Democrats are poised to follow in the footsteps of their Republican colleagues as obstructionists. Where Congressional Republicans hampered President Obama's efforts to initiative change on key issues, Democrats will seek to deny President Trump, who also faces Republican opposition on numerous issues, any successes. They intend to prevent him from implementing his preferred policies. In turn, a vast network of political groups will guarantee the Trump A ministration, as well as Trump and his associates as individuals, will face crippling legal challenges to any and all questionable policies he adopts. Given the success of Republican obstructionism in terms of electoral and legislative victories, along with the often populous-oriented policies of Democrats, Democrats are likely to make Donald Trump a lame-duck President from the start. Regrettably, the Democrats are perpetuating the dysfunctional governance that Republicans embraced in pursuit of their own power and agenda, which is transforming the US government into a bad example of how a country should be governed. Libertarian-leaning individuals may prefer divided and frozen government, but they will soon realize their dream come true is a nightmare. Broken government is not proper government. With that in mind, it is helpful to recognize that the obstructionist agendas of both Democrats and Republicans actual target the influence of the President and the political parties. In other words, the mutual goal is to cripple the President and neutralize the power of the political parties, not necessarily cripple government. In recognizing this, there is an opportunity for moderates to retake the US government from the extremes of both parties and make government work for average Americans. Quite frankly, the Executive Branch exists to execute the will of the Legislative Branch; whereas, the Legislative Branch exists to represent the citizens of their districts in developing policies based on the collective needs of the Country through consensus. It is the Legislative Branch that is actually supposed to take the lead on public policy matters. With the ability of the President to lead neutralized by obstructionism, Congress will have the power to set America's public policy agenda once again. In turn, obstructionism will also prevent Congressional Republicans from implementing the public policy of their Party leadership. While Congressional Republicans are positioned to establish the framework of public policies as the Party that controls Congress, the obstructionist tactics of Democrats empower Democrats to decide what Republicans can adopt and what they cannot.
Obviously, Congress cannot act without the support of the President. Having the power to prevent the will of Congress from turning into action, the President is empowered to modulate what Congress does. In other words, the President must allow Congressional Republicans and Democrats to lead by developing consensus policies, if he wants to succeed as President. His role must to restraint the extremes of both parties. Instead of jamming public policies down the throats of the American People, Trump must allow their representatives on both sides of the aisle to present him with public policies that he must approve or disapprove. If he does not, he will find himself in the same fight with Congress that prevented President Obama from building the hope and change he wished to enact. Unless Donald Trump is willing to restraint the power of the Executive Branch, his legacy will be one of a failed Presidency paralyzed by obstructionism. In essence, Democrats are setting the President and Congressional Republicans up for failure, which is what Republicans did to Democrats during Obama's tenure. Like Republicans, Democrats hope to use obstructionist tactics to prevent Trump and his GOP allies from implementing their own public policy agendas before they can return to power. They hope to win big in the 2018 and 2020 Elections by ensuring the failed governance of Republicans. The only option for Republicans to prevent a resurgence of Democratic governance is to show government works better under Republican control, which requires Republicans to win the support of enough Democrats to overcome Democratic obstructionism and win the support of a critical mass of voters by adopting broadly supported public policies. That said, it is not entirely necessary for the Party leaders of the Republicans or Democrats to reach consensus. Consensus requires moderate-leaning minorities from both the GOP and the Democratic Party to take control of the public policy debate. Members of Congress must become leaders instead of following the stances of their political parties. Just as then-first-term Senator Obama upsurged the Democratic leadership to seize the Presidency by offering a new direction and Donald Trump offered voters an alternative to the political establishment, Congressional members must lead by offering a better choice than both the Republican and Democratic establishments offer. They must reject the partisan divide and break the power of the political party to retake government and offer the American People moderate public policy solutions that can be broadly embraced. The GOP and Democratic Party can no longer provide functional government, because the goals of the establishment leadership in both Parties is to obstruct the policy agendas of each other. In accepting this stalemate, moderate leadership from within both parties has a chance to seize control of the public policy debate. Whoever rises up to claim the leadership mantle will be positioned to challenge President Trump in 2020 as well as capitalize on numerous other opportunities. So long as the extremes of the Left and the Right neutralize each through obstructionist tactics, there is a chance for moderate governance to reassert itself. It just takes leadership on behalf of America's representatives in Congress.
Comments
|
Read old posts
April 2020
|