I can already feel the love that the title of this diary will engender. I threw up in my own mouth a little typing it. But I really do want to explore this question — and I'm grateful for all responses pro and con that are willing to try on the idea for a moment or two.
First off, let's concede that there are some things that we must not give an inch on. Supreme Court justices, Muslim registries, abortion bans, mass deportations ...all of that general fuckery should be opposed with every ounce of strength we have.
I know that some folks think we should deny Trump cooperation on everything else. I get the argument: Let him fight with his party. Keep our fingerprints off of everything. But that could backfire. If they pass a huge stimulus alone, they could end up heroes alone to people who benefit from the resulting jobs.
So what if we offered to partner on infrastructure? More to the point, what if we got ahead of him and started pushing for an infrastructure bill so large it would make Ryan’s head explode? What if we wrapped ourself up in the whole idea of infrastructure as if it was the prime directive of our party?
Taking this further...what if we acted as if everything Trump wanted to do on infrastructure was too small, too political, and too focused on not-enough people? All jobs bills have winners and losers. What if we took a page from his Obamacare snake oil and promised a chicken in every pot...and criticized him for leaving any pot empty.
This would not only exacerbate the distance between President Kardashian and the GOP caucus, but it would also brand us as the jobs party.
Further...we could scream about the deficit at the same time — arguing that all infrastructure must be paid for. The only way to do that would be to tax the rich, so to the extent that Trump or the GOP opted to spend less, we could accuse them of chosing billionaires over jobs.
We could even avoid the “job killer” argument involved with taxing the rich by offering to support tax cuts for actual job creation, but none to others.
The most important thing about all of the above is that the numbers don't actually have to add up. When did they ever add up for the Republicans? The important thing is that we are seen as champions of jobs.
Oh and the biggest thing is...whether we execut or not, this approach likely results in more jobs. Whomever gets credit, that has to be worth something.
At the end of the day, the Trump Presidency will crash of its own weight. We don't need to make it happen. But the greater the wedge we can put in between him and those that voted him in, the more we help that along. By framing anything he does on infrastructure as a “disaster” the way he and the GOP held Obamacare up against abstract perfection, we can simultaneously undercut him and position ourselves as the antidote.
Anyhow...just thinking out loud here. Looking forward to your perspectives.