I don’t know if Napoleon Bonaparte actually said it or, if he did, what the proper translation might be, but it’s become a maxim that it’s unwise to interfere with your enemy when they’re in the process of making a mistake. In a lot of ways, I think this wisdom explains why we don’t hear more from Democratic Party leaders. I saw that Nancy Pelosi chirped up yesterday and made a comment:
Republicans need to stop the chaos and sort themselves out in a hurry. The full faith & credit of the U.S. is on the line. #GOPdefault
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) August 24, 2017
But that didn’t really amount to anything more than an observation that the Republicans are making mistakes.
In fairness, the GOP is such a non-stop mess that it doesn’t seem like there is ever a good time for the Democrats to step in and demand that people pay attention to them. Interjecting themselves in this Shit Show just invites people to hold them responsible for it in some small measure, either as obstructionists or as simply unhelpful. As long as they’re not suffering legislative defeats, their base doesn’t have a whole lot to complain about, and as long as they get out of the way, independents will focus on the Republican personalities who are flailing about and sticking knives in each other.
There’s a cost to be being so invisible, though. For one thing, they seem irrelevant even if they’re not. For another, even when they present ideas, they don’t follow up on them enough to have much impact. You can’t rebrand if no one is paying attention to you.
I keep seeing quotes about the fact that no Republicans have reached out to the Democrats over the August recess to discuss the agenda for September. That’s kind of amazing considering that the Republican leadership and the White House will need Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling. But maybe the Dems are playing a little too pat with their winning hands. If nothing else, they’re letting a delusional mindset persist among Republican leadership and the rank-and-file. Getting the GOP to understand their true position is probably going to be a process that requires them to walk slowly through the stages of denial.
The job of doing this is going to fall mainly on Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. When John Boehner walked through this minefield, it cost him his job. Still, the Democrats might at least articulate a set of demands to reset the Overton Window a bit and introduce a little rational thinking.
Schumer recently suggested that Trump should disband his Election Integrity Commission, but that could become a demand or condition of support for Democratic votes on must-pass bills. They can demand that the budget reconciliation process for tax reform be abandoned, too. I can imagine many possibilities where the Democrats can insist that they will withhold their support if they don’t get concessions.
It’s true that this risks making them look like more a part of the problem. But they ought to flex their muscles a little more and make themselves known.
It’s possible to take Napoleon’s maxim too far.
Positive messaging is a good thing, but I can’t really blame the Democratic leadership for not doing much. There is some in Pelosi’s feed but it’s not getting retweeted much – this didn’t even get 200, while slams on Ryan and Trump routinely get thousands. And remember the reaction to the Better Deal announcement? The hypothetically friendly blogosphere complained about a bad slogan (although I never saw a better one proposed) and nitpicked a broad program because one particular component (worker training) has often (but not always) had poor results in the past. The MSM basically ignored it.
Like everybody they want to do what works, and they get much better results from negative messaging, so that’s what they do.
Well, who is supposed to be the target audience for Dem muscle-flexing? Supposedly “rational” Repubs? Or the talking head lice of the corporate media–who have given Repubs an unfair teevee presence for over 2 decades now?
When the Emperor threw out his maxim, he was thinking of his ability to have the vaunted Grande Armee ready to pounce (at his command) on the hapless (mistake-making) opponent at the precise worst moment. I think we can see the difference in “assets” here between Napoleon and, say, Schumer!
But yes, Dems shouldn’t be playing the Invisible Man, haha.
100% Agree
Whatever the Democrats do now is 36 years too late. There are no good options left today, because they failed to step up to the reality of 1980, which was the total, absolute, utter, perfect illegitimacy of the Reagan regime and the Republican Party. Those should have been the only words out of their mouths, then and since. Instead, they normalized Reagan and it is now, therefore, impossible to de-normalize Trump — or any conceivable Republican alternative to Trump. You cannot close a parenthesis that never opened.
Ya know, the GOP aren’t the only ones who need to let Ronnie go.
If the enemy is the donald, then talking about the GOP is the thing to do. the donald is quite good at the self inflicted wound thing. They need to pick the right time to poke the bear (the donald). Did the dems let HRC poke this week? I still can’t believe he let HRC call him a creep.
My concern is that the White House will not need Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling, because the White House doesn’t give a shit about the debt ceiling, and why should they? They care only about themselves.
Which of these two outcomes is more appealing to Republicans?
