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President Trump made two big political decisions over past half-week, and both are already proving disasters.

The first decision was to cut himself loose from the Republican leadership in Congress. Trump blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a sequence of tweets fixing blame on McConnelland thereby absolving himselffor the failure of Obamacare repeal.

The second decision was to issue a statement condemning many sides for the confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekendand adhering to that policy of pandering to white nationalism even after the ramming death of a counter-protester and the injury of many more.

Trump had wanted to stand apart from Republicans in Congressand they have now obliged him. Former campaign rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; Senator Cory Gardner, who heads the Senate Republican campaign organization; President Pro Tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatchall issued statements implicitly criticizing Trumps for its even-handedness between perpetrators and targets.

Its always hazardous to overthink the strategy behind Trumps words or actions. Oftentimes the president simply reacts with impulsive emotionalism to events. Yet there are plausible reasons for him to distance himself from the Senate Republicans now. A president normally needs Congress to enact his agenda. This president, however, does not have much of a legislative agenda. Instead, he has submitted to the policy agenda of Congressand that agenda is, if possible, even less popular than he is. Trump will be far better off going to the nation in 2020 not having removed Medicaid coverage from millions of red state voters, not having shoved through a huge upper-income tax cut financed by stringent domestic budget cuts, than he would be running on that record.

What Trump needs most for 2020 is an excuse, and a plausible enemy. Complaints about Democratic obstruction and partisan Russia witch hunts sound absurd when Republicans control both houses of Congress. Lose even one chamber, however, and suddenly those talking points acquire some plausibility, at least in the ears of Trump-inclined voters. And even if blaming Congress does not reflect a deliberate strategic calculationwith this president, its difficult to conclude that anything doesit could be regarded as working to his advantage. The Trump base is much more clearly defined by its cultural resentments than by any policy program: sacrificing the program to enflame the resentments may well appear to the embattled Trump White House as the least bad survival option.

Until Charlottesville.

Trump supporters often invoke the presidents supposed mandate from the people. Heres what Kellyanne Conway told Andrea Mitchell just last weekend:

Republican consultants ... totally missed what was happening in America. That the forgotten man and forgotten woman, many of whom had voted for Democrats in the past, many of whom had never voted, or never voted in decade, came forth and made this new Trump coalition in a way thatin a way that frankly, respectfully, the last couple of Republican candidates did not.

Trump aides say such things so often that they themselves may have lost sight of how untrue they are. Trump not only lost the popular vote in 2016, but he won a smaller share than Mitt Romney in 2012, and only 0.3 percent more than John McCain in the disastrous year 2008. (The tallies stand at 45.93 percent for Trump vs. 45.6% percent for McCain) With barely one-third of the U.S. public approving his presidency in the last pre-Charlottesville polls, Trumps presidency has sunk to the lowest level of popularity ever recorded in a presidents first year.

The Trump team may be trying to replay Bill Clintons triangulation of 1995-96, when Clinton won re-election by positioning himself as a moderate centrist between the extremes of the congressional Republicans and congressional Democrats. And maybe Trump could have executed a blue-collar version of that strategy by joining cultural conservatism to a free-spending populism of infrastructure spending and the defense of Medicare and Medicaid. Instead hes positioned himself in such a way that other political actors can triangulate against him: congressional Republicans, by rejecting Trumps indulgence of murderous racism; congressional Democrats, by fastening Trump to the widely disliked Ryan-McConnell policy agenda.

Its probably impossible for a man of Trumps psychology to process how much legal jeopardy he and his family may be inand how utterly he depends on Republicans in Congress to shield him. President Bill Clinton faced down scandal politics in his second term because his party united to support him, a decision politically vindicated by the strong Democratic showing in 1998, the best sixth-year election performance in modern history. Trump, by contrast, is doing his utmost to persuade congressional Republicans that it could well be less disastrous to face the voters in 2020 under Mike Pence than Donald Trump. Pence apparently thinks so, too. Pre-Charlottesville, that remained a tough sale. Post-Charlottesville, things look different.

