Donald Trump has long complained that Democrats can stick together better than the Republicans. He has already checked this point of criticism. In Meet with Republican leaders from the house and the Senate and With the house freedom CaucusAccording to reports, he insisted that the Republicans must be uniform the way in which Democrats are.
Whether it is true that the Democrats hold together better than Republicans is controversial, especially since the Democratic Party did not give a sitting president who were looking for a re -election. The definition of President Trump's unity is more interesting and more threatening.
Please forgive a short refresher course for the obvious. The way in which parties have achieved political unity is traditional by creating a rough consensus on a topic. The consensus was never perfect, and some dissidents and Mavericks had to be strongly armed by party leaders or the president in order to be in line (or not). In any case, the unity of the party was largely a negotiated matter with input and compromise from all sides.
The red line for most legislators in such negotiations is to take a position that endangers their own re -election opportunities. If you ask a representative of a very pro-Gun district, for example to vote for an important weapon control measure, this is no more important. Party -loyalty cannot be a suicide pact, and it is also better to have a dissident member of her own party in office than someone from the other party.
In short, the presidents worked with party members for the good of the party. One – again obviously – how it worked was that the presidents would be clear what they wanted to do. If you are president, you don't want your surrogate mothers to argue that the President X has to and will do – and would never do it! – Just to humiliate her through Yiliate by Y..
Another obvious thing that president traditionally does is to provide arguments or “topics of conversation” for the reasons why political decisions are useful regardless of the president's personal interest. The president took measures to protect the American taxpayer, or because he believes that it is a fundamental problem of justice, Yada Yada Yada. This type of thing helps the party reference with the program of know the program.
But that's not Trump's kind of things.
For example, both Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on it This Trump would not be pardoned by the demonstrators on January 6th of making it guilty of attacking police officers. “If you have committed violence that day, you should obviously not be pardoned,” said Vance days before the inauguration.
Then Trump did exactly that. His reason? The process of distinction between violent thugs and overloaded (in his view) non -violent demonstrators was too cumbersome and complex. “F – it: free them all,” said Trump after to Axios.
This is not an argument that other Republicans can use for the coughs.
The same applies to Trump's lawless refusal to implement the Tikok ban. In his first term, Trump supported a ban and signed a leadership regulation in this regard. Then the Republicans helped the congress to say goodbye to non -partisan laws that codify Trump's own executive regulation. The problem? Trump changed his opinion.
Why? Because of being Campaign videos Did well on Tikkok. “You brought me a table and it was a record and it was so nice to see, and when I looked at it, I said:” Maybe we have to keep this vacuum cleaner nearby, “he said.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Mark), a guide on this topic, has violently convinced that Tikok is a national security threat. Should he say “no matter” because Videos from Trump, who dance to the village, did well?
Trump has left his own party loyal to explain and defend his own party beyond the blind personality cult cult-loyalty about everything, from the legislative strategy to energy policy to cabinet dates. That would be politically manageable with super majorities in the house and in the Senate, less with a two -part lead in the house and the majority with three seats in the Senate.
For Trump, unit means loyalty, and loyalty for Trump is a one -way street. When it comes to the congress politician Rachel Bade writes that Trump “is more busy using his political muscles to carry out dominance acts than to add the intramural disputes that stop his agenda.” The lesson, a Trump transition officer, said to Axios: “Never ahead of the boss because they just never know.”
It is understandable why the Trump team would see things that way. Trump owed the GOP. But it is also understandable why the presidents have made the party unit in an old way: the constitution. Unlike in parliamentary systems, in which the majority artist leads the entire government, the congress is a separate government branch, and its members are chosen with their own mandates and their own political ambitions. The party will hold together as long as these ambitions are promoted by unit.
But not much longer.