Resistance on demand
CIA Director Mike Pompeo was a particularly distinguished, well-qualified nominee to become the next secretary of state. So why did most Senate Democrats vote no when his nomination came up for a vote? Because their most motivated voters, the progressives who form the angry core of the Resistance, demanded it. As Victor Davis Hanson wrote in National
Review last week, “The aim of the so-called Resistance to Donald Trump is ending Trump’s presidency by any means necessary before the 2020 election.” The message from progressive voters to their representatives in Congress is clear: Oppose President Trump on every matter, all the time, or else. As a practical matter, this means Democrats in Congress are expected to never pass up a skirmish or any opportunity to resist a Trump appointee or initiative—which gets us back to Pompeo.
Pompeo is a proven leader. He is a U.S. Army veteran who graduated first in his class at West Point, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review, and went on to have a successful career in business and at the highest levels of government. By opposing someone of Pompeo’s caliber, the left allowed its emotional disdain for the president to erode its political judgment. Its mindless opposition to anything and everything Trump diminished its sense of what is fair and what is right and wrong.
Ordinarily no one would think that the nomination for secretary of state would be a useful place to pick a fight or display petty rancor. Remember, John Kerry received overwhelming support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013 when he was confirmed for the post. Hillary Clinton also won an overwhelming majority of support in 2009 with just one Republican voting against her confirmation in committee. It isn’t hard to imagine that Republicans at the time disagreed with both nominees on an array of issues. But Republicans didn’t make a mockery of the confirmation process, didn’t belittle the institution of the Senate and didn’t make fools of themselves.
Democrats’ efforts against Pompeo didn’t further any particular policy goals or even score political points with anyone outside the circle of Trump’s most devoted haters. With the exception of a few Democrats who expected tough competition from Republican challengers and subsequently voted to confirm Pompeo, all that the Democrats’ opposition did was reveal how their disdain for Trump has no limits.
As an example of just how vapid and empty the Democrats are, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who is off to a particularly clumsy toe-curling start to a run for president—actually said of Pompeo, “I believe you can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people.” What does that even mean? How does Booker measure love, anyway? And what number does he ascribe to himself, since he is the one who can spot the deficiency in others?
Democrats thought that by harassing Trump and trying to hold Pompeo’s nomination hostage they could somehow keep their unhinged progressives at bay. In reality they wasted everyone’s time, made themselves look silly and contributed at least as much as Trump has to the erosion of American political order.