Trump Inauguration Boycott Highlights Philly Dems' Hypocrisy
Jan. 23, 2017
Was I the only one cringing last calendar week when Fox News' Tucker Carlson took our newly-elected congressman, Dwight Evans, to the woodshed over Evans' refusal to attend Donald Trump's inauguration? Check information technology out:
All three of Philadelphia's congressmen—Evans, Bob Brady and Brendan Boyle—shamefully boycotted the inauguration, making Philly the only large city in the state to have all of its representatives skip the presidential swearing-in. All have safe seats, of class; this is, after all, what Citizen columnist Jeremy Nowak has called Moscow on the Delaware , the urban center where two-political party systems go to die.
Evans' logic was tortured—if disagreeing with a president-elect is grounds for boycotting the one effect where country has been placed above partisanship, doesn't that hateful nosotros'll soon have one-party inaugurals?—while Brady'due south was typically more straightforward, if equally wrongheaded: "Donald Trump spent eight years telling Barack Obama he was an illegitimate president. You tin't have information technology both means," Brady told the Inquirer . "We're Philadelphia, loyal to a fault, and Mr. Lewis is a dear friend."
Brady's referring to John Lewis, the Congressman and ceremonious rights icon Trump chosen "all talk, no action" in (what else?) a tweet, after Lewis called Trump "illegitimate" when announcing his boycott of the inauguration. Okay, allow's get the obvious stuff out of the manner commencement:
This is no cursory in favor of Trump. He should not have dissed Lewis. But—in keeping with the prepubescent nature of the depths to which our political soapbox has sunk—keep in mind that Lewis started it by calling Trump illegitimate, when, in point of fact, he is not. Inconveniently for many of united states, Donald Trump won the presidency and there'south no evidence that Russian hacking influenced that effect. Besides, John Lewis is a big boy. He got into a scrape with the Narcissist-in-Chief, but I bet he'due south handled tougher situations, like when his caput was getting bashed in on that bridge in Selma. Brady and Evans are big, tough guys who seem strangely oversensitive that a dude with orange hair responded to their friend's diss by calling him a proper name. If attending the inauguration was adept enough for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, information technology should take been good enough for our three area congressmen.
Okay, with those pro formas out of the way, here'south the problem: The Philly delegation's "I know y'all are, but what am I?" decision to boycott the inauguration was not only hypocritical, but politically misguided.
Brady, Evans and Boyle could still oppose Trump on numerous fronts, but work with him when it inures to the common good. And they could send a signal that they're not going to follow the tired script of the "but say no" opposition. Being principled and constructive practice not have to exist in conflict.
It'due south hypocritical because the Democrats just spent eight years justifiably lambasting Beltway Republicans for beingness the political party of No, for following a strategy, laid out by Mitch McConnell at Barack Obama's 2008 inaugural, of knee-jerk obstructionism. Calling Trump illegitimate and boycotting his countdown sends a signal that yous're no unlike, that, when the situations reverse, y'all're just every bit probable to place partisanship above state. And that'southward also what is politically tone deaf. If there was one bulletin the electorate delivered last year, information technology's that the same sometime, same onetime is no longer acceptable. Why borrow from discredited play books?
Friday's inauguration was followed on Sabbatum by a heartening display of people power, of citizens taking to streets across the globe and speaking truth to power. And that was as information technology should exist: Citizens protest, while their elected representatives should… represent . Attention the inaugural would not have been an endorsement of Trump. Instead, information technology should have been seen as role of the job of being a congressman…to be at that place, to stand, on our behalf, for principles similar the sanctity of our commonwealth.
We elect representatives to appoint in the political fights of the twenty-four hours for us. So how well-nigh some constructive legislating, Philly delegation? You've got a president who says he loves to brand deals—how well-nigh putting a grand deal on the table for him?
In that location's a deal to be had around two large policy areas. One is infrastructure. Trump has talked most a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, something he mentioned in his otherwise dystopian countdown accost. Such an infrastructure investment scares the bejesus out of Paul Ryan and his similar-minded fiscal conservatives. But Democrats and Trump could align over a game-changing proposal that rebuilds highways, roads, bridges and tunnels throughout the country. Brady, Boyle and Evans should resurrect, as function of such a bill, an Amtrak plan for high-speed rail in the Northeast Corridor first announced in 2012. For $150 billion, it would take all of 37 minutes to accept an Acela from Philly to New York City.
