For years I have argued that the battle between the Right and the Left in this country is one-sided. Only the Right and the Republicans are battling. Democrats and the Left are hardly resisting, let alone engaging the Right. And now President Trump is making the one-sided situation much more apparent.
Take last week. The week started with the Federal Reserve Bank cutting interests rates again after cutting them in July. They announced that the cuts were needed to protect the economy from the consequences of a global slowdown and President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. Yes, to solve an economic problem brought on by Trump’s uninformed policies.
In 2018, Trump impulsively and foolishly raised tariffs on Chinese goods, a move opposed by the majority of economists and analysts. Tariffs are additional taxes on imports from other countries. Thus some products from China cost more to Americans.
China, of course, retaliated by raising tariffs on goods exported from the United States to China. This action makes these goods more expensive to the Chinese. The Chinese buy fewer of these goods, thus affecting the industries in the U.S. that produce them.
Overall, this U.S.-China trade war is having a predictable adverse effect on the American economy. According to research by JPMorgan Chase, American households will face up to $1,000 additional costs each year from tariffs.
When Trump raised tariffs on steel and aluminum, affected nations retaliated by placing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of American agricultural products. The tariffs have so devastated some farmers that Trump has spent $12 billion bailing them out. Thus $12 billion is taken from health, education, childcare, and other needed issues that would not have been necessary but for Trump’s outrageous actions.
This is not widely known—and it should be. I blame the Democrats for not continually pointing this out.
Last week ended with much of Washington in a stew over Trump’s approach to foreign relations. He often uses the power of the White House to aid himself, usually financially.
This time it is political, as he seems to have put pressure on the President of Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. If true, this is high crimes and misdemeanors, thus impeachable.
A whistleblower has issued a classified complaint about something in the White House that pundits think revolve around Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. But the White House, with assistance from Bill Barr’s Justice Department, is blocking the legally required transmission of the complaint to the relevant Congressional committee.
Here we have one more disruption of the orderly and usual process of business. The White House is blocking current and former government officials from answering Congressional subpoenas and testifying before Congress. The White House is flagrantly opposing Congress’s constitutionally required oversight duties.
I won’t pretend to know all the things the Democrats should do that they are not doing. However, a few are obvious. They should be anticipating some of the predictable moves of Trump and the Republicans in Congress and be prepared to engage them with all of the means available to Congress. These means include the judicious use of its power to withhold funds from agencies, the arrest of a couple of the witnesses who are refusing to obey subpoenas, and the impeachment of Trump.
The situation is clear. Unless the Congress—the Democrats in the House—play hardball with its oversight powers, relevant witnesses will not testify in public, and relevant documents will not be handed over.
A key thing the Democrats must start doing is explaining to the public—over and over again—what they are doing, or trying to do, and why.
