AH! ITS WARTIME IN WASHINGTON - ARE YOU SURPRISED?!

By Edwin Cooney

Yes, indeed! It’s come down to bare-knuckled fisticuffs between President Trump and his congressional Republican colleagues and you shouldn’t (that is if you are) be the least bit surprised!

Of course, one of the most constant threads throughout our history is the ongoing conflict between the president and congress regarding the wisdom or folly of proposed legislation. Harry Truman, who fought with both Republican and Democratic congresses during his 2840 day presidency, often observed that “no president worth his salt can avoid quarrels with congress.” However, intra-party quarrels are invariably more dangerous than are the almost expected inter-party battles between the executive and the legislative branches of the government -- although it should be noted that there’s nothing new about intra-party fights either.

As we contemplate this squabble, it’s vital that we keep four truths in mind:

(1.) There are social and political fissures in all parties and within all party doctrines.

(2.) Parties that have finally triumphed by winning both the White House and Congress after many years of opposition find it difficult to finally go along with their new executive leadership. This was especially true during the Eisenhower years as the GOP struggled with the effects of McCarthyism and with the Bricker Amendment during 1953 and 1954. (Note: Ohio Senator John Bricker, who was the 1944 Republican Vice Presidential candidate under Tom Dewey, sought to tie the hands of the Executive branch’s power to negotiate treaties - an effort that President Eisenhower barely was able to fight off.) This intra-party squabbling turned out to be a factor in the GOP’s subsequent 26-year loss of the Senate and its 40-year loss of the House of Representatives.

(3.) There are today 3, not merely 2, parties in Congress. They are Republicans, Conservatives and Democrats and the gap between Republicans and Conservatives is widening rather than contracting now that both Republicans and Conservatives have reached the land of milk and honey.

(4.) The most significant truth is that Donald John Trump really and truly isn’t a Republican. He merely bought or is perhaps renting the party as an instrument toward the achievement of his personal political glory.

The question is who will win the struggle between President Trump and Congress? To answer that question here are some more truths.

(1.) The best 20th Century presidents have generally been the best politicians. Whatever they say publicly, they love the art of politics, and they invariably love their political colleagues. (Note: The 20th Century presidential greats I refer to are in order of greatness: FDR, Truman, Johnson, TR and Reagan.) I haven’t seen the precise figures by which the plan sponsored by Speaker Ryan and the President fell short. However, I’m sure that had Reagan put his weight behind the Ryan proposal, the count would have been close even if it didn’t prevail. 

(2.) Presidential political outsiders such as Carter and Hoover (both businessmen by the way!) ultimately go into free fall when they start sliding because as outsiders their contempt for insiders provides them with few insider friends in Washington to break their fall before they hit bottom.

(3. The GOP’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act (or if you prefer “Obamacare”) is deep and even systemic. Although moderate Republicans have supported such social measures as the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development during Ike’s time, and even though Richard Nixon proposed a form of healthcare and his family assistance program in 1971, too many of them see help for the poor and the ill as downright unconstitutional and thus not within GOP DNA.

(4.) Lacking, as they do, social DNA, it’s almost impossible for Republicans and even more so for principled Conservatives to spend public money on matters of primarily social concern. The only legitimate gateway to liberty is the “free market” which, as I’ve reminded readers for years, is by no means free!

Beyond the above truths, there exists the myth that too many Americans cherish. That myth is that government can and ought to be run as a business. President Trump now faces the reality that he can’t force politicians, either at home or abroad, to respond to his orders. In government and politics, the president can neither fire the opposition nor institute a leveraged buyout. His continuous belittling of other nations and leaders during the late campaign, again at home and abroad, provides his opposition with little incentive to cooperate with him. Until he provides them with incentives, rather than threats, he’ll never fulfill his political promises.

I’ll always remember how I felt after George W. Bush’s 2001 Inaugural even in the wake of my disappointment over the Supreme Court’s election of the president. During his address, President Bush acknowledged the value that even his opponents could bring to his success. There was no belittling of his presidential predecessors even though his most immediate predecessor was named Clinton. Thus, hope for some moderate social legislation kindled even as energy shortages and the fruits of 9/11 germinated in the hearts and plans of angry and religiously-motivated Middle Easterners.

Few Americans, including former President Obama, would argue that there should be no changes to the Affordable Care Act. Fewer still I believe would totally obliterate it either.

Nevertheless, until President Trump alters his self-absorbed braggadocio and tantrum-laden proclamations, absolutely everyone will prevail over even his most well-intentioned presidential goals.

President Trump is right that the Affordable Care Act should be altered, but he’s already demonstrated that he doesn’t have a clue as to how to accomplish it!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY