Republicans distrust many in the news media and see it as an institution that has decided to undermine an outsider president in return for website clicks and subscriptions.
They see news organizations working in concert with forces actively seeking to derail if not destroy the first Republican administration in eight years. Speaker Paul D. Ryan echoed that theme on Wednesday.
“It is obvious there are some people out there who want to harm the president,” he told reporters.
Trump Is Delivering
Like many of the voters in their states and districts, congressional Republicans are happy with the steps being taken by the Trump administration on immigration, crime, trade and deregulation. They see the president through an entirely different lens than that of his fierce critics.
“He’s an outsider in this process as I am, and I will tell you I give him high marks in the first four months in office,” Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia and a Trump ally, told Fox News on Tuesday. “This is a president that is beginning to reassert the national interests of America.”
Fear of a Special Counsel
Republicans remain skeptical that agreeing to a special counsel would in any way lower the temperature on the controversy raging around the White House.
Instead, they worry that moving in that direction might only inflame the situation
A Foreign Intelligence Analyst Report on President Trump
It is highly likely that we are witnessing a tectonic shift in the conduct of U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy. A populist movement across the United States, driven by perceived corruption and inequality, culminated in the election of Donald Trump. As is typical of populist leaders, Trump is attempting to consolidate power within his immediate circle. Trump’s approach is to discard traditional policy-making processes, then amplify his choices through social media in order to garner support.
- Trump appears to be engaging in a strategy of undermining long-standing impartial U.S. Government institutions that are cornerstones of the national security and foreign policy apparatus. His tactics include public criticism, discounting the validity or worth of the organizations, and extreme budget cuts.
- .. The opposition Democratic Party, while vocal, remains largely ineffective. The Democrats have lost seats in Congress and state government for the last 7 years.
- .. A national wire service later reported the decision was made as a result of Mr. Comey’s unwillingness to preview testimony he gave before the U.S. Congress last week.
- .. Trump’s lack of discretion on Twitter creates a rich source of direct insight into how he processes information and handles the challenges of governing.
The Republican-controlled Congress does not exhibit signs of restraining the Presidents’ agenda. Despite predictions of U.S. political scientists and others following the U.S. presidential election, the Republican-controlled Congress has not, to date, restrained Mr. Trump.
- .. Trump had adopted an aggressive approach towards Congress, including one-time Republican allies. Trump publicly issues harsh criticisms of member who he perceives as opposing or questioning his vision or agenda. As with other public communications, Mr. Trump’s preferred method is through Twitter.
- .. Members of Congress are more likely to be sensitive to the public opinion than Mr. Trump is.
Judas, Tax Cuts and the Great Betrayal
the two leading Republicans in Congress are apparently O.K. with that cover-up, because the Trump ascendancy is giving them the chance to do what they always wanted, namely, take health insurance away from millions of Americans while slashing taxes on the wealthy.
.. For generations, Republicans have impugned their opponents’ patriotism.
.. circumstantial evidence that a hostile foreign power may have colluded with a U.S. presidential campaign, and may retain undue influence at the highest levels of our government. And all those self-proclaimed patriots have gone silent, or worse.
.. revival of the term “America First,” the name of a movement opposed to U.S. intervention in World War II. What isn’t often mentioned is that many of the most prominent America-firsters weren’t just isolationists, they were actively sympathetic to foreign dictators; there’s a more or less straight line from Charles Lindbergh proudly wearing the medal he received from Hermann Göring to Trump’s cordial relations with Rodrigo Duterte
House Republicans Go Off the Cliff
The Republicans were given a gift by Trump’s campaign, a grace they did not merit: the gift of freedom from the trap of dogma, from the pre-existing condition of zombie Reaganism, from an agenda out of touch with the concerns of their actual constituents.
.. Were Trump actually governing along the populist lines he promised, the intra-Democratic debate over
- “identity politics versus
- class politics versus
- making it all about Trump (and Russia?)”
would be fraught and complicated, the best course of action murky.
.. the central Democratic argument in 2018 and 2020 should be entirely clear: Trump is not a populist but just another pro-plutocracy Republican, and everything his party promised you on health care was a sham.