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Download File WASHINGTON - One of the consistent themes during Joe Biden’s campaign for president and since he won and was inaugurated has been a desire to find bipartisan agreement with Republicans on his agenda items.
“The American system contemplates that there has to be cooperation to get most things done,” said Chris Edelson, assistant professor in the School of Government at American University.
The false claims by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen and the votes by Republicans in Congress casting doubt on the election “creates a special challenge for President Biden, and one with no easy solution,” he added.
Who is a ‘worthy American?’ Political scholar leads discussion in Greenwich
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1of2Political scholar Norman Ornstein spoke Wednesday night at a League of Women Voters of Greenwich and Greenwich Library event. Ornstein has been sounding the alarm about political tribalism and in the wake of the capitol riot, he spoke about the need for government reform.Photo: Screenshot
2of2Stephen Heintz is co-chair of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship and he outlined the more than 30 recommendations it has put together to try and bring government structure into the 21st Century.Photo: Screenshot
GREENWICH “We have barely dodged a bullet this past week.” That was the message that political scholar Norm Ornstein delivered to a Greenwich audience, saying that he had been fearful about the state of America’s democracy for some time.
Norm Ornstein retweeted this article by a Democratic political consultant, who believes that Pelosi’s endgame is to get Trump to resign. Perhaps my brain is addled by middle-of-the-night doomscrolling, but I wanted to write down all the reasons why this could happen, in no particular order. (Note that this isn’t what the consultant said it’s my best effort, but you might want to read his article first.)
Let’s take for granted the obvious: Trump will not resign because of shame or duty, only self-interest. (I don’t know if I even needed to say that.) So here are some reasons that it might be in Trump’s interest:
MAGAâs last failed gaspâthe moronic lawsuit that tried to argue Texas has the right to nullify the will of the people in key states that swung to President-elect Bidenâwas actually the culmination of the authoritarian impulse that has long been metastasizing inside the Republican party.
Trump didnât inject this disease. Heâs merely unleashed its most deadly elements.
Thirty years ago, Republicans began to nurture the belief that they had a divine right to rule and that the Democrats (buoyed by lots of voters who werenât white) were, by definition, less than legitimate. As historian David Greenberg pointed out, a conviction took hold of Republicans during the Reagan-Bush years that they were somehow the âmajority partyâ and had a lock on the White House.