There is a touching, almost childlike faith among too many Democrats that somewhere deep inside the Republican Party resides a conscience poised to be awakened by a sufficiently humiliating election defeat.
Surely, after the voters delivered a political walloping of historic proportions, Republicans would finally get the message. They’d engage in a little soul-searching — presuming they possessed a soul — and would acknowledge their mistakes, reassess their priorities and perhaps even apologize for treating the Constitution like a disposable cocktail napkin.
And certainly, the Tooth Fairy will be appointed Treasury Secretary.
The problem with expecting Republicans to learn from their loss is that Democrats keep mistaking a landslide defeat for a religious conversion.
Dems imagine that if they simply win decisively enough, their opponents will cave, experience an epiphany, admit the error of their ways and emerge as reasonable partners in the once-sacred enterprise of bipartisan governance.
Unfortunately, an election is not an exorcism. Losing seats doesn’t inevitably produce humility. And a wipeout loss doesn’t come with a complimentary personality transplant.
Consider the spectacle unfolding little more than a week after voters handed Democrats control of both houses of Congress.
President Donald Trump chose the most angry, divisive and revolting White House Chief of Staff in Stephen Miller. Republicans selected the most combative MAGA bootlicker possible for their next House leader in Jim Jordan. The GOP nearly unanimously backed the non-impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And Trump is back floating his usual ludicrous fraud claims about the midterms.
Oh, and the administration is already preparing to go full-on belligerent in resisting the coming congressional investigations that its newly empowered opponents are promising — going so far as to threaten to investigate the investigators.
Does this sound much like a party preparing to extend an olive branch? More like the sound of somebody sharpening the branch into a spear.
This raises an essential question: why the hell are Democrats still expecting their vanquished rivals to become the people they wish Republicans were, rather than dealing with those that their tone deaf, hostile, deceitful leaders have repeatedly proven themselves to be?
The Democrats’ recurring mistake is believing Republicans regard defeat as an opportunity for self-examination when instead they look at it as motivation to reload.
Bipartisanship. Compromise. Accountability. These are terms the Republicans have zero use for, no matter how much they may pretend otherwise. Actually, scratch that. They don’t even bother pretending anymore. It’s only the Democrats who harbor the delusion that negotiation and cooperation remain anywhere near the table.
The Republicans have no interest in making peace. They were not in any way chastened by their devastating rout, but enraged and left hellbent on revenge, tripling down on the same ideology that voters overwhelmingly rejected on November 4.
Democrats, meanwhile, somehow hope against hope for the moment when the fever breaks and responsible, reasonable adults will finally reclaim control of the GOP from the maniacs who regard conceding ground as weakness and concession as surrender.
The Republican Party of John McCain is long dead and it ain’t coming back anytime soon. Why can’t the Democrats get it through their thick collective skull that there will be no enlightenment with these people?
Perpetual conflict, you see, isn’t an unfortunate obstacle to Republican politics but in Trump World the whole point? The fight itself is the product. They have no intention of reconsidering the policies (if any), priorities and rhetoric that alienated voters. They see it instead as a call to take a more aggressive strategy of obstruction.
The Democrats keep waiting in vain to discover what Republicans have learned. Here is the lesson they took from getting their asses royally kicked: hold the line, never give an inch and instead do everything you can to take back a foot.
The Republicans are determined to make life as difficult as possible for the new Congress and, concurrently, for the country itself. The Senate’s incoming minority leader John Thune has already indicated that he intends to use the filibuster to block all Democratic legislation, making sure that gridlock remains firmly in place and not a single thing gets done.
Democrats, you see, approach politics as a system for resolving disagreements. Trump-era Republicans view it as a continuing struggle for power. Minus any actual policy, power is the only bullet in their gun. Once stripped of it, they’re left firing blanks.
It all reminds me of Mitch McConnell’s famous declaration in 2010 that, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
As emphatic as this electoral rebuke was, it has not, and will not, trigger a mandatory period of Republican reflection, followed by a public confession, a group hug and a renewed commitment to working across the aisle.
It’s a lovely fantasy and would make an excellent Hallmark Channel Christmas movie: “Miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue,” or perhaps “It’s a Wonderful Bipartisan Bill.” Unfortunately, it’s more likely to run on Fox News and be called, “The Twelve Days of Filibusters.”
Congressional oversight is not supposed to depend on whether the people being investigated find it agreeable. Subpoenas are not invitations to brunch.
The mandate for Democrats is to recognize that the other side is vehemently opposed to anything that smacks of playing ball. It is instead dedicated to delaying, obstructing and evading accountability for anything and everything past, present and future.
A democracy can’t depend for its survival on the losing side becoming nicer. That is never going to happen. There will be no grace from Republicans in this fight, as they are incapable of it. It’s like asking a burglar to leave a five-star Yelp review for the homeowner who caught him.
Democrats don’t need Republicans to see the light. They need to stop waiting for permission to turn it on. And the voters didn’t give Democrats a majority so they could spend the next two years begging Republicans to acknowledge it.
Instead, Dems must treat the other side as if it doesn’t exist — because in every practical way, it doesn’t. The sooner that happens, the better.
(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)