Now we’ll see. President Trump’s most fervent public supporters are in full cry—nous sommes trahis!!! Betrayed by the Deep State! By Mitch McConnell’s wimpy hyper-institutionalism! By CBO bean counters! By Parliamentarians! By the Xerox Guy in the accounting firm who gave Rachel Maddow part of a Trump tax return! Once again, as they are increasingly wont to do at the drop of a hat, those with more than a vote invested in the Trump presidency are dusting off their dog-eared dossiers on Paul Ryan and Goldman Sachs, readying one more time and energy-consuming tilt at those and many more windmills. New Monsters with funny names threaten. “Regular Order, Medicaid Expansion, Subsidies vs. Refundable Tax Credits, Reconciliation, and Three Different Phases of Obamacare Repeal” join the old ones like GLOBALISM, NAFTA, and DAVOS: all full caps all the time. These are the problem, right? Wrong. Not now.
Very soon, Salena Zito or another of those exceptional journalists who know how to listen as well as they write will report that Trump supporters in Flyover Flats, PA find this current Washington folderol beside the point. Defenses, excuses, and finger-pointing add nothing to the picture, because in an amorphous, but still potent form, these have already been “baked in” to the perceptions and the expectations of Trump voters. Almost all who did so voted for Trump because they knew, or rather, felt in their bones, that Washington, its ways and its priorities and what it values, were not on their side—and most importantly, they believed fervently that Donald Trump knew that, too, and expected him then, and certainly expect him now, to act informed by that knowledge.
Since Day one we have been told that there are two factions in the White House and that some evil counselors have somehow convinced the guy who brags about building the Wollman Rink practically single-handed that he can’t accomplish anything without accommodating his policies to their way of doing things, and these complexities require carefully negotiating the competing demands…etc. Such insights would have made eminent sense coming from Jeb Bush, but Americans did not elect Jeb Bush; they elected Donald Trump. Americans don’t expect miracles from the President, but they do expect to see him bend every effort to overcome the constraints that they have been told since George Bush’s inauguration make doing what is patently sensible impossible. 2016 was supposed to be the Flight 93 Election— do or die– remember?
Trump’s style of speaking often seems modeled on Frank Sinatra. Well, push is coming to shove here Donald, and you had better channel Old Blue Eyes and start doing the big and the hard things, and not just the little and the easy things, your way. No excuses.
