I live in New York, a state of
great political officials and some of the most corrupt political machines in
history. The most famous of that was that of William 'Boss' Tweed. Tweed never
held any political office for long but he was the most powerful man in New York
for nearly twenty years in large part because he used cronies to control every
aspect of New York City and the state regardless of their political party. If
anyone talks about the Gilded Age and the hold money had on politics during
this period Boss Tweed is the first name they bring up in connection with
Tammany Hall.
Tweed was openly and brutally
corrupt both in the bribes he accepted and those he made. Everyone in the state
of New York knew it and he knew they knew. And he was blatant about how
untouchable he was. In 1871 when an attempt to bring him down by reformers
failed by corrupt actions he openly baited them: "As long as I count the
votes, what are you going to do about it?" Ironically right after he made
that statement and a bipartisan
coalition ended up bringing him down and arresting him.
Tweed was a Democrat but looking
at America today I can't help but think that in my lifetime it is the
Republican Party who has learned the most effective lessons from him. They
aren't as openly corrupt as him but they are very much in the pocket of big
business. And they understand more than so many reformers of today that the
only way to hold on to their corruption is through political power.
Party loyalty and unity to a
movement has been front and center of the GOP in my lifetime: whether it is
Gingrich leading the Republican revolution in the 1990s, Cheney's belief in the
Grand Unitary Theory and the rise of the Tea Party in 2010. Republicans have
sown chaos in every branch of Congress against the increasingly shouts of
dismay from the Democrats and screams of morality from those on the left who
have little use for how politics works and think only in terms of morality.
This dissonance was in full
display throughout the 20 years before Trump ran for President. And it was
built on a variation of this statement which might as well be a mission
statement for them and a mocking term for all their opponents: "As long as
we have the votes, what are you going to do about it?"
The left has never understood
this logic in any real sense because to them everything is a moral decision. And
the moment Trump arose on the scene and began to destroy every norm of civility
and showed contempt for how politicians behaved in every aspect of him, the
question was: "Why didn't the Republicans ever rise up and condemn
him?" For every single one of them at the time the answer was another
variation: "As long as he has the votes, what do you want us to do about
him?"
Everyone in the media
acknowledges the hold Trump has over the Republican base that, while diminished
over the last decade, is still incredibly potent. They know it became carved in
stone when he first won the President and every Congressman or Senator whose
said anything remotely oppositional to him has been forced to retire or has
been primaried out of their elected office when Trump chooses to back a
challenger. If you don't kiss the ring of Trump at every opportunity and you
hold political office he has the ability to destroy you politically no matter
what state you live in or how popular you were with your voters in the previous
election. We saw it with Liz Cheney in 2022; we saw it with Mitt Romney when he
voted to impeach Trump twice. It doesn't matter how big a name you are and who
long you've been part of the Republican Party; you get on Trump's bad side; he
can and will end your political career.
Now to everyone who isn't in
politics, particularly those who are on the left, they can't comprehend why
this is such a big deal. So what if you no longer hold political power; isn't
it worth it if you stop Trump? First of all, it assumes that every single
elected Republican has no problem with Trump which I'm not convinced even after
ten years is the case. How big a majority it is I don't know but I'm pretty
sure a lot of them still think the sun rises and sets on him. We know what the
margins are necessary to impeach the President; I've not convinced there were
ever enough Republicans in the Senate who would go along with it. If people
like Hawley and Cruz were fine raising objections to the electoral count hours
after an armed mob tried to storm the capital then end of the day, I think
they're fine with whatever he does in what passes for their souls.
More to the point, we saw just
what happened when the criminal justice system went after him during Biden's
term. It did nothing to diminish his popularity among the base. I really think
he could have run for President while serving his sentence and still could have
won the election: that's how devoted his followers are. And as long as he has
the votes, what are we supposed to do about it?
And let's not leave out the
threat of violence. We know just how rabid his followers have been to
Republicans who disagree with him when they confront the elected officials. We
know the power he has over them. They would not be human if they weren't
terrified of it being carried out on them. And as we've seen he's been more
than willing to use the criminal justice system to seek retribution on anyone
he considers a threat. Morally I agree its
bankrupt; as a way to cow the opposition, you really can't get much more
effective.
There's no upside for a
Republican to go against Trump the way there is for a Democrat if they so. The
left can't comprehend that because they have no capability to see in anyone who
isn't them. And because they have no real use for any elected official as being
corrupted by the system, they can't conceive why anyone would want to leave the
corridors of power voluntarily or to be voted out. They've always had contempt
for those who serve the public as being 'part of the system'
Even some liberals can't
understand the difference. My mother said that many former Republicans who
turned against Trump are now making a good living as commentators or part of a
think tank. Yes, but they no longer have any influence in the political system
and therefore can only comment on how badly its fallen, not do anything to
change its trajectory. For those on the outside, particularly those who work as
activists or commentators, they don't see a distinction but there is a big one
and its part of the problem.
