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It's December once again, which means it is time once again for our annual holiday pledge drive, complete with lots and lots of kitten photos, which are designed to fill you up with holiday cheer and inspire you to open up your wallet with joy. Hey, at least we're up front with our shameless advertising techniques, right?
Oh, the weather outside is frightful
Nancy Pelosi just got re-elected to lead the House Democrats, but almost a third of them voted for a much younger representative who urged the party to shift focus in a major way. Hillary Clinton underperformed among minorities and young people, which contributed in a big way towards her loss in the presidential election. And Barack Obama, in a Rolling Stone "exit interview" just revived one of the major Democratic problems he ran against, by saying: "The point is that politics in a big, diverse country like this requires us to move the ball forward not in one long Hail Mary to the end zone, but to, you know, systemically make progress." This, from a man who ran on: "Yes we can!' as a campaign slogan.
Democrats are, obviously, in a phase of attempting to rediscover what their party stands for -- and how strongly they will stand for anything, as well. So far, the results are mixed, at best. Which leads me to (once again) suggest a rather obvious issue that would help Democrats with all of these problems: start supporting marijuana legalization in a big way. The time has come. It's time to stop timidly "leading from behind."
Sorry, but there will be no new column today, as I am busy getting the annual pledge drive together. There will be kittens. Consider yourselves duly warned!
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
We're approaching the end of the year, so we can all expect to hear lots of "the year that was" items in the news. One of the earliest entries in this news genre came from across the pond:
Oxford Dictionaries has selected "post-truth" as 2016's international word of the year, after the contentious "Brexit" referendum and an equally divisive U.S. presidential election caused usage of the adjective to skyrocket, according to the Oxford University Press.
Now, "post-truth" is just a new spin on an old concept. Stephen Colbert was feeling a bit peeved last week, since "post-truth" is just another way to express Colbert's own famous neologism, "truthiness." But other than coining a new term for it, the idea behind Colbert's (or Oxford's) snappy word certainly isn't new. Back in World War II, it was known as "The Big Lie." The basic idea is an easy one to grasp: believe the hype, not the facts. Repeat a falsehood enough times, and a whole bunch of people start to believe it. Once they do, proving it wrong using facts just doesn't seem to work.
Mitt Romney may soon be faced with a dilemma. If Donald Trump offers him the job of secretary of State, should Mitt take it? Normally this wouldn't even be an open question, much less a dilemma. The position is one of the most prestigious in the federal government, and any career politician would jump at the chance to fill it, in normal times. But this is Donald Trump's administration we're talking about, which will complicate Romney's choice (to put it mildly).
Mitt Romney was one of the most vocal -- and most scathing -- critics of Donald Trump during the campaign. He wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought of Trump, in no uncertain terms. Romney let it be known that he thought Trump was patently unqualified to lead the country, and he warned his fellow Republicans not to vote for such a charlatan. The voters didn't listen, of course, but it's pretty obvious what Romney thinks about Trump -- and his election to the presidency has likely not changed Mitt's opinion much at all. So to accept the job would mean working for the same man Romney was warning America about, not too long ago. Maybe Mitt could grow a beard and just give up shaving, so he wouldn't have to face himself in the mirror every morning.
A key question now worth contemplating -- right before everyone goes home for Thanksgiving (and the inevitable family political squabbles) -- is how many of the promises Donald Trump made to his supporters can he break before they'll abandon him? Because so far, Trump has been doing some pretty serious backpedaling on some of his core applause lines, as he prepares to shift from campaigning to actually governing. Will his fans accept these broken promises, because they actually liked Trump's style more than they believed all his grand assertions, or did they take them all seriously and now are beginning to feel betrayed that they're not actually going to happen? This could be a crucial question, going forward, when assessing Trump's political capital and the effectiveness of his presidency.
Today's big news is that Trump apparently was just kidding about all that "Lock her up!" stuff out on the campaign trail. He's not going to sic his Justice Department on Clinton after all, it seems. Kellyanne Conway explained Trump's new position with a statement that might just send chills through Trump supporters everywhere:
Deficit hawk sightings used to be quite common in Washington, D.C., but early indications are that this bird's about to become a lot rarer. It may even wind up on the endangered species list, in fact. This sort of thing normally happens every time a Republican is in the White House (remember Dick Cheney's infamous "deficits don't matter" line?), but this time around it's already looking like the deficit hawks could disappear entirely from within the Beltway.
We have one prediction for Donald Trump's presidency that we haven't noticed elsewhere, so we thought it worth mentioning up front. Donald Trump will quite likely use the "bully pulpit" of the presidency better than anyone since the man who coined the term, Teddy Roosevelt. Well, Franklin Roosevelt certainly connected with the people, so maybe that's an unfair omission, but no matter who you put on the list of presidents who effectively used public opinion against Congress, Trump is very likely going to wind up pretty high on that list.
Think about it. Trump loves rallies. He loves the crowd's adulation. He's just announced he's going to take a 30-state victory lap before he's even sworn in. Why would anyone think that's all going to change after he takes office?
Change is coming soon to the Democratic National Committee. The D.N.C. will elect a new chair soon, and so far the two frontrunners for the position seem to be Representative Keith Ellison and ex-D.N.C. Chair Howard Dean. Both bring interesting skills to the table, but both also have their drawbacks. Who the party elects is going to be crucial to their chances of rebuilding and fielding good candidates for the next few elections. It will also be crucial for the Democrats' chances of getting a clear and strong message out to the public of what, precisely, they stand for. Since Democrats will have no president or congressional majority leaders for the next two years, the D.N.C. chair will become not only the leader of the party, but also likely the most prominent voice in the media as well.
The Democratic Party is currently struggling with the question of who should be leading it, heading into the future. Should they stick with known leaders, or is it time for fresh blood? Most notable in this power struggle are the questions of who should lead the Democrats in the House, and who should lead the Democratic National Committee. The Senate had largely decided their own leadership question before the election, since Harry Reid had already announced his retirement. The Senate leadership handoff that just happened had already been worked out months ago, and Senator Chuck Schumer will (starting in January) be known as Minority Leader Schumer for the next two years. Over on the House side, a fierce debate is taking place as to whether Nancy Pelosi should continue as the Democratic leader or whether someone younger might be a better option. The D.N.C. leadership may be the biggest fight of all, though, as multiple candidates have already thrown their hats in the ring.
In all these questions of leadership, some have noticed that the Democratic "bench" is pretty downright thin these days. Partly, this is Beltway-insider "conventional wisdom," since there are plenty of Democrats in the House and Senate who are young, committed, and eager to lead -- but, alas, their names are not on the insiders' lips when they gather at their cocktail parties. At the same time, it is indisputable that the House Democratic leadership is rather advanced in age, especially when compared to the young guns currently in charge of the Republicans. Even the lefty wing of the Democratic Party is best represented by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, neither one of whom is exactly a spring chicken.