How well-nigh that for economic evolution? At the gamble of making Eagles/Giants games even more than incendiary, Philly would go a bedroom community of New York…which would grow jobs, real estate values, and revenue enhancement revenue to the city. Peradventure, finally, we'd exist able to fund schools, bring downwardly the poverty rate and address the pension crunch that dare not speak its name.
Brady et al could sell this to Trump past promising him some keen photo ops—he'south a sucker for photograph ops—and the added bonus that, by boldly putting America on a high-speed rails par with the rest of the world, he'd also be sticking it to Mr. Amtrak himself, Joe Biden, who talked during the entrada of taking Trump "behind the bleachers" and kicking his donkey. Trump always needs a bogeyman.
But brand no mistake: When information technology comes to infrastructure, given the hazard associated with Trump splitting with his party on such a big spending bill, the Dems arguably need it more than the president does. So the Dems accept to come to the table with something else. This is where they should think out of the box, and join Trump's war on federal regulations.
Now, that might sound like heresy. Liberals love regulations, right? Well, in that location'due south a way to take on the regulation that exists in name merely. Ever hear of the Federal Register? Here'southward Todd Purdum in Vanity Off-white some years ago, with a primer on how so many regulations decreed by government agencies come up to be:
The Federal Annals is published every working day and contains the text of new government regulations, presidential decrees, administrative orders, and proposed rules and public notices. The edition for this ordinary Wed comes in at 350 pages of dense, nighttime blazon. Information technology is unimaginably varied: you'll notice rules for the importation of Chinese honey; proposed conservation standards for home furnaces; permitting procedures for the experimental use of pesticides; announcements concerning the application of new radio and Telly licenses; and hundreds of other items. Y'all can think of the Federal Register every bit the official record of federal activity in all its range. You tin can likewise think of information technology equally the daily report menu of the lobbying industry, whose interests and resources underlie nearly every line of blazon. There is hardly a large private company in the country not dependent on some kind of authorities contract, and hardly a business of any size that is not subject area to some kind of government oversight. And don't forget foreign countries, which accept their own dealings with the United states. The printing may claim the vestigial title of Fourth Estate, but it is the lobbying industry that is now finer the fourth branch of government.
According to the writer Charles Murray, in 2013, the Lawmaking of Federal Regulations numbered over 175,000 pages: "Only a fraction of those pages involved regulations based on something spelled out in legislation," Murray explained in a 2015 Wall Street Journal essay . "Since the early 1940s, Congress has been permitted by the Supreme Court to tell regulatory agencies to create rules that are 'generally fair and equitable' or 'just and reasonable' or that prohibit 'unfair methods of competition' or 'excessive profits,' and leave it to the regulators to brand up any rules they call up serve those lofty goals…If a regulatory bureau comes afterwards you, forget about juries, proof of guilt beyond a reasonable uncertainty, disinterested judges and other rights that are office of due process in ordinary courts. The 'authoritative courts' through which the regulatory agencies impose their will are run by the regulatory agencies themselves, much as if the police force section could make upwards its own laws and then apply its ain prosecutors, judges and courts of appeals."
Friday's inauguration was followed on Sabbatum past a heartening display of people power, of citizens taking to streets across the globe and speaking truth to power. And that was as it should be: Citizens protest, while their elected representatives should… stand for .
Murray makes a stardom between sensible regulations—rules that require, say, secure structural support for tunnels in coal mines, and those that get written and passed thank you to the laws of bureaucratic entropy: "…such equally ones that mandate a certain sort of latch for a baker's flour bins or the proper way to describe flower bulbs to customers, or the kind of registration form to be attached to a toddler'due south folding chair."
On inauguration day, Trump signed an executive society temporarily freezing the Federal Register and then that orders passed in the waning days of the Obama administration but not published still will be lost forever. Well, Brady, Evans and Boyle could go to Trump, a copy of that day'southward Federal Register in mitt, and tell the president they want to help cease the scourge of over-regulation. Permit's go before the cameras and drain the swamp together, they could say.
In other words, Brady, Evans and Boyle could notwithstanding oppose Trump on numerous fronts, only work with him when it inures to the mutual good. And they could ship a signal that they're non going to follow the tired script of the "just say no" opposition. Being principled and constructive do not have to be in conflict. And who knows? Maybe it would too exist smart political strategy—because near voters want solutions, not more name-calling.
A bulletin from The Philadelphia Citizen
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/trump-inauguration-boycott/
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