Trump now stands not between the parties, or above the parties, but beyond the partiesin some strange political twilight zone where neo-Nazis are seen as a constituency not to be insulted. As events shift Trump to that bizarre place, even his one authentic achievement as presidentthe steep reduction in illegal immigrationrisks becoming an anti-achievement. Trump and his white-nationalist advisers seem determined to corroborate their critics accusation that enforcement is concerned not with protecting the wages and working conditions of legal residents of the United Statespart of a pro-worker agenda that also could include a big investment in construction, trust-busting of college tuition, and a defense of existing social-insurance programs but instead as a component of a white-nationalist agenda that also includes attacks on minority voting rights, a rollback of affirmative action, and compliments to authoritarian leaders worldwide.

The conventional wisdom is that dissension is a party killer; safer to stay united around even a low-polling president than to act against him. But what if it is the president who is fomenting the dissension, because his ego requires that every failure be blamed on somebody else? What if the president is polling so low that he splashes his party with his own odium? What if he is branding his entirely flag-waving party with the flags not of the United States but of Russia, the Southern Confederacy, and now amazingly even Nazi Germany? Then, to quote the Moby Dick at Sea" account that seems at every turn to be subtweeting this presidency:

Now, in general, Stick to the boat, is your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when Leap from the boat, is still better.

Continue reading here:
Time for Republicans to Leap From the Boat - The Atlantic

Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on July 31, 2017. (AP Photo / Pablo Martinez)

Republicans used to recognize the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. The partys great moral champion in the moment when it became the political tribune for a wave of 19th-century abolitionist sentiment, Pennsylvania Senator Thaddeus Stevens, proclaimed, I can never acknowledge the right of slavery. I will bow down to no deity however worshipped by professing Christianshowever dignified by the name of the Goddess of Liberty, whose footstool is the crushed necks of the groaning millions, and who rejoices in the resoundings of the tyrants lash, and the cries of his tortured victims.

That is the language that Republicans once spoke.

But Americans have not heard any echoes of that language in the awful response of Donald Trump to the racist terror that has rocked Charlottesville, Virginia.

When white nationalists marched with the flag of the slaveholders that Stevens and his comrades vanquished more than a century and a half ago, when these so-called neo-Confederates unleashed hatred and violence in Charlottesville, the Republican president of the United States attempted to equate their infamy with the principled resistance to racism and xenophobia.

I should put out a comment as to whats going on in Charlottesville, said the president, who then proceeded to announce that We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

Trump then sought to absolve himself of any responsibility by noting that this hatred, bigotry, and violencewhich has flared so horrifically since last years presidential electionhas been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. A long, long time.

Trumps final observation was correct: the American crisis is not new. Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old Charlottesville paralegal who died Saturday after a car driven by a man linked with the white supremacists plowed into a crowd of peaceful antiracism demonstrators, was certainly not the first supporter of equality to be murdered in this country.

But to equate the champions of equal justice under law with the vile racists who march beneath the banners of slaveholders and segregationists is beyond defense.

At a moment when the country needed a president to speak with moral authority, Trump failed the test. Miserably.

The only question that remains involves his fellow Republicans. Will they finally put principle above party and reject this pathetic excuse for a president?

The great name of the Republican Party has already been dragged through the mud not just by Donald Trump but by every Republican who has to this point facilitated his presidency.

As Trump exploits and extends resentment for purposes of politics and self-aggrandizement, he affronts the legacy of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens. He cannot help himself, or his party, or his country. But Donald Trump is not the whole of the Republican Party. Not yet.

Other Republicans still have an opportunity to reject the destructive politics that the president is employing, a politics that is rapidly turning the party of Lincoln into the party of Trump. This will only happen, however, if they have the courage to make an explicit and unapologetic break with their president.

It is not enough that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and senior Republicans such as Arizona Senator John McCain have issued more responsible statements than did Trump. They have a duty to condemn a Republican president who had done everything in his power to divide the country, and who is now making things much, much worse.

The burden rests heaviest on Paul Ryans shoulders. He is right to say that White supremacy is a scourge. This hate and its terrorism must be confronted and defeated. But the speaker must understand that confronting and defeating slaveholders, segregationists, neo-Confederates, and alt-right haters has always required the moral clarity that Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens mustered in the partys founding time.

