By
N. Peter Kramer *
It is striking to see that the Democratic party, pretending to be the party of the country’s intellectuals, in the campaign for the midterm elections completely forgot to tell the American voters what vision and ideas they have for the future of the United States if they should come to power. The one and only Democrat campaign item is: We Hate Donald Trump. Doesn’t it strike as unbelievably poor that there is nothing else, no content at all, in their campaign.
Democrats have tried to make this election a referendum on Trump, and the President has been happy to agree. But he isn’t on the ballot and neither is some fanciful ‘check’ on his behavior. What is on stake is which party will control the policy levers in Congress. And let’s not forget, Republicans in Congress have often criticized Trump for his excesses, his comments after the Charlottesville riot in 2017 for instance and on many other occasions.
They ignored his plea to rewrite the libel laws, urged him not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and encouraged him to dump Steve Bannon. But also, President Trump has helped the Republicans to achieve much of their political agenda. The economic results are impressive!
Although come to think of it, we have seen this before two years ago. The Democratic presidential candidate,
Hillary Clinton, didn’t bring any vision for the future of her country to her campaign. In the run up to the election she eliminated her fellow democrat and competitor Bernie Sanders, without any consideration. A man who attracted scores of young people with his appealing ideas for the politics of the near future. The Democratic party paid the price. Another woman who co-architect-ed the downfall of the Democrats in 2016 was Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If the Democrats win the House back, she will probably be Speaker again.
If the Democrats win these midterm elections, are they going to rein in Trump? Can they force him to behave as a typical President? Will an impeachment investigation make the President less combative, or likely to agree to Nancy Pelosi’s terms of surrender? Donald Trump has been constrained only when he thinks a moment of self-discipline is in his political self-interest. The Wall Street Journal’s answer on the day of the election was clear.
‘Mr Trump will use a Pelosi House or Schumer Senate as political foils as he runs for re-election. He will tell the following two years that he’s the last man standing between a Democratic Congress and their complete hold on power in Washington’.
*
EBR editor-in-chief reports from Washington DC about the US Elections, November 6, 2O18
