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.
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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.”
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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.)
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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.
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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.”
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