We saw just last night how deep
the loyalty to the President is. Earlier this year a group of legislators in
Indiana voted down an attempt to redistrict the state to get rid of the
Democrat seats that remained. Indiana has been one of the most Republican
states in the country for years and Trump is currently experiences the
absolutely nadir of his popularity.
And yet despite that after he
waded into the Republican primaries for Indiana legislators five of the
candidates he chose to go after have lost their primaries. Some have held it
for years and even decades before Trump came on the scene. And yet despite that
many of them were beaten by margins of more than 30 points. Trump inflicted
retribution against those who he felt stood against them and now these public
servants who did the right thing will no longer be able to hold office.
Now those of you who might have
admired their bravery will say: "But they did the right thing and doesn't
that count more?" (To be sure, those same people will no doubt be shouting
at those in Maryland who stopped the redistricting there committed treason and
should be primaried but that's for another article.) On a moral standpoint,
that's true. For people who've devoted their lives to public service to have
them rejected by their constituents so effectively and finally for doing so, it
comes as a shock. And it will no doubt serve as a reminder to those Republicans
who are questioning loyalty to the President that maybe they should shut up.
I suspect that for many of these
Republican elected officials all of them are acting on the belief that Trump
will be gone and then they can go on without having to worry about him. This is
becoming a more viable alternative by the day; for all the trolling Trump does
of the Democrats, he is constitutionally ineligible to run for reelection and even
so he will be the same age Biden was in 2028.
The clearest sign of this, I'd
argue, is the one area where the Senate is willing to make a stand. Despite his
increasing arguments for it Majority Leader John Thune has made it clear
multiple times there is no desire to get rid of the filibuster, the bete noire
of the Democrats since Obama's first term. It would no doubt make it much
easier for the Republicans to get Trump's agenda through Congress and get rid of the one
obstacle the Democrats have against his Presidency. But throughout both
Democratic shutdowns Thune and leadership made it clear their position:
"As long as we have the votes, what are you going to do about it?" In
six months if the Democrats take back the Senate there may be a reversal of
fortune but for now its still there mainly because the GOP can see a world
without him.
For all Trump's very real flaws he
understands the power he has over the electorate completely and he yielded it
without quarter in the GOP for a decade. He knows that if he tells his
followers that someone is his enemy they will do as he says and vote for
someone who he says is more loyal to him. That he has done much to weaken the
Republican Party is irrelevant: like everything else he only sees it as a reflection
of his own identity. Republican officeholders have learned that lesson. The
problem is that Democrats are weak in so many places they've been unable to
take advantage of it the way they should – and just as importantly, part of
their own base has so little understanding of any politics they believe that is
their job to resist Trump regardless of what the voters say.
So many people on the left in
America have so little respect for the power of suffrage that they refuse to
acknowledge just how much power it really has. We got the clearest example of
that last month in Hungary. Even before 2016 conservatives had consider Viktor
Orban the model for their party, both in his policies and in the way he
governed. Last month, despite a concreted effort by the American administration
to boost his chances, after more than 13 years in power Orban was defeated.
What I find even more remarkable was the leader
that the right has considered their model for a government, that the President
lovingly called a 'strong man', accepted the results of the elected and almost
gracefully conceded. I honestly wonder who
was more shocked by that the liberals who considered him a tyrant or the conservatives
who considered him a hero.
Viktor Orban is the last leader in
Europe who I thought would go along with what Vaclav Havel referred to as the 'velvet
revolution'. Yet every indication is that he is doing the complete opposite of
what so many Republicans and a few Democrats are doing when an election goes against
them and bowing to the will of the people. When a Hungarian conservative leader
who was closer to a dictator is more accepting of the results of elections then
far too many American elected officials in either party these days are, it says
a lot about how little we respect the will of the people.
Yet I choose to take hope from
this story because it demonstrates the forces of darkness can be overcome if
the electorate takes its power of suffrage seriously. I'd argue that the
gift Trump has given America is that he has proven once and for all what
happens if we don't take the voters seriously and our power as voters equally
so. So many intellectuals and non-politicians refuse to acknowledge it so the
rest of us have to.
In six months' time the nation
will get a chance to send a message to those in power across the country about
the direction we think the government should do. The man in charge in the
executive branch might not care but the ones in the legislative branch have no
choice but to. No matter how much the activist scorns the process what would be
don on election day sends a more effective message then any march or series of
demonstrations ever can or will. That's the variation of Tweed's remark I
choose to cling to: "As long as we have the vote, we have the power to do
something about it'. Too many people have taken it for granted for too long. We
need to always remember it and keep our power.
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