about saying something nice about President Trump, let alone considering any deals with him.
Schumer is a very smart man, and probably knows he could cut some great deals with our Deal-Maker-in-Chief. A trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that congressional Republicans are lukewarm about at best? Catnip for Democrats—if only their base will let them deal.
Kim Strassel observes this morning in the Wall Street Journal:
Democrats have been so eager to paint Mr. Trump as a right-wing lunatic that they’ve actually started to believe it—at their peril. The reality is that Mr. Trump is one of the least ideological Republican leaders in modern history. He wasn’t even a member of the GOP until recently. And while he clearly intends to uphold his campaign promises, he’s a negotiator who is always up for a deal. This is a man the Democratic Party can work with, if it chooses.The Democratic temptation will be to continue to resist and obstruct. The party will tell itself that this strategy worked against Mr. Bush, that it worked for the Tea Party against Mr. Obama, that Mr. Trump will surely grow more unpopular.Then again, the Trump phenomenon is rooted in voters’ growing disgust with politics as usual. Although Mr. Trump’s personal approval ratings are far from stellar, the latest poll from this newspaper and NBC shows that voters appreciate the president’s directness, his decisiveness, and his intention to get things done. The poll also shows a growing sense of optimism and a sharp turn against the Democrats. Obstruction would be taking a big chance in these times.
Trump has been lucky with his opponents from the beginning, from Low-Energy Jeb to Lyin’ Ted. He really ought to let fly with “Demented Democrats,” and sit back and watch the fun. It’s almost like they’re trying to become a Fake Political Party.
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