The Stagnant Quo

Give the Democrats credit: they at least play to win.

As the Democrats slide more into the party of AOC and Mamdani, one has to admit one point. Sure, one can hate every policy position they hold—lots of free stuff, open borders, taxing the rich dry, etc. But the Democrats play to win and hold power. While most Republicans are inept when it comes to policy and making laws, the Democrats go for the jugular. Do you think that a future Democratic majority in the Senate will worry about “blue slips” or filibusters? They look at their goals and figure out how to attain them; if it means destroying the norms, lying and pushing people aside, they’ll do it.

The Republicans had an opportunity to gerrymander Indiana and add two Republican seats in the House. The local Republicans punted. Don’t know that the House is nearly evenly split? They are not aware that protecting a majority in Congress would help Donald Trump push through his very popular agenda (Trump won the state by nearly 20 points in 2024)? Of course, they know, but given an option between Trump’s MAGA and the old ways of blurred Democrats and Republicans self-enriching and not taking care of the American people, they’ll vote for the latter every time. Miami ran an anti-Trump Republican for mayor and lost the position for the first time in 30 years.

Congress, stagnation is thy name. The president has dozens of unconfirmed people, and the Senate, held by the Republicans, is in no hurry to get them into their jobs. The Senate and House hated DOGE, as it cut out parts of their gravy train. In short, whereas Democrats understand how to wield power to advance their interests, Republicans have decided that if they have to choose between Donald Trump and the Chamber of Commerce, they’ll take the latter. Where is George W. Bush? Or Paul Ryan? John McCain or Mitt Romney? Those are the spineless Republicans that they miss. The demanding Donald Trump and his care for the American people are too much for them. Everyone becomes a multimillionaire in Congress. Why let Trump make them work for their fortune?

And the real problem is ultimately the electorate. In the US and Europe, there are simply not enough “patriots” or “caring citizens” to get a mass of like-minded legislators elected to effect change. England is currently run by Labor, after 14 years of the Tories doing nothing that could be considered “conservative”. Sure, they presided over Brexit and then did everything possible to blunt its impact. Boris Johnson babbled about climate change and not one of them called out “trans” 1/10th the amount that JK Rowling did. But the leaders, whether Labor or Tory, were all put in office by the people. Even in the US, all of those weak fish Republicans who refuse to pass a solid election security law that would include paper ballots, picture IDs, and one-day voting don’t care about the president and his mandate for change. The president told Republican senators to ditch the filibuster and get his program codified into law. Yawn. They figure that they’ll lose one or both houses in 2026 and then ride out Trump until 2028 and then get a new president who knows how to play by the old rules. Who cares about “We the People”? We pay lip service to them to get elected and then we ignore the border, the massive debt, the threats of war with China or Islam taking over America.

Do you remember the “yellow vest” protests in Paris? Or the tractor protests in Berlin? Maybe the righteous anger of locals in Epping, England, over illegal aliens who had committed crimes in their neighborhoods? Did any of these protests move the needle? Only in the wrong direction, France, Germany and other European countries have done their best to make sure that conservative candidates don’t win. Romania arrested a leading conservative candidate and only rested when the EU-approved guy won. During COVID, it came out that many people liked the government telling them what to do, when they can leave home, and how to go about their lives. There were very few open protests about lost rights, children going down the tubes with no school, or businesses lost to voodoo science. The only big protests seemed to be BLM, and the “scientific community” disgraced itself by saying that racism is a more dangerous disease than the virus, so massive protests without masks were acceptable. While you got finked out by your neighbors for having your in-laws over, BLM was burning and looting, with the official approval of Science®.

The Republican state officials who are too holy to gerrymander have no problem that states like Massachusetts have about 30-40 percent Republican turnout but not a single Republican rep in Congress. They have massaged their electoral districts to weaken Republican voting into oblivion. The Republicans who refuse to act in order to strengthen Donald Trump or help get his program through Congress support what I call the “stagnant quo." Like the sheriff in the first Rambo movie, they like things exactly as they are. Trans does not bother them, and they send their daughters shopping to forget being pummeled by some boy in a sports competition. They like the illegal aliens, especially the ones who do their lawns and babysit as required. They don’t care about the national debt if they can get USAID dough for their friends and family via NGOs that they run out of Washington. I once again send you back to the movie, The Man in the White Suit, where a revolution in textiles leads to every attempt to kill the inventor and destroy his invention, possibly putting dry cleaners, tailors and others out of business. Leaders in the West don’t want Trump or their local conservative versions of him. They want China winning, they want endless immigration to replace the babies never born. Not one leader in the West came to power through a coup; rather, people who don’t care about the future of their countries put them into office, and those elected use their power to blunt mavericks like Trump, Tommy Robinson, and Marine LePen.

It is not a surprise that Donald Trump and Tom Brady are friends. Both are fierce competitors and want to win. The president has surrounded himself with competent people who understand what their boss wants from them. He can fire them in an instant if they fail the mission. Donald Trump cannot fire Republican representatives in Washington or in any statehouse. His goals and theirs are not the same—by a long shot. While the president does have some good supporters in both houses of Congress, he by no means has all 53 senators and 219 House members on his side. Look at the self-destruction of Marjorie Taylor Greene or the preening of Thomas Massie. These are Republicans? Yup. Are they pro-American MAGA folks? Nope. And this is a problem that is very hard to overcome. The president can put out a dozen executive orders a day, and if a Democrat once again arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he will undo them all in a single morning. The president needs his major initiatives turned into laws, and he once again told the Senate to ditch the filibuster. I don’t see them doing it and I don’t even see 51 votes should they do it. MAGA is the closest thing we have to the intentions of the Founding Fathers, but there are not enough supporters to get a solid group in Congress or in statehouses. MAGA may end with Donald Trump. The people and their representatives like it the old way.