#2 is very possibly better for you and your family. You’ll stay in office. You’ll be okay. #1? Bigger downside.
Nah. Trump personally stands to lose too much money in #2. If for no other reason than the rest of the big money makers will do their damnedest to make sure that if they are going down because of Trump, Trump is going down with them.
What about the only people in the country who matter, the 25 Republican House members who’d need to vote with the Democrats to impeach?
Honest question: Do you think it’s more likely that the Big Money Republican push for Trump to be impeached if he does cause a global financial meltdown costing them billions of dollars or if he doesn’t cause a global financial meltdown costing them billions of dollars.
Of course that’s not the real question. The real question is who in Trump-land can convince him that he’s done if he does say f’ it all and goes with option #2 because Trump is crazy as a loon?
The big money boys hate Trump already (though they hoped to squeeze some utility out of him). They’re not his market. Why should he listen to them? His money comes from the Russians and the Rubes.
They don’t have to persuade him to step aside. They do need to persuade their pet Congre$$critter$ to remove him by whatever means necessary.
Who’s going to do it? Or who should do it? You’ve got multiple power centers. Schumer, Pelosi, the DNC (who seem nearly as unpopular as Trump amongst some Dems), Warren, Harris, Franken?
“N’interrompez jamais un ennemi qui est en train de faire une erreur.” (Never interrupt your enemy when he is in the process of making a mistake.) — Napoléon
It sounded better in the original Corsican.
That got a LOL from me.
. . . interdit qu’on liât les chevaux aux arbres?
Il ne voulait pas qu’ils mangent l’écorce.
[Hint: pronounce <<l’écorce>>. Now pronounce <<les Corses>>. Get it? Urf urf urf urf …]
Très très drôle
There is a maxim in Irish politics: Oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them.
On this basis, nothing that Dems can do will have much impact either way. The public and process is focused on Trump, Ryan, McConnell. The next election is theirs to lose.
It may be desperately frustrating for attention deficit Dems that no one pays them any attention, but that is the reality, and patience is a virtue.
Trump and Brexit have shown that long term economic damage doesn’t trump short term political opportunism… the electorate won’t turn on Trump until the economy is really bad, and that actually requires default and shutdown and natural disasters and general mismanagement of more or less everything.
It sucks
But Dems will only get a chance and an opportunity to make a real difference if it comes to that.
The Trump shit show just exploded again tonight, Gorka out, Arpaio pardoned and Mueller issuing new subpoenas and Trump delegates hurricane duties and skips talking to the American people. I heard that he may issue pardons to others even before there is any indictment.
The democrats should most definitely make a big deal of the Arpaio pardon. And I agree they should demand the Election Commission should be disbanded along with the reconciliation process.
It’s not easy for a party to define a (realistic) policy posture if it’s totally shut out of the policy making process. In the absence any responsibility for meeting deadlines, working within budget constraints, etc., legislators tend to stay safely within the bounds of their constituents particular needs and preferences.
Democrat silence in the face of Trump/GOP atrocities in the hopes they don’t get noticed is working: they are not being noticed and are rendering themselves irrelevant.
I agree it can be tricky in that by speaking up they may end up with some ownership of the Trump/GOP failures to come, although this doesn’t mean it can’t be done if they are smart about it. But trying to split the difference and quietly slip under the radar with safe and/or small bore solutions (“Better Deal”) that do little for anyone other than provide them and the donor class cover of deniability doesn’t translate into voters coming out for you. The thought process of voters may be, Trump is bad, there is no legislative alternative, all is lost, why bother?
The Democrats strategy needs to be more than just reliance on Trump/GOP self destruction. They tried that in 2016, and here we are.
In 4 years nobody is going to feel better about Trump than they do now when he has about a 40% or lower approval rating, because Trump won’t let them. He’s happiest when everybody else is miserable and so he creates crises because that’s he’s concluded that he thrives in the chaos he stirs up. And, to an extent he does.
But, 4 years of chaos is a long time. The American public is already getting tired of his act and we aren’t even a year into it. Imagine 3 more years of this non-stop garbage. Congressional Republicans can never tolerate the strain of dealing with this. The old rules simply won’t apply. To save themselves they are going to have to get rid of Trump at some point and get someone in power who won’t deliberately provoke the majority into constant outrage – no matter how much the base might love that confrontational approach. It’s just not a long-term viable method of governance, except in a totalitarian dictatorship, which Trump’s God-Emperor fanboys want, but nobody else does, particularly NOT (most of) the 1%.