Donald Trumps crudely constructed and crudely stated arguments for moral equivalency are an affront to the long legacy of the Republican Party, and to human decency. If Ryan and other leading Republicans fail to confront Trump, if they will not hold their president to account, they are facilitating his heresyand the damage to society that extends from a Republican president who governs with no sense of history, and no sense of honor.

Continue reading here:
Trump Blamed the Violence in Charlottesville 'On Many Sides.' Republicans Must Reject That. - The Nation.

WSU officials call for unity after riot breaks out at University of Virginia

College Republicans President James Allsup waves a Trump flag in celebration of Donald Trumps victory.

College Republicans President James Allsup waves a Trump flag in celebration of Donald Trumps victory.

REBECCA WHITE, Evergreen news editor August 13, 2017

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Many students at WSU have called for a response from the university after WSU College Republican President James Allsup attended a rally turned riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Allsup was publicly identified in several photos by a Twitter account, Yes, Youre Racist, which has released identities of several Unite the Right attendees. Allsup said he was there as a member of the media and to speak at the event and condemned racism and Nazism.

In a series of tweets, WSU President Kirk Schulz condemned Naziism and racism as well and asked the university to come together. Schulz did not acknowledge Allsup or the requests for his expulsion directly, but did make a note that a university is a place where controversial voices must be heard.

Allsup said in an interview before the tweets that he would be insulted if the university took the time to respond or condemn his participation in the Unite the Right Rally.

The university should not be in the business of disavowing what their students do, what their tuition-paying students do in their professional careers, Allsup said.

Allsup said most of the violence at the event was started by the counter protesters, who pepper sprayed a fellow alt-right media figure, Baked Alaska. He blames the police for the death and injuries caused by a car plowing into counter protesters, saying that they did not do a good enough job protecting the rally attendees and separating the two groups.

Allsup said the basis of the rally, as a protest of the removal of a confederate monument of General E Lee, was not a symbol of hate and the neo Nazis in attendance were not representative of the majority of people there.

I think we should check our northern privilege and consider the alternate experiences of people of this country, Allsup said.

Allsup added that he sees any action or response from the university as an affront to his free speech rights and singling him out as a member of the alternative media.

ASWSU President Jordan Frost and student body presidents at other universities posting a statement in solidarity with the University of Virginia.

We are united with the students of the University of Virginia, as what affects one of our campuses affects us all College Campuses are spaces that students should be able to call home, not places of violence, hate and racism.

Other leaders at WSU and in the Pullman community also posted to social media and held candlelight vigils condemning the violence and racism on the University of Virginia campus.

Excerpt from:
College Republicans president attends Virginia rally, sparks backlash - The Daily Evergreen

More than seven months into the 115th Congress, Republican majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have been notably dysfunctional. President Donald Trump and his White House staff are in disarray. The budget process is way behind schedule, and every day brings the United States closer to what should be the unthinkable: defaulting on the national debt by failing to raise the debt ceiling.

While raising the debt ceiling should be routine, the current mix of political dysfunction and administrative mismanagement could signal trouble ahead with dire consequences. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the debt ceiling must be increased by September 29. But Congress is in recess until after Labor Day and President Trump has left town for a seventeen-day golf getaway in New Jersey, leaving only twelve joint days where both the House and Senate are in session to address the issue.

The debt ceiling is like a gun pointed at the entire economy, and this has become an increasingly dangerous game of Russian Roulette. This is not a game the United States should playif it ever wasand the time has come to repeal the debt ceiling for good.

When Congress makes tax and budget decisions resulting in spending greater than revenue, it must make up the difference through borrowing. The debt ceiling is a statutory limit on the maximum amount the federal government can borrow. It is an ineffective tool for fiscal restraint since Congress has already committed to spending the money. Without the ability to borrow, the U.S. government would not have sufficient funds to pay its obligations. This would result in a default, forcing the government to renege on some of its commitments made in law, such as salaries for military and civilian personnel, Social Security benefits, and interest payments on treasury bonds.

The United States has never defaulted on its financial obligations, and the repercussions would be severe. According to a Treasury Department report, a default may lead to a crisis on par or worse than the Great Recession. It would become more difficult to access credit, and the value of the dollar would fall.

A default could cause a sharp spike in interest rates, due to increased risk of investing in U.S. government-backed financial instruments. Homeowners would see housing values plummet. If interest rates increased by five percent, for example, the median home price could decrease by more than $70,000.

Sharply higher interest rates also discourage investment since the cost of borrowing goes up. This means negative effects for the construction industry, auto sales and overall business expansion, leading to fewer new jobs. In fact, higher interest rates from default could mean millions of jobs lost.

Under President Barack Obama, Republicans in Congress attempted to use the debt ceiling to extract policy or budgetary concessions, which took the country dangerously close to default. In theory, raising the debt ceiling today should be a smoother political process, since Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. Yet, it seems some members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus want to deploy similar tactics to force through deep spending cuts. If these members on the far right take this approach again, then they will essentially be holding the Republican Partyand the full faith and credit of the United Stateshostage, and few good things ever come from taking yourself hostage.

Read more here:
Will Republicans Keep Playing Russian Roulette with the Debt Ceiling? - The National Interest Online

The easier lift came Sunday: Illinois state senators voted 38-19 to force into law a new school funding plan, with its comparatively generous treatment of Chicago Public Schools. The vote was a rebuke to Gov. Bruce Rauner and his rival proposal: The governor would give less to CPS but more to many other Illinois districts, especially those that also educate sizable numbers of disadvantaged students.

Sunday's vote wasn't a surprise; the Senate, with its Democratic supermajority, did as expected. Now comes the harder lift: Will members of the House, scheduled to convene Wednesday, also vote to override Rauner?

If they do, the bill legislators passed May 31, and which Rauner has tried to rewrite via an amendatory veto, will become law. But a House override requires 71 votes, and the bill got only 60 yeses in the House in May. Even if all 67 Democrats now vote to override Rauner, they'll need a handful of his fellow Republicans to do the same.

Going into the weekend, we might have bet a nickel, but not a whole dime, that the House would vote to override. Several downstate school officials had complained publicly that the governor's rival plan his amended version of the bill would hurt their districts. But on Saturday, the Illinois State Board of Education finally issued calculations that may make an override a much tougher vote for some House members of both parties: Rauner's plan evidently would give most districts not named CPS more money than would the Democrats' Senate Bill 1.

Those new Rauner plan numbers popped up in Sunday's Senate debate. Distilling Republicans' points to their essence: Why should we send this much money to a Chicago district that already spends twice as much per pupil as our children's schools can spend? Why not uphold Rauner's veto and bring more money to our districts? His plan would give CPS millions more than it's getting now.

Expect House Republicans and Democrats outside Chicago to hear similar challenges from their constituents between now and Wednesday.

Chicago Tribune Staff

Illinois school funding: A tale of two plans

Illinois school funding: A tale of two plans (Chicago Tribune Staff)

Maybe House Speaker Michael Madigan already has persuaded enough Republicans to join Democrats in overriding Rauner. If so, game over.

But if Democrats are having trouble getting to 71, this an ideal time to summon an endangered species in Springfield: a compromise. What can Democrats offer Republicans, at this late date, to win some of their votes? To spare Senate Bill 1 from collapse?

Yes, this invites logistical hurdles: If the House changes Senate Bill 1 to attract Republican votes, the Senate would have to concur. A little more work for legislators, but they've kept a light schedule this year.

So Republicans are in a position to seek the sort of compromise-maker we advocated over the weekend: creating scholarships for low- and middle-income kids to attend public schools outside their district boundaries, or to attend private schools. Republicans also have spoken (including on Sunday) about reducing unfunded state mandates for schools, and about allowing districts to limit collective bargaining.

Democrats might not like those paths to compromise; teachers unions hate school choice almost as much as they'd hate any limit to collective bargaining. But Democrats also own a huge mess that many of them are frantic to address: the devastated finances of a CPS long mismanaged by, um, their fellow Democrats in Chicago's City Hall.

If Democrats refuse to compromise and let Senate Bill 1 die, they can wear that jacket. Or they can make a few sensible changes and attract enough Republicans to a funding plan that still gives CPS a heap of new loot.

Over to you, Speaker Madigan.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Boardand onFacebook.

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Continued here:
School funding: How new numbers could nudge Dems to compromise with Rauner's Republicans - Chicago Tribune