Optimism for American politics

Carolyn Glick gives us an interesting take on the midterm election results. She optimistically believes

with the departure of key Trump opponents, the Republican minority caucus in the House will be more unified than they were as the majority. Consequently, they will be capable of acting more competently as a minority than they were as a fractured majority.

This may be poor compensation for the loss of the House, but all the same, going into 2020, the GOP is far more coherent ideologically and unified behind Trump’s leadership than it has been for the past two years.

...With the departure and defeat of Never Trump Republicans, Trump strengthened and secured his leadership of the Republican Party. He will enter the 2020 election cycle with no significant opposition within his party. The expanded Republican majority in the Senate ensures that the president will face no significant obstacles in implementing his foreign policies or getting his appointments confirmed.

As for the House of Representatives, the increased power of Democrats who ran as moderates in swing districts holds the prospect of Trump being able to negotiate across the partisan aisle. For the past two years, with the progressive faction of the party ascending in the grassroots and in the fund-raising spheres, Democrats feared working with the administration. Calls for “resistance” to Trump made the development of bipartisan policies a risky move.

Now that the progressive electoral strategy of winning majorities by rallying the hard-left grassroots has failed, and the moderate strategy of winning majorities by advocating concrete policies and bipartisanship has won, it may be possible for Trump and the Republicans to cut bipartisan deals. If so, Trump will be the first president since Clinton who is able to work across the aisle.

In the event the Democrats instead choose to lead from the hard left and devote themselves to impeaching Trump for the next two years, this will also work to Trump’s advantage. The president will be able to use his Republican majority in the Senate to implement his foreign policy, use his executive power to advance his domestic agenda and use the Democratic House majority’s radicalism to campaign against.

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