Newsweek: Which Republican will lead the Trump opposition?

[DonViejo]

NEWSWEEK
05 MAR 2017 AT 14:47 ET

Who is the de facto leader of the opposition for the Trump Administration in 2017? There are sort of two ways you could take this. The first sense is the practical—who has the authority to oversee the policies of President Trump and check or push back against them in some meaningful way? In that sense, the real answer is the judicial branch. But the de facto leaders of the opposition to the Trump administration in 2017 are not, in fact, Democrats at all. Rather, they are the congressional Republicans. They are what will—or will not—stand in the way of bad Trump policies, and they are from whom “checks and balances” will have to come, if they are to come at all.

The two men who will largely determine the course of the Trump Administration are Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Granted, Democrats will stand in opposition, but ultimately, they’re going to be in the minority in Congress at least for the next few years. As such, they are severely handicapped in what they will be able to accomplish, in terms of meaningful opposition. Trump has made it relatively clear that he has no interest in working with them, could not care less about their dissent, and has no plans to somehow appeal to or work with them. As such, there is not much of a political or practical cost that the Dems can inflict on Trump directly. Oh they can hold some stuff up, and they can certainly complain, but they simply don’t have the critical mass needed to actually get in the way of policy. Trump and the GOP can more or less restrict them to booing on the sidelines.

That is, if the Republican caucus stays in Trump’s camp.

Ultimately, much of the success or failure regarding Trump’s ability to execute his policies is going to come down to whether the GOP congressional leadership stays