Republicans are the Dog Who Caught the Car

Be careful what you wish for: Red election

GOP legislators of long-standing will have issues with the Trump Administration. Not all his nominees will be welcomed, or approved. The Democrats can’t be blamed for blocking the movement of the agenda. They don’t have the Executive branch. Or the Legislative branch. Or the Supreme Court. The Republicans may be the dog who caught the car.

In the Washington of spin and whatever sins MAGA and Trump may be accused of, even Republican stalwart organizations/allies may have issues.

What will Fox News talk about? Oh, I know they will find talking heads to fill the time. But they can’t rag on Democrats (well, maybe I should add forever — they can’t rag on Democrats forever).

The Senate is being asked to relinquish its role to advise and approve.

The military? Please. Trump is said to be compiling a list of senior military officers to fire. I would not take on the military. But what do I know?

Civilians? The unions must have lawyered up on civil service rules and requirements. Federal employees still may suffer mightily — we remember the federal agency that was moved across the country so its employees would quit. I predict lawsuits.

The period ahead will be rough. Difficult. Awful. Trump has a great hand.

But he will overplay it.

Achieving his agenda will not be without significant pushback.

The nominations of Pete Hegsith and Matt Gaetz is too much even for sycophants. Maybe.

For the first time in a few weeks, I feel optimistic. Weirdly, getting everything they wanted is a problem for MAGA and the GOP. They are not a unified block. Fifty percent of the voting population can’t be. There are the other 48.6% or so who voted for Kamala Harris and the people who didn’t vote at all.

Analysts have said, before, that incremental change is the way to create lasting change. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was concerned that Roe was decided based on a right to privacy, which could be attacked, instead of being decided on an equal treatment argument. She also said it happened too soon.

President Lyndon Johnson

Even President Lyndon Johnson faced a different set of circumstances in 1965. He had the Senate, and the House, but politicians then were conservative and liberal, and those labels did not align by party. Coalitions were required for hot-button issues that crossed those divides. He stage-managed the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Head Start, and other war on poverty legislation. He is the subject of Robert Caro’s magnificent biography of Johnson. (The Years of Lyndon Johnson)

By the way, President Lyndon Johnson is a good point of comparison. He was a manipulator, a con man, a liar, and a thief. I also regard him as a hero of domestic legislation. Am I like the evangelicals, who argue that even a man like Cyrus can be used as a tool by God? Do the ends justify the means?

For those not in the know, Cyrus the Great was the Persian king who while not Jewish created the conditions for the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Trump’s moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem had distinct echoes of Cyrus. An educational institute in Israel created a coin with the profiles of Trump and Cyrus side-by-side.

We libs were so taken with the announcement of Kamala Harris as presidential candidate that we moved on too quickly from the assassination attempt gone wrong. I have had evangelical friends and relatives, true believers, and should have known that the failed assassination would be viewed as miraculous, God’s intervention. I mean that sincerely, not cynically.

General Custer

Maybe Trump will be like General George Armstrong Custer. I have been researching Custer’s history. They are an interesting comparison. Custer was known for his vainglorious blond hair, and his long red necktie to signal where he was in battle. He was regarded as having great luck — Custer’s luck — as he escaped many battles in the Civil War unscathed. He did suffer a very minor flesh wound. And we all know how his story ended.

It’s an interesting time. Maybe the one job that should have full employment right now is the one for an ethicist. They will have interesting questions posed and plenty of practical applications for their answers.

I’d like to ask them about Manifest Destiny, and the Shining City on the Hill. It seems like we’re still replaying those stories, and the Civil War, and all the variations on the arguments that have been long-standing in our history. And we still are looking for answers.