This goes for Sanders, Warren and any Democrat who has the stupid idea that they can work with the fascist GOP to crack some deals. Yesterday Kos published a nice rant about dealing with an administration that is filled with “dangerous demagogues”, and I couldn’t agree more. But Jonathan Chait explains very well why this is political suicide for the Democrats to try and deal with the backstabbing, pathological lying Trump/Putin/GOP administration.
But Charles Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, seems to have a completely misguided understanding of how the calculation works.
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Schumer’s idea is a faithful reflection of the way Congress thought about politics years ago, when Schumer was coming up through the system.
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Senate Democrats work with Trump → Voters conclude Senate Democrats are doing a good job → Senate Democrats win reelection.
Yet both empirical research and recent experience show that this dynamic, which seems to make sense, does not actually work at all. The truth is that voters pay little attention to legislative details, or even to Congress at all. They make decisions on the basis of how they feel about the president, not how they feel about Congress. … If a president has support from the opposition party, it tells voters he’s doing well, and they then choose to reward the president’s party down-ballot.
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Only in Bush’s second term, when partisan cooperation collapsed, did Democrats make major gains.
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Under Obama, Schumer logic would have dictated that vulnerable Republicans demonstrate a willingness to work together with the extremely popular new president. Instead, the Republican Party denied any bipartisan support for almost any bill,
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The actual dynamic, then, is:
Senate Democrats work with Trump → Voters conclude Trump is doing a good job → Senate Republicans and Trump win reelection
or:
Senate Democrats don’t work with Trump → Voters conclude Trump is doing a bad job → Senate Democrats win reelection
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If he wants to protect his red-state seats, he needs to drive down Trump’s approval ratings, which means fighting Trump on everything. It’s unfortunate for the Democratic Party that its most powerful elected official does not seem to understand the basic political dynamic.
Has there ever been a better real world example of what Chait is saying than what we just saw the GOP do to Obama?! Did they pay a price for total obstruction? No, they were rewarded by voters who can’t tell the difference between reality and fake news.
This is really a dumb strategy and Schumer needs to be told by people like Murphy, Durbin, Brown, and Franken that they won’t go along with a proven failed strategy! Our democracy is at stake and Schumer is living in a past political bubble where semi-informed voters reward politicians for accomplishments.
Resist! Call your Democratic Senator and tell them you want to fight Fascism not strike deals with it!