“Dealing” with the Devil
by Tom Sullivan
The devil went down to Georgia
He was lookin’ for a soul to steal
He was in a bind
‘Cause he was way behind
And he was willin’ to make a deal
— Charlie Daniels Band – “Devil Went Down To Georgia”
“They may think they can use him, but they know they cannot rely on him.” So says The Atlantic’s Eliot Cohen about foreign leaders approach to dealing with America’s reality-show president. One hopes Democrats’ leaders in Congress are similarly canny:
Following a dinner with Trump at the White House, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the “productive meeting” focused on “DACA,” a program established by former President Barack Obama.
“We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” Schumer and Pelosi said in a statement.
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckbee Sanders last night denied her boss had agreed to exclude the wall. This morning her boss joined her.
No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2017
Noteworthy by their absence last night were House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Way behind (like the Devil), the president wants quick wins, and his Republican colleagues seem unable to deliver. One Republican lawmaker told the Washington Post that what matters to the president, is “putting wins on the board — not the specifics.”
The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol told the Post, “Democratic voters may loathe Trump, but he could conceivably give them lots of policy victories.”
Despite blaring headlines to the contrary, this does not make him an independent, just self-dealing. But we knew that. Foreign leaders know that. The president’s followers are just beginning to figure that out. After last night’s reporting, they were not happy.
Check out Breitbart. A turning point tonight.
"Amnesty Don" pic.twitter.com/wqvv2mTwyD— Robert Costa (@costareports) September 14, 2017
@RealDonaldTrump If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible. https://t.co/uJjxk6uX5g— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) September 14, 2017
There is much more of that from the professional right at Raw Story.
But as we saw during the campaign, the president’s believers behave not like doctrinaire movement conservatives, but adoring fans.
Thomas Edsall thinks they are still prepared to follow wherever he leads, and will sell out conservative dogma and their own religious faith to do so. The Public Religion Research Institute asked voters in 2011 if they could still support “an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life.” The poll found:
White evangelical Protestants were the least forgiving. Sixty-one percent said such a politician could not “behave ethically,” twice the 30 percent who felt that such a politician could manage it.
Every other religious group was less judgmental. Catholics, 49 no, 42, yes; white mainline Protestants: 44 percent no, 38 percent yes; the religiously unaffiliated, 26 no, 63 yes.
And now?
Five years later, in October, 2016, P.R.R.I. asked the same question. The percentage of white evangelical Protestants who said that a politician “who commits an immoral act in their personal life could still behave ethically shot up from 30 to 72 percent. The percentage saying such a politician could not serve ethically plunged from 63 to 20 percent.
A recent paper by political scientists at Brigham Young University finds Republican voters:
malleable to the point of innocence, and self-reported expressions of ideological fealty are quickly abandoned for policies that — once endorsed by a well-known party leader — run contrary to that expressed ideology.
The study concludes:
Those most willing to adjust their positions on ten issues ranging from abortion to guns to taxes are firm Republicans, Trump loyalists, self-identified conservatives and low information Republicans.
The Barber-Pope study suggests that for many Republicans partisan identification is more a tribal affiliation than an ideological commitment.
But Edsall’s piece was likely written before last night’s blast from Breitbart and others. We’ll see soon enough which sirens’ songs the GOP base heeds more.
In the meantime, Mike Lux offers them a Sunday school lesson:
* * * * * * * *
Request a copy of For The Win, my county-level election mechanics primer, at tom.bluecentury at gmail.