From a long distance away you see a duality, team Trump and Team Clinton, because you hold but a glimpse. The forces on the ground are far more complex and fluid as a large percentage of the population switches "teams" with little concern for the welfare of one team over the other.
Trump has installed deliberately competing factions, sometimes not out of choice.
To offset the National Security Council representing the military and national security organizations, Trump has set-up a competing "Strategic Initiatives Group" staffed primarily with actual Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. These two groups will propose wildly different advice on how to deal with China, North Korea, Europe — the result will be a mix of batshit-crazy and sound policy.
So far Trumps' domestic agenda and travel ban agendas have been driven by the Nazi faction. But like their boss Donald Trump, being outsiders they come with a handicap of having no background in our legal system or system of government. As a result they have proposed one illegal or politically impossible thing after another. The illegal proposals die in court while the politically impossible things die in Congress, leaving a huge amount of celebrity swanning about and Tweeting with little or nothing being accomplished apart from entertainment on par with the Schadenfreude of passing an bad automobile accident.
In Congress a "team" long out of power thinks itself united until they gain power - then suddenly discover they agree on very few things. The House and the Senate agree on very little, and the House itself ruptured with factions. On top of that they also have to deal with the celebrity TV president swanning about.
With only 50% of the Senate, Republican team bills are limited to the "reconciliation process" which in the case of ObamaCare and other laws means they can't repeal it, but they can fiddle with the funding and details.
Any new law would require a 60% vote in the Senate which limits new laws to consensus ideas between all the moving parts - House, Senate, and President. Which is huge hurdle which would have to be something universally popular.
Upcoming is the Budget Theater. Trump has proposed crazy, which will have nothing to do with what comes out of the Sausage factory limping along on the reconciliation process.
Trump's opened with his operetta of an attempt to defund the diplomatic State Department and shift funding to the military is hugely unpopular with both agencies and will damage long term US interests. Along with his other budget proposals it's all theater. |
