Democrats shouldn’t
try to find ‘common ground’ with Trump
Unwise, premature and
embarrassing outreach from what is supposed to be the opposition.
December
23, 2024 at 8:19 a.m. EST51 minutes ago
A depressingly high number of elected Democrats are declaring their intent to find “common ground” with President-elect Donald Trump
and his crackpot Cabinet picks.
Their naive, tone-deaf declarations epitomize an
infatuation with bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake. Sometimes, it’s
better not to bend the knee before the bidding even gets underway.
Democrats strain credulity if they imagine they can find
common ground with someone who vows, among other mind-boggling schemes, to
imprison opponents, deploy the military against immigrants, snatch the power of
the purse from Congress and pay for tax cuts for billionaires with cuts to
entitlements and other programs that serve ordinary Americans. (What would
common ground even look like? Deport just 5.5 million people, not 11 million?
Cut Social Security only a little bit?)
The fruitless search for nonexistent common ground
instantaneously normalizes Trump. Democrats should not propound the dubious
assertion that Trump can operate rationally and in good faith. Mouthing this
platitude makes Democrats look weak, foolish and unprepared to stand up to an
authoritarian agenda.
Moreover, what is the point of declaring their “common
ground” aspirations now? Similar aspirational statements were made
before MAGA Republicans reneged on the budget deal (later giving up the effort
to suspend the debt ceiling when Democrats stood their ground). That should be
a wake-up call: There is no bargaining with people who break deals. Democrats
must not be in the position of chasing after Republicans. They will find
themselves negotiating against themselves to reach the mythical “common
ground.”
Moreover, why is isn’t the onus on Trump — as it
consistently was on President Joe Biden — to “unify” the country? Trump has
shown no inclination to moderate. (Certainly not by choosing Kash Patel for the
FBI or Putin mouthpiece Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.)
There might be times when Trump accidentally stumbles into
positions Democrats previously held. After all, even a broken clock is right
twice a day. And when Trump by happenstance betrays his base or reverses a
ridiculous position, Democrats should know when to say yes. (Consider the times Biden ate then-House Speaker Kevin
McCarthy’s lunch in negotiations.) But looking for common ground
assumes Trump has an end goal that falls within the realm of normal, acceptable
democratic policies. Let him prove his bona fides first.
And there will be times, as I’ve described, when Democrats are forced to
swallow a legislative poison pill: voting to pass a vital bill even if
Republicans slip cruel and unacceptable measures into it. Making practical,
hard concessions to preserve long-term political viability is not finding common
ground. To the contrary, it’s an opportunity to point out how Republicans
resort to legislative blackmail to enact unpopular policies.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times recently
admonished Democrats to be not simply the minority party but the opposition
party:
An opposition would use every opportunity it had to
demonstrate its resolute stance against the incoming administration. It would
do everything in its power to try to seize the public’s attention and make hay
of the president-elect’s efforts to put lawlessness at the center of American
government. An opposition would highlight the extent to which Donald Trump has
no intention of fulfilling his pledge of lower prices and greater economic
prosperity for ordinary people and is openly scheming with the billionaire
oligarchs who paid for and ran his campaign to gut the social safety net and
bring something like Hooverism back from the ash heap of history.
And frankly, if Democrats think democracy is in peril,
their leaders should act like it. (“Either democracy was on the ballot in
November or it wasn’t,” wrote Bouie. “And if it was, it makes no political,
ethical or strategic sense to act as if we live in normal times.”)
Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
understood the role of an opposition party when he vowed to make Barack Obama a
one-term president. (McConnell managed to pick up six Senate seats in 2010, as
well as a net six governorships and 63 House seats to win back the majority.)
What do I expect Democrats to say? How about this: The
nominees and proposals advanced by the president-elect should frighten every
American. They will hurt ordinary, hard-working Americans. It’s our job to
protect the rights and interests of our constituents. I will do whatever I can
to block crackpot nominees and schemes. (If they cannot manage to say
something along those lines, then better to say nothing. Democrats should learn
when silence is preferable to prostrating themselves before Trump.)
If Democrats eschew “common ground” gibberish, they might
get credit when they manage to quash Trump’s nuttiest initiatives. There’s no
point in setting up Trump to refashion humiliating defeats as magnanimous acts
of compromise when he cannot get his way. Forcing Trump to back down, rather
than striving for some mythical middle, would be a good way to rally the party
for 2026.
Trump falsely claims he has some overwhelming mandate to
accomplish a host of rash, antidemocratic moves. As I (along with many others) have written, he does not. He barely won, in part because many of
his voters thought he would not do the radical things he promised.
But Democrats do have a mandate: to stop him when they can.
Instead of “find common ground,” maybe they should strive to “give no quarter.”
