I have a growing sense of optimism about the political situation in the United States. But it’s not necessarily because I’m more confident about the outcomes, though I am that too. It is more that on a number of fronts the actual fight is coming into the open. Who knows who wins or gets the better of it. But the things the Trump opposition is actually talking about are getting put on the table. And they’re at the center of the table, with everyone watching. They’re fights to get attention and attention outside of the normal political space.
The Jimmy Kimmel Brouhaha is one example of this, which I discussed earlier this week. The impending budget fight is another. I’m also seeing more and more examples of Democrats telling corporations, laws firms and others that Trump won’t be in power forever, and that when that time comes they’ll need to answer for conspiring with President Trump against the American people. Minority Leader Jeffries made clear that when Democrats are in power they’ll hold people accountable for participating in Trump’s pay-to-play schemes.
Another new example is Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-NY) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) kicking off an investigation of law firms now providing free legal work for the Department of Commerce. They’re not likely to make much progress now. But if Democrats win the House next year that will change quickly. As we learned in Trump I, compliant courts will let Trump slow roll or ignore most congressional demands. Private companies and law firms are in a tougher position. I hope we’ll see similar demand letters to companies like Nexstar, Paramount/Skydance and all the rest.
As I said, I can’t be sure how this will play out politically. But the mere fact that the political discussion is increasingly about the things that are actually going on is inspiring and exciting. I want to have a fight with Donald Trump about whether he’s personally in charge of what you’re allowed to watch on TV. Any American should relish having that fight. It is a central totem of American civic culture we were all taught about in grade school.
One of the great frustrations of the March budget bill debacle wasn’t simply that Democrats suffered a loss and didn’t undo any bad actions that had already taken place. That could happen now too. The worst of it was that Democrats didn’t even surface, didn’t get before the public what they were even fighting over — or, I guess I should say, what their voters wanted them to fight over. For a hundred reasons, the whole thing just ended with a huge never mind. What upstanding American wouldn’t relish getting in a fight over whether the president gets to make himself into a dictator? I want to have that fight whether I win it or not.
Russell Vought, who leads the Office of Management and Budget, is now saying that if there is a shutdown, rather than furloughing federal employees, as the law requires, he’ll just permanently fire them. This is illegal. There’s zero reason or justification for doing it. But if he wants to, I would say, go ahead. It’s this White House’s economy. It’s this White House’s government services. They’re already in the process of hiring back hundreds of employees Elon fired because services they’re responsible for providing aren’t being done. They’re telling us with their own actions that they can’t sustain things without the people they already fired. I don’t think they’re actually going to follow through on this. If they thought it worked for them to still be firing people à la Elon they would be, and they’re not. Because the blame and, even more so, the costs are so clearly going to fall on them.
As we’ve discussed to no end, this is a battle over public opinion. I like the opposition’s odds in that fight. But that’s an unknown. You can’t control it. But you can control or go a long way toward making sure everyone knows what the fight is about, what’s at stake, who is on which side. And I’m seeing that happen more and more.