Balancing cooperation, confrontation
The 2016 election was bitterly disappointing for progressive Democrats. Not only did their party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton, lose in a historic upset to Republican Donald Trump, but Democrats suffered setbacks in congressional and legislative races across the country. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board recently interviewed one of the country’s best-known progressive leaders, Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, and discussed her views on where to cooperate with and where to confront the new president. A full transcript and recording are at OrlandoSentinel.com/Opinion.
Q: Should progressives be looking for areas to work with the new president, or should they be more focused on challenging him at every turn? A: You know I think there’s a healthy balance in the middle there. So far the Trump administration has put forth a lot of policies that are not just disconcerting on policy grounds but I think a lot of progressives see [them] as an affront to core values. And whether that’s what he would call extreme vetting or what a lot of people would call a Muslim ban, or some of the things that are happening on immigration, there really are policies that he has put forth very early on that are a kind a of core affront. And on those issues, I think it’s important for progressives to stand by their values . ...
Q: Do progressives support an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor for the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court? A: That is a really vital and important discussion for the country . ... And so what I would say about Judge Gorsuch is that this requires a real deliberation on the nomination, and what I mean by that is that there’s a game that takes place with these nominations. Judges are asked questions and they don’t really answer them and then you don’t have any real sense of how they will actually rule. They say they can’t decide issues, and I think the truth of it is that Donald Trump and his attitude toward the judiciary is something that really does need to be litigated in this process. I do not think Democrats should stand by while Judge Gorsuch, if he chooses to do so, just does not answer these questions. I think that should raise fundamental flags. But if the nomination process is one in which there is deliberation and he is giving answers, then people can really decide for themselves . ...
Q: Should progressives be fighting to save the Affordable Care Act or trying to influence whatever comes next? A: I think that is a false choice, because the problem right now is that Republicans haven’t decided on an alternative. Democrats stand ready; I’ve stood ready for seven years. The debate that is taking place in Congress is really between Republicans and different visions they have for the replacement. So a lot of senators want to keep the Medicaid expansion that a lot of states have done, and then many House Republicans don’t want to have a Medicaid expansion, they want to rip all that away. I think those are the kind of debates we are having today. But it’s really the Republicans having this debate. Instead of coming to Democrats with ways to make the Affordable Care Act work better, they’re pretty much deciding to just destroy it, and I think that’s a challenge.
My great hope is that we go through this debate for awhile and Republicans recognize how hard it is to actually fulfill your promise of giving something better to people, which is what Donald Trump promised, and will actually eventually come to the table with Democrats to figure out how to improve the ACA, not just destroy it, and if they do I will be the first person to argue that Democrats need to sit at the table as well.