LIBERTY NATION: As their celebration over seizing control of the House of Representatives winds down and the reality of organizing their power structure sets in, Democrats have some very serious and difficult decisions to make.
Foremost among them is whether to serve primarily as a functioning legislative body, or as vessels of revenge against President Trump.
Few on the left have been willing to even accept the legitimacy of Trump’s election. The likely Democratic chairs of the most powerful House committees are on record as promising a torrent of investigations into the President and his administration. Their Trump-hating base is demanding no less.
That’s where things get complicated.
Democrat Dilemma
While they can be certain of what their progressive base desires, Democrats also know that with power comes responsibility and that it’s far easier to be a powerless minority screaming dissent from the peanut gallery like children than to actually legislate like grownups in charge.
- They know they have yet to decide within their own caucus whether to present themselves as traditional liberals or hard-left progressives bent on resuming Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America.
- They know that the Senate, with a strengthened Republican majority, is likely to kill most every piece of legislation they pass in the House.
- They know that the many Democrats in the Senate angling for the 2020 presidential nomination will talk the progressive talk, which will pressure those in the House to walk the progressive walk.
- They know the American people are watching, anxious to discern whether the party so rudely dismissed in 2016 has changed its ways.
- They know that their performance in the House will ultimately affect their chances of taking back the White House – and Senate – in 2020.
- And they know that they must avoid a fatal trap: becoming the ideal foil for the famously combative Donald Trump.
Most presidents are more successful when they have something to run against than something to brag about. Conflict is more effective at riling up their base and getting voters to the polls. That’s why Trump and the GOP hammered the Democrats on immigration during the midterm campaign while dialing back their discussion of the roaring economy and near-full employment.
Given all these circumstances, what results can the Democrat House realistically produce, beyond a constant, orchestrated flow of bile about Trump? MORE
The only things democrats will come up with over the next 18 months.
1.) More genders
2.) More racism
3.) More misogyny
4.) More violence
5.) More idiocy
Well, you know what Yogi Berra said…
Dems are now starting recounts on House seats they lost in 2016. If that yields some more seats, they plan to recount 2014 as well. Eventually, they hope to get back to 2010 to win all the seats.
JK……..or am I?
I think that the democraps took the left fork deliberately. All the sheep and the goats ready to be fleeced were on the left so like Snagglepuss they exited stage left.
I expect there will be more infighting between the established morons and the new goons. Of course all of the stupidity will be carefully filtered out by the media but we’ll still get glimpses.
They will all fall into line as soon as they have the facts of life explained by the old timers.
@ old_oaks
I was gonna say, #6: “Nonstop Trump investigations” but you covered that in #5 😉
“… traditional liberals or hard-left progressives …”
All – ALL – nihilistic socialist totalitarians.
“Liberal” and “progressive” are euphemisms.
“Hard left” is another meaningless euphemism.
Positions are just that – poses – for strategic purposes.
If one wants to enslave you, he may say, something to the effect, that “I just want a small portion of your income to take care of the l’il chillens” but even that “small portion” is a slice of your life, your labor, your freedom to do as you choose with your income. And that “small portion” always grows. ALWAYS. Until it consumes ALL. Then you are a actual, rather than virtual, slave.
If the “gov’t” claims – say – 40% of your income – then you are actually working 2 days per week just for them. And whether or not you are in chains, the fruit of your labor is stolen – never to return.
And don’t feed my any bullshit about “representative” democracy – for if the “representatives” of the democracy voted to enslave, on the basis of race rather than income, the hue and the cry would be deafening – and rightly so. No “majority” has the “right” to enslave a minority, regardless of the criteria.
(I use “democracy” as opposed to “republic” to reach those who can’t fathom the distinction – not in an obfuscatory sense)
The sad fact is that all of our political class seeks to exploit and expropriate the producers of this country for their own ends.
izlamo delenda est …
Tester went looking for an actual fork hoping there was food still on it.
Biting, screaming, hair pulling…They’ll be fighting each other, forming non-stop committees to harass Trump and the Republicans and then they’ll be fighting over who will be leader of the committees. lol. The thoughtless dummies who voted for the Dems will get upset because, ‘Why my hands empty??? where my free shit at?!” and vote them out in ’20 and beyond.
@Left Coast Dan: Yep, he said:
“Never answer an anonymous letter.”
To which I would add: “Or an anonymous comment”.
🙂
Well, since the “R” part of “SPECTRE” stands for “revenge” …..
We know that the progressives don’t care about anything but gaining power, so let’s try to guess where the Democrats will go based on this premise. Legislatively, they won’t get very far because of the Republican Senate, Trump veto power, and not enough votes to override a veto. So their legislative agenda will be simple – massive give away programs that are legislatively doomed to fail, but which will be interpreted by their base constituents as a valiant effort. They also don’t want any legislation passed which will slow down the Trump economy.
So that leaves revenge and protecting the swamp. They need to leave leftists embedded in the bureaucracy in case they have success in 2020. They need to block as many Trump judicial appointments as possible while hoping that Ginsberg in particular can continue to hold on to her position. Democrat leaders promised to impeach Trump, so I don’t expect them to walk that back. The Mueller investigation is a useful circus for their voting block, so they will keep that going as long as possible. They will continue to kiss the media’s and Hollywood’s asses so they can continue the favorable coverage. So basically, I expect the Democrats to engage in all sorts of smoke and mirrors without actually damaging the good that Trump and the Republicans have done over the past two years.
There are considerable risks in this strategy. There are hard left progressives which actually believe the lunatic policies they espouse so leadership will have to be careful in proposing progressive legislation that will fail, but not look too silly. They are still courting the hispanic vote, so immigration reform will be a problem (they have already walked back on abolishing ICE). Their base will expect results on health care, although the Democrats don’t want to own another ObamaCare disaster again. Climate change doesn’t seem to be high on the public’s list of priorities, but California in particular is sending some global warming warriors to Washington so that could be a problem.
I think the Democrats are getting more and more fractured as the party moves left, and this could be a problem for them. Either way, they will be walking a fine line and this won’t be easy.
Five will get you 10, her cooch has teeth.
Its possible that the dem party will split into around three factions.
The rabid faction that has only revenge on their mind.
The insane that have unrealistic expectations and
a third faction that keeps their heads down trying to protect their seats.
Reporters will be trampled in the rush for airtime by the self aggrandizement of these pukes.
Its time to buy that big red popcorn machine at Sam’s. Things are gonna get interesting.
Like typical Libs, they’ll expect gov’t to choose for them.
As an old white guy who’s a patriot, I’m not up on the latest words in the “NEWSPEAK” dictionary. Is “road” the new word for “eyes” or “throat”?