Who but an artful negotiator has the political skill and
constitutional sense to get things right?
In 2014 I wrote that
political power was increasingly centered on a king-like presidency. I called my
book The Once and Future King. That rubbed some
people the wrong way. They didn’t like the suggestion that they were living in
a monarchy. They yearned for a return of power to Congress under a Constitution
of separation of powers, and called themselves “constitutional conservatives.”
They had an endearingly naïve plan for the way back. First
the Republicans would elect a president who’d share their love for a
constitution of shared powers, and rule modestly. And that would teach the
Democrats a lesson! Subsequent Democratic presidents would take their cues from
the Republicans, and rule modestly themselves. And when the constitutional
conservatives found Ted Cruz, they thought they’d died and gone to Heaven.
But then that didn’t
turn out so well, did it? And it wasn’t simply the candidate’s less than
winning personality. It
was also the lunacy of believing that, through unilateral disarmament, the
Republicans could teach the Democrats a lesson. If a Republican president ruled
modestly, he’d simply be a patsy and scorned by subsequent Democratic
king-presidents.
Democrats have shown
that they’re pleased as punch with one-man rule by a Democratic president. The
Constitution requires a president to “take care” that the laws are “faithfully
executed,” but that hasn’t stopped Obama. He’s done an end-run around Congress,
around the Constitution, making laws by diktat and refusing to enforce laws
that displease him. The constitutional conservative wants to return to a
constitution of 1787, but we’ve returned to the constitution of a century
earlier, that of James I and the royal prerogative.
So what’s the way back,
if there is one? For an answer, don’t look to patsies, or to constitutional
theories about the three branches set in equipoise like the one-hoss shay of
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Look rather to personalities, to the kind of person
adept at reaching across the aisle and reaching an agreement. And who could
that be, other than Donald Trump?
The Framers of our Constitution knew about the art of the deal. When
they gathered in Philadelphia, they couldn’t agree on anything at first. We
nearly split apart into two or three different countries. The delegates
threatened each other with Civil War.
If that didn’t happen, it’s because they made a deal. They took their
cue from Benjamin Franklin, who told them that, when a board doesn’t fit,
carpenters saw off a bit here, a bit there. And that’s how we got a
constitution. One side gave up a bit, the other side gave up a bit, and they
agreed on a Constitution.
They knew it wasn’t going to be perfect, not then, not ever, and that
there would have to be future deals. And that’s the secret of our Constitution.
Deal-making is baked into it.
Things aren’t supposed
to happen unless the president, House, and Senate all get together to make a
deal.
Deals are what the
Founders intended. But now they don’t happen. Not only is Obama bad at
deal-making, he doesn’t even try. Gridlock is his friend. He points to it and says
I have to act on my own. Thazs arrogant. Self-centered. Egotistical. And
Hillary is no better. She feels entitled to rule. She calls Republicans her
enemy. If you thought that Obama wears a crown, wait till you see Queen
Hillary.
Hillary doesn’t have a
legislative agenda. She has an executive action agenda. By contrast, Trump
wants to change our laws, not by executive actions, but by legislative reform.
He’s promised to rip up every single one of Obama’s unconstitutional executive
orders and decrees, but after that you can expect him to bargain with Congress
over a broken statute book.
Think of the things he’s
said need fixing. He wants to repeal and replace Obamacare with a health care
system that serves ordinary Americans, not the trial lawyers, not the insurance
companies. He wants a new immigration system that opens the door to immigrants
who can help make America great again, and shuts the door to everyone else. He
wants a new Tax Code that reduces marginal rates for most Americans and closes
off the crony loopholes that permit billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than
their secretaries. None of that is going to happen except in the old-fashioned
way, when the president, Senate, and House of Representatives agree on a bill.
The list of potential
Supreme Court nominees Donald Trump released tells us he’s a constitutional
conservative. But even before that we should have figured it out. It’s
impossible to imagine him as president doing anything other than negotiating
with Congress. Fish got to swim, birds got to fly, the Donald got to negotiate.
And that’s the way back
