Storm Clouds Are On The Horizon

No to Biden's appointees

Several signs of long-lasting political dysfunction and even more polarization are coming clear. The New York Times writes on bitter partisanship in the US Senate that indicates the GOP has no interest in how voters voted or in engaging in rampant hypocrisy. The NYT writes:

“WASHINGTON — Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive Vermont independent, has emerged as a contender for labor secretary in President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration, a prospect that would suit his ambitions of being a warrior for working Americans — and one that makes some Senate Republicans very uneasy.

“I think that is somebody who we know is an ideologue and, well, it would be very unlikely he would be confirmed in a Republican-held Senate,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas, one of multiple Republicans who said Mr. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, would be unlikely to win the chamber’s approval.

It is a testament to the deterioration of the Senate confirmation process that a longtime colleague — even one they vehemently oppose on policy — would face such a Republican roadblock. In the not-too-distant past, fellow senators got considerable leeway from the opposing party if they were selected to join the executive branch.

“The truth is, to the best of my knowledge, there has been a courtesy within the Senate that when a president nominates senators, they have been approved,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview. 

The growing senatorial resistance to Mr. Sanders even before any formal action by the new administration reflects the formidable task Mr. Biden faces. Should Republicans hold on to their Senate majority next year, Mr. Biden would be the first president since George Bush in 1989 to enter office without his party controlling the chamber and managing the confirmation process. And that process has grown much more toxic, to the point where senators routinely engage in near-blanket opposition to the picks of a president from the opposite party — if they allow consideration at all.”

For a hard core, uncompromising radical right ideologue like Cornyn to complain about ideologues is about as hypocritical as hypocrisy can get. Cornyn did not oppose the raging authoritarian ideologues that Trump nominated for his administration. That fact does not faze him or probably most or all other radical right GOP senators in the slightest. Hypocrisy isn’t illegal, so why not be a radical right hypocrite? It is fun and easy to be hypocritical and obstructionist. Just say no.

How bad can this get? Very bad. McConnell can block every single executive branch and judicial nominee if he wants to. Given his proud self-description as the Grim Reaper of whatever displeases him, he just might choose to do total obstructionism or something fairly close to it. This could be a new norm for the GOP. Time will tell.

No to bipartisan economic cooperation

Equally toxic is the intentional sabotaging of the transition to Biden. Here, the Trump and his GOP enablers are intentionally sabotaging economic and public health policy to make life harder for Biden once he is in office. Presumably, the vengeful Trump and his purely partisan GOP enablers will sabotage whatever they think will hurt Biden. In the sabotaging process, some or many Americans can expect to experience serious economic pain and even death. The NYT writes about unwarranted economic sabotage:

“Imagine a divorced couple that simply can’t get along. They share custody of the children, but have completely different visions of how to raise them.

It is not an ideal situation, but this couple realizes that, despite mutual resentments, raising healthy, happy children is a shared goal. Each parent may get annoyed at the other now and again, but they know they need to maintain some continuity in how the children are raised and not let disputes ruin their lives. 

That, in recent decades, has been how economic policy has worked in the United States. Republicans and Democrats might have had different agendas and philosophies, but both fundamentally wanted a vibrant United States economy and, when the time came for one party to hand over control to the other, both ensured a smooth transition of economic policy.

This week, there are clear signs that tradition is breaking down — that the outgoing Trump administration is seeking to deprive President-elect Joe Biden of crucial tools to sustain and revitalize the economy. It suggests a future in which there is less continuity in economic policy and more abrupt risk of crisis or downturn every time party control changes.

The most startling example was a decision on Thursday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin not to extend beyond the end of the year several joint Treasury-Federal Reserve lending programs that started in the early weeks of the Covid pandemic. The decision to end them went against Fed officials’ wishes, and he asked the Fed to return to the Treasury funds already provided for those programs.  

One problem with the more partisan economic policy transition underway now is that it tends to fuel tit-for-tat reciprocity. If President Biden is handing over power to a Republican in the winter of 2025 or 2029, will his team seek the same partisan advantage by salting the earth on the way out? If this is the new normal, is it possible to go back to the old normal?”

So, in the process of serving party over country and people politics, the radical right GOP engages in practices that will lead to needless deaths of innocent Americans and needless economic pain. The full blossom and effect of GOP poison on the American government and people is becoming clear. Trump’s behaviors, e.g., inciting violence against perceived opponents, reasonably earns him the label of domestic terrorist, along with some other labels, e.g., chronic liar, crook, traitor, incompetent, etc.

Increasingly, the GOP is earning, or has earned, some or all of the same labels. In view of its economic and political sabotage, it is fair and reasonable to apply the label “domestic terrorist organization” to the GOP. Or, is that still over the top and not reasonably defensible?