Whichever party is not in power is usually characterized as the loyal opposition, as both Democrats and Republicans are presumed to have the best interests of the nation at heart. So this essay will attempt to enumerate the successes the Democrats have had in the first two years of Donald Trump’s administration.
Republican triumphs and Trump’s campaign promises kept are well known, having been chronicled on this site earlier this month. Somewhat tongue in cheek, I could just leave two or three pages blank and claim that was the sum total of what the Dems have done for the country. But that would be selling them short.
A little history is in order here. When creating the republic, our founding fathers envisaged a system whereby those of competing visions for America could come together, discuss and debate the various issues facing the nation and come up with solutions which benefited the citizens of the country. Very quickly it was evident that in our early years two very different ideas about the direction of the United States had taken root. For the sake of brevity, they were the big government versus the small government advocates, with Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and others in the former camp and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the latter.
A two party system forced the opposing sides to compromise. In my early years studying political science, one of the mantras was “politics is the art of compromise”, and despite many times when that seemed impossible (the Civil War is an example) the idea had worked fairly well. Those who created our government wanted to avoid the parliamentary form of ruling, where multiple parties vied for power. An example of this is the present United Kingdom. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, owes her position not to the populace at large, but to the fact that her party is the largest in Parliament, and she is forced into a coalition of other parties to attain her place at the head of government.
This also means that her party (and/or coalition of parties) can propose legislation, and owing to their numerical superiority, pass whatever they want into law. Most of the time this marginalizes the smaller political parties.
But in America, the law-making process is a divided one. Each branch of Congress must agree on a bill, and a President, elected by the people, will sign it into law. Deal making and compromise between Democrats and Republicans usually means than neither gets all of what they want, but a middle road is also usually better than either pole. This happened when Ronald Reagan was President and Tip O’Neill was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Things got done, but neither side was shut out. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich also passed bipartisan legislation, tax law and welfare reform, that met with success. Further back in our history, two famous compromises worked out regional differences — the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. Sometimes political leaders campaigned on the premise that the other party didn’t want to work together, as did Harry Truman in 1948 as he hammered home the idea that the Congress was a “do nothing Congress” refusing to come together to get things done.
So how has that working together and compromising fared for the past 24 months? Here we can insert the blank pages, right?
One of the first things the Democrats have done is to insult the real Resistance by appropriating the name of those who risked their lives, their livelihoods and the safety of their relatives by resisting the murderous Nazis who occupied France and other European nations. Those who call themselves #the Resistance have not come even close to earning the name.
From the time the election results were known on November 8, 2016, there were those who called for the impeachment of Donald Trump. It is truly a feat of admirable proportions that such demands are still going on, and even being ramped up from time to time.
Using their minions, the Democrats caused a special counsel to be appointed to investigate the 2016 election and Republican (Trump) involvement with Russians who wanted to defeat Hillary Clinton. With no end in sight of this waste of taxpayer money, another plus for the Dems is chalked up.
Important legislation was fought tooth and nail by the loyal opposition. A tax bill which benefited 90% of Americans was passed without a single Democratic vote in either House, a feat of amazing proportions. The Democratic leader in the House even called this tax relief “crumbs” for the people.
Although the confirmation hearing for Neil Gorsuch was somewhat contentious, Democrats outdid themselves when Brett Kavanaugh came up for a post on the Supreme Court. Using every delay tactic they could find, the Democrats even credited false stories about the nominee’s background, virtually demolishing this good man’s reputation. Even neutral observers would say the Dems accomplished a lot, including making some of their Senators look like fools or worse. Mark another accomplishment up for the loyal opposition!
Just recently the subject of a wall between Mexico and the United States became a bone of contention. With President Trump demanding funding for the wall, the Democrats dug in their heels and said “NO”! Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi offered one dollar for the wall, but no more. When Trump offered a compromise bill, which included several items the Democrats had wanted in the past, Pelosi effectively nixed any deal before the details were offered by the President.
What we are left with are many accomplishments by the President and the Republicans, fulfilling campaign promises made by Trump. And the Democrats have, in the past two years, only managed to adamantly refuse to budge an inch. Perhaps I should have left the list of Democratic triumphs as a blank page, which sums up their contribution to the body politic.