Post-midterm politics

It's great news that the Democrats took the House. But if they are serious about restraining Trump and building a pro-democracy "resistance," they will have to give up the idea that Nancy Pelosi's "PayGo" slogan to highlight Republican deficits that voters don't care about, or Chuck Schumer's fast-tracking the approval of yet more hard right federal judges recommended by the Federalist Society to lifetime appointments, are going to do anything but spread depoliticization among their own voters. Having a leadership that is living in 1991 thinking the only way for Democrats to build their vote is to act like Republicans is, well, not optimal.

Since controlling the House will give the Dems the ability to hold hearings, they should do lots of them and be both professional and aggressive about it. The staggering corruption throughoput the Trump Administration should be an obvious target and would have the political benefit of eroding whatever "anti-elite" image that Trump actually has among less affluent voters. They should also hold impeachment hearings on both Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavenaugh and, sooner rather than later, onr Trump, too. And for sure they should focus on the segregationist vote suppression in places like Georgia, Kansas, and New York. (One of the surprises for a lot of us of this election cycle is the much more widespread recognition that New York has some remarkably restrictive voting practices.)

They should also take a hint from the Republicans' endless votes to repeal Obamacare and do the same for popular issues. Medicare For All would be a good example. So would new voting rights legislation. Pass them again and again and force the media to cover them and the Republican Senate to reject them. That would accomplish two important things: build public support for the programs, and let the voters see the Democrats continually fight for things they claim to support instead of surrendering to Republicans.

That approach will have downsides, of course. For one thing, FOX News and the rest of the Republican media will go mad over it. Which will be a shame, since they've been so "fair and balanced" in reporting on the Democrats for the last 30 years or so. And it would give Bobo a big sad to see the Democrats actively fighting for crazy leftwing ideas like Medicare For All, whose only advantages are that it's a great concept, works very well in western Europe and Canada, and is very popular among voters. Joe and Mika will complain five days a week that the Dems are being "uncivil" and ignoring the clearly wiser strategy of surrendering to the Republicans down the line.

In the current climate, repeating the post-2006 approach when the Democrats retook the House then of trying to just coast until the next Presidential election would be very much like a suicide pact for the Democrats. What the House Democrats do will be critical for the 2020 cycle. And that also means they will have to actually block some of the Republicans' worst bills, i.e., impose some real party discipline rather than sigh and make excuses that, well, the Republicans still control most everything, so what can we do?

Here is what Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic "Resistance" in the House (Filipa Ioannou, Nancy Pelosi draws criticism for promising bipartisanship when Dems win SFGAte.com 11/07/2018):

"We will have accountability and strive for bipartisanship" she said in D.C. Tuesday night, echoing comments she'd made earlier in the day. "We must try."

"We have a bipartisan marketplace of ideas that makes our democracy strong," she added. "We have all had enough with division." [my emphasis]

Following is some advice of the Establishment Dem type. It sounds like someone who went into Rip Van Winkle snooze mode in 1991 and just woke up a few days ago: Ronald Klain, The first five things the Democrats should do with their House majority Washington Post 11/07/2018. We'll no doubt be hearing a lot more of this kind of thing between now and January. I wouldn't be surprised if Joe and Mika had him on Morning Joe tomorrow morning.

Here's Anita Kumar giving advice to Trump as though he weren't a continuing disaster as President, Trump faces a Washington he never wanted. Here’s what he will do. McClatchy News 11/07/2018.

Here in the real world with the real existing Republican Party and the real existing Republican President, this is what is happening: Peter Baker and Katie Benner, Jeff Sessions Is Forced Out as Attorney General as Trump Installs Loyalist New York Times 11/07/2018.

That bipartisanship thing may take a while yet.