The Democrats finally find their mission
In front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Georgetown, a large white banner hangs on the black wrought-iron fence. “Love your neighbor,” it says.
In smaller print, it lists others in need of affection: your black neighbour, your female neighbour, your white neighbour, your LGBTQ neighbour. It also mentions Jews, Muslims, Asians, Latinos, veterans, immigrants, the disabled — even journalists, for whom love is presumably unnatural. Finally it asks you to love “your neighbor who didn’t vote for your candidate.”
As if the list were not inclusive enough, some wit has proposed another recipient on a scribbled Post-it note. “Love your Republican neighbor,” it says.
Here, in the country’s most Democratic jurisdiction, that may be hardest of all. Last November, only four per cent of the District of Columbia voted for Donald Trump.
What Washington knows, the country is learning. The Republicans may control the White House and Congress, but it is becoming harder to be a Republican today. Less than 100 days into Trump’s presidency, the party is divided. Every setback brings headlines declaring “civil war in the GOP.”
It has not come to that, but the failure to repeal Obamacare revealed the ideological divisions between Republican conservatives and moderates. The rest of Trump’s agenda — building the wall, tax reform, an infrastructure program — looks no easier. All this is radicalizing the Democrats in a way few anticipated. The party is in its strongest position since the election.
Five months ago, Democrats were dispirited. Now they have unity and purpose: leading the institutional resistance taking root in the courts, the states, the media and public opinion, establishing a philosophical beachhead, retaking one or both houses in the midterm elections in 2018.
Their first big test was holding firm on health care. In promising to vote against the bill, they reaffirmed today’s reality of politics in the United States. Before the Affordable Care Act of 2010, all major social legislation (Medicare and Medicaid, social security, civil rights) had bipartisan support. But no Republicans supported Obamacare, and no Democrats supported Trumpcare.
The next rupture comes this week when the Senate votes on Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. In January, it seemed that Democrats would swallow their reservations and confirm Gorsuch, honouring the bipartisan tradition in high-court appointments. No longer. To punish the Republicans for refusing to allow a vote last year on Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s moderate nominee, they will filibuster Gorsuch.
There was doubt they would find the 41 votes to force a filibuster, but they now have enough. While Democrats from West Virginia, Indiana, North Dakota and other red states will support Gorsuch, the courageous Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, both up for re-election in 2018, will not.
This will force the Republicans to change long-standing rules. This means Gorsuch will be confirmed, but there will be a cost for Republicans. To their loyalists, Democrats will be seen less as obstructionist than principled.
This is what the rank-and-file now demand. To collaborate with the Republicans on anything means having protesters on your doorstep, as Sen. Chuck Schumer learned. The new battle cry: oppose, oppose and oppose.
The Democrats could not do this if Trump were popular. It’s possible when a president has the lowest level of popularity at this stage of his presidency in the history of modern polling. He refused to throw the first pitch on opening day of the Washington Nationals Monday, reportedly fearing a chorus of boos. This has some predicting a “wave election” next year, like those in 1994 and 2010, which brought seismic shifts of power. It is possible to see today’s Democratic party as a leftist version of the Tea Party.
Still, it’s too soon to know. The first test is a special election April 17 in Georgia, where Democrats think they can win the seat vacated by Tom Price, Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. The party is pouring in resources. There are off-year elections for the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia. Rest assured these contests will be seen here and beyond as a referendum on the leadership of Donald Trump, Washington’s most unloved neighbour.