President Trump Optimism thread

He’s not going to switch parties. There’s no need to. He can just broker deals with the Democrats while staying Republican.

The Democrats are not going to help him build the stupid wall. They are not going to let him cut taxes on the 1%. It’s possible they could come up with a healthcare reform bill he might latch onto. There’s not going to be that much cooperation on the big items.

Great illustration of the point that modern conservatism is just about trolling Democrats. If they don’t like it, it must be good!

You guys had way better arguments than the “hurr, durr” that I felt Strollen deserved.

Well done.

If you read what he’s saying, it’s actually not about trolling democrats. It’s about an expectation that partisanship would result in some abandoning their previously stated beliefs.

Yup.

It is not a huge stretch to see the rift between Trump and the Republican leaders getting bigger.
Trump declares war on the Republican establishment which would be popular with the Democrats and most of his base.
Trump then declare himself independent or the President of the new #MAGA party.

Trump starts working with Democrats and some populist Republicans on a mega infrastructure bill.
He pushes for the Dream Act to be passed. He then reverses himself on something super important to Democrats but not that important to his base (e.g. the Paris accord). Now that he is siding with Democrats more, I’d bet there are plenty who’d minimize what super-Irma size catastrophe, Trump is.

If you don’t believe me just listen to the nice things Senator Durbin said about Trump on the Newshour. Not a word about Russia, or corruption.

I too will laugh and cry and possibly murder people if folks suddenly say, “Trump’s not so bad.” if he became a democrat.
Because he is bad. He is literally the worst president ever.

I can assure you he got a few angry letters from his constituents over that.

This is what I was driving at with my comments about Trump swinging more towards Independent status than being party line Republican. I can agree with all your points above, and that he would then be more likely to work with or co-opt ideas from Democrats in Congress once he’s started down that path.

Trump is angry at Congressional Republicans right now. He feels like they failed him, hung him out to dry on major issues and are responsible for much of his recent negative press. As far as Democrats go, Trump hates two of them, Obama and Hillary. As long as he doesn’t have to work with or say nice things about either one of those two people, he’s probably fine working with Democrats as long as it nets him positive press (which things Hurricane relief, avoiding government shutdown and extending DACA will do).

For their part, Democrats recognize an opportunity to score a few minor victories policy-wise while also rankling Congressional Republicans. I’m sure there is also an underlying thought process of “if we can tone him down a little, we’re all that much safer in the long run”. I am also 100% positive that it won’t last, and 100% positive that no matter how much Trump may move away from the Republican ideology, Democrats will NEVER adopt him as one of their own. They will tone down their direct criticism of him for the sake of getting things accomplished, but he’s never going to be a Democrat, or even an Independent in the same way as Congressional Independents.

Trump’s version of Independent just means he a chaotic neutral political force, out to do whatever he feels is best for him, without real regard for how it affects anyone else.

More importantly, Trump’s approval rating among their voters is what, 4%? Democrat primary voters are probably more like 1% favorable to him. Honestly, with a majority of the US voting public having a negative impression of Trump, working with him at all is a risky proposition – it would be far easier for Pelosi and Schumer to just turn their noses up and refuse to do anything with him. I am pleased that they chose the harder road and are actually trying to do something for their constituents instead.

I don’t think there was any doubt, but the House just voted 316-90 to approve the Senate’s Harvey package, bundled with the debt ceiling extension to December.

All 90 nays came from the GOP. Credit Pelosi again for keeping her conference on point.

What’s depressing to think about is that there are actual Texans that were impacted by Harvey that will hear that excuse from Thornberry and agree with it because it’s more important to stick to their team rather than admit they fucked up.

I’m not informed on this issue. You’re implying that what’s in the letter above is not true? That Continuing Resolutions don’t hurt the military budgeting the way he’s saying they do?

Some Republicans won’t be happy until 99% of the budget is military spending (enriching their military complex friends.)

It’s totally true if, as a congressman, you feel the military budget is more important than hurricane relief for your own state’s people.

And you accept the initial premise that our military is in a state of collapse where a continuing resolution to assist thousands who’ve lost their homes and businesses aren’t nearly as important.

And if you further accept the premise that CRs are worse for the military than a government shutdown would be, because that is the alternative at this point.

It fails on all counts I think.

What I think is notable about the Trump/Democrats thing is it sounds like it was all New Yorkers in the room. If anyone knew how to get Trump to work with them, it would be the people who’ve been around him for years. Trump probably admires the likes of Schumer a lot more than we know. It’s all about someone liking him and stroking his ego.

The alternative would be to actually do what Congress is supposed to do, and pass a real budget.

You’re right, that shutting down the government is infinitely worse… But he IS correct that continuing resolutions SUCK BALLS for everyone involved. It basically means that they keep spending money on shit, regardless of what they actually need. It’s inefficient, and it’s detrimental to the organizations being funded.

The problem is that this seems to be damn near the norm at this point… just gross incompetence from Congress, and an inability to perform their most core functions.

So on some level, I totally understand why someone would oppose this… because even though it’s better than just fucking everything, it’s still not how they SHOULD be operating, and if no one ever questions it, then they’re never going to go back to actually doing their jobs correctly.

I agree, and you’re right on all counts. However that wasn’t going to happen within the timeframe of budget funding. Not with this congress, even if they had a budget prepped and ready to vote on, which they don’t.

So, yeah, they should, but they need a CR to get them the time to do it.