Donald Trump’s Need Now: Find a Governing Coalition

The president is more on his own than is usually the case early in a term, writes columnist Gerald F. Seib

 The collapse of Republicans’ first order of business in the new Washington, a health-care overhaul, reveals a startling reality for President Donald Trump: At this moment, two months into his presidency, he doesn’t yet have a reliable governing coalition.

Moreover, he may be on his own to create one.

The effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed because Mr. Trump got zero Democratic support, because neither his threats nor his cajoling were sufficient to move enough Republicans, and because he couldn’t count on congressional leaders to change any of that for him.

In a way, that outcome was the logical result of the utterly unconventional character of the Trump presidency.
.. Still, the difficulty in moving those conservatives also reflected the fact that some of them remain suspicious of Mr. Trump, who they think doesn’t really share their beliefs and didn’t do enough to push their principles into the health legislation.
.. He also might try to see whether he can find some of that bipartisanship that seemed possible shortly after he won the election. The one bigger issue where a convergence with Democrats has always seemed possible is a big program to improve American infrastructure.

Coulter to Trump: Get Back to Immigration, Trade, Infrastructure, Building a Wall — Not Paul Ryan’s ‘Standard GOP Corporatist Stuff’

“They seem to be Paul Ryan’s priorities, and also just the standard GOP corporatist stuff,” Coulter said.

.. “What made Donald Trump stand apart from the crowd and apart from the crowd from every presidential candidate for 20 years was immigration, trade, infrastructure, building a wall.

.. getting mandated coverage doesn’t mean insurance companies won’t cover it. It means Ann won’t be required to pay for 15 services more like 50 services that I have no interest in

Fascism and infrastructure

Much like the presumed-dry domain of logistics, infrastructure has long been tied to what the Cold War era called “command and control” systems — and that emphasis on defining political and social order remains latent in its civilianization. As Jo Guldi observed in her excellent Roads to Power: Britain Invents the Infrastructure State, for the state the act of infrastructure-making is also an act of defining markets, social relations, and the formation of a body politic.

.. Authoritarians tend to have really comprehensive infrastructure plans, which usually contributes to their appeal. From British roads in the nineteenth century to Hitler’s Autobahn to power grid repairs by ISIS to, uh, Immortan Joe’s Citadel, anyone seeking the legitimacy afforded a state understands that maintaining infrastructure not only builds goodwill (or at least subservience), it’s also a tremendous display of power.

.. it turns the owner or architect of that that infrastructure (not, let’s be clear, the actual labor force maintaining it) into a humblebragging servant of the greater good. Whether or not that system genuinely serves more than a power elite or a fascist agenda is more or less handwaved away.