So Much For Bipartisanship

Donald Trump surprised me just a little bit with his initial comments following his rout last week. He didn’t claim the results were all a hoax and he even said he could work with the Democrats.

Of course that didn’t last. This week he and his party did several things that indicate they’ve learned nothing from their debacle. Trump once again and without evidence claimed that the election was stolen and that, in any event, had GOP candidates tied themselves even more closely to him more of them would have won.

And then he went a step further and tossed his chief of staff under the bus, naming Stephen Miller to replace her. Miller, the architect of the masked assault on American neighborhoods, is the closest thing to a Nazi in the Trump administration. Even the Wall Street Journal called him “the Dr. Strangelove of modern American politics.” He’s said that the Democratic Party is, “not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.” I don’t know. Doesn’t sound like he’ll be reaching out across the aisle.

Trump had lots of soon to be unemployed Republican congresspeople to choose from. Picking the most centrist among them would have sent the message that he was serious about working with the other side. Susan Collins would have been a great choice. Instead, he went the other way. He doubled down on what has failed.

And then his party followed suit and chose the bomb throwing Ohio congressman Jim Jordon to be their minority leader. None of this bodes well for any kind of cooperative governance or sensible compromise in the interests of the American people over the next two years.

For their part, the Democrats have done okay so far. The initial agenda laid out by their leadership is solid: health care, child care, some data center/AI regulation (they need to go light here), putting pressure on Trump to end his shooting and trade wars. That would be an agenda most Americans could get behind.

But they need to be careful. The comment from one member of their caucus that administration officials should “lawyer up” was unfortunate. Also, I’m not sure it’s such a great idea to impeach Pete Hegseth, but that resolution was actually introduced by a Republican. It’s not that Hegseth doesn’t deserve it (so does Robert Kennedy, Jr.), but Democrats need to be careful with these investigations lest swing voters come to see them as focussed on something other than their interests. (Their interests are in lowering the cost of living.)

But it looks like Trump and his party have no interest in any sort of bipartisan agenda. That’s bad news for the American people, but it could help Democrats to keep their majorities and grab the White House in 2028.