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Christmas Eve 2009. For six long weeks, Republicans fought to defeat ObamaCare. The GOP Senate leadership finally succumbed to the inevitable, letting the bill pass. The tea party – new, furious, unruly – criticized the Republicans as sellers. He would spend the next few years on the path to purity, designating non-select Delaware non-witches and demanding Republicans who would engage in great and futile efforts.
More than a small number of political commentators are watching Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court trial and wondering what stealthy strategy is driving the Democratic circus. Tip: It's not at all the conduct of the party. It's a lobby. And the one we saw before.
To taste. Resistance. Call it what you want. The 2008 election of Barack Obama fanned a conservative fury against a no-direction GOP. The tea party movement in time would become more organized and strategic, and from the beginning it played an important role in conservative politics. But even its founders privately concede that its original purpose, namely intrapartite cleansing and "struggle," has hurt.
Donald Trump's 2016 election has now provoked a gradual rebellion, and elected Democrats are feeling their heat. Here's how to explain the theatricality of the Democratic Committee of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Everyone at Senator Cory Booker's mail knows that Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed. The only purpose of the obstruction is to respond to a resistance that wants to "fight," even if it will prove futile and potentially damaging to the Democratic Party.
We have therefore repeatedly witnessed procedural questions from President Chuck Grassley. Democrats accused Judge Kavanaugh of tolerating school shootings, torture, toxic air, racism, sexism and presidential dictatorships. A potential President Booker published confidential committee documents, challenging his GOP colleagues to expel him: "Bring him". A possible president Kamala Harris deigned to deign the judge, treating him as a criminal on the dock. A potential president, Elizabeth Warren, feeling excluded because she is not part of the committee, ran for photos outside the courtroom.
All exciting to the resistance – and all harmful to its cause. To "resist" President Trump effectively, the left should take the Senate, which requires holding nearly all of the 10 Democratic seats in the Trump states. The vote against Judge Kavanaugh could easily be fatal to Heidi Heitkamp, Missouri, Claire McCaskill, Missouri, or Joe Manchin, West Virginia. Until now, minority leader Chuck Schumer wisely gave them a pass. But the resistance and its servants of the committee do not have it. They actually used the hearings to create a litmus test.
Leading progressive groups on Wednesday sent a scathing letter to Schumer, stating that "less than 49 Democratic votes against Kavanaugh," all Democrats in the Senate, "would be a massive failure of your leadership." Senator Jim DeMint said that he would have "rather 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters"? He had his wish (though Specter became a Democrat), and the Republicans remained in the Senate minority for four years. Maybe he is moonlighting as a Booker advisor.
Kavanaugh's histrionics also can not help the House's democratic quest. The biggest risk for Republicans is that their 2016 voters vote Democratic or stay at home. The hearings recall that their vote for Mr. Trump was a vote for the Supreme Court. A recent NBC / Wall Street Journal poll asked voters to state their biggest concerns about congressional democratic control. The main problem (43%) was bottling, which was even higher for the self-employed (48%). Kavanaugh's show of audiences is not going to allay those worries.
And while the Democrats have largely resisted nominating Bernie Sanders for important seats in the House, Republican strategists note that the resistance demands have resulted in a more left handed harvest of candidates than usual. They nominate Amy McGrath, the Democratic Choice of the Sixth District of Kentucky, which Mr. Trump won by 15 points. She is a former military fighter, the new benchmark for Democrats. But she also felt the need to strengthen her resistance base by boasting of being a "progressive", a "feminist", a pro-choice and a big supporter of Obama – Republican statements Rep. Andy Barr the hammer.
None of this will necessarily stop a takeover by the Democratic House; the excesses of the tea party did not stop the Republicans in 2010. But that could suggest what a takeover could look like. Veteran staff members continue to grumble at the GOP's dismay after the triumph of tea parties – endless internal quarrels, ripped laws, leadership challenges, closure. The GOP succeeded in stopping the legislative agenda of Obama, but did little else.
Democrats have traditionally exercised better party discipline than Republicans, even though it was before Trump's disturbance syndrome. This week has demonstrated how the resistance is leading Democrats. And it's not good for the party or for the country.
Write to [email protected].
Published in the print edition of September 7, 2018.
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