Can Trump govern from an island?
Polarized president without a party risks going under
Donald Trump is becoming a president without a party. From the start of his unconventional campaign two years ago, Trump has been more of a populist than a Republican, from his combative style to his protectionist stance on trade. His ability to reach voters drawn by his personal appeal rather than his party affiliation has been a source of his political strength and possibility in a nation where allegiance to Republicans and Democrats alike has eroded.
But the most disruptive week of a disruptive presidency is testing whether other elected Republicans will continue to back him up, and whether he
can govern if they don’t.
Trump, whose tenure already has worn out use of the word “unprecedented,” is ignoring some lessons of history about what presidents need to do to get things done.
“He was elected by a minority vote and, as the polls show, continues to cultivate a populist base that is not amajority,” says Harvard professor Joseph Nye, author of Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era. “In contrast, George W. Bush, who also won the presidency without a popular majority vote, moved to the center and reached across the aisle to Senator ( Edward) Kennedy and others. Trump has not reached across the aisle, and he has also
attacked important senators in his own party.”
In recent days, the GOP’s governing coalition has been at risk of unraveling:
The stunning collapse early Friday of Senate efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act underscored GOP divisions. Afterward, Trump unleashed a tweetstorm of attacks, threats and demands on his fellow Republicans.
The messy ouster of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus continued what effectively has been a purge of presidential aides with the closest ties to the GOP establishment.
The public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions prompted Senate Republicans to circle the wagons around their former colleague.
When Trump was elected in November by carrying such traditionally Democratic states as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, some analysts argued he had an opportunity to tap broad dissatisfaction with politics- as- usual and forge a sort of Party of Trump.
But Trump made no effort to reach across the aisle on health care or other issues, and the the polarization that has divided the capital might have made it impossible to achieve even if he had.
“Polarization in Congress is so high that presidents have no margin of error to lose members of their own party, like tightrope- walking with no net,” says political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston. “Without cementing party solidarity and no hope for crossover votes from the other party, a polarized president cannot legislate.
“A president without a party in polarized Washington is in danger of being irrelevant.”