1. The Republicans in the House and the Senate are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reassert the co-equal powers of the legislative branch, powers which have been severely limited by the rise of the imperial presidency since WWII. Let me explain.
2. Before Trump decided to shutdown the government over funding for his unpopular wall, the Senate and the House had sufficient votes to pass bills funding the government. Ryan and McConnell could likely put together *veto-proof,* bipartisan majorities for those bills today.
3. The only reason Ryan & McConnell are not doing that is because they are afraid of Trump and his pitchfork (or worse) wielding base. So they slink up to the WH to be berated by Trump (who they hate) who insists they do something that they know is legislatively impossible.
4. If Ryan & McConnell weren't such cowards, they could walk up to the WH, tell Trump to suck it up, and walk back to Congress & pass veto-proof CRs funding the government w/o the wall. Trump would kick and scream, but there'd be nothing he could do about it. Cks & balances baby.
5. The lesson learned would be when you're a POTUS with 38% approval ratings who is actively trying to obstruct justice with the joker Whitaker & who just fired the remaining semi-sane person in his cabinet (Mattis)...you don't get to tell the peoples' representatives what to do.
6. It would put Trump in his place, and it would set an example of bipartisan cooperation that would build upon the recent success of the criminal justice reform bill. It's how the system is designed to work...one branch reeling in another that has gone off the rails.
7. The reason why no pundits are talking about this is because there's zero chance that Republicans in the Senate or the House would actually do this, because they are TERRIFIED of their MAGA base.
8. Instead of acting like the leaders they are supposed to be, they are acting like frightened followers of MAGA pied pipers like Ingraham, Coulter, Tucker, and Hannity.
9. In historical moments like the one we're in now, when leaders' souls are being tried, strong leaders will rise to the challenges that confront them.
10. Over the past few days, the overwhelming majority of GOP members of Congress have revealed themselves to be the soulless, unprincipled hacks we've long thought them to be.
11. I'm a historian of early America, not a political scientist...so perhaps I've got the technical details about how politics works in 2018 wrong...if so, someone please tell me...but as for the theory behind the Constitution, I feel pretty confident I got that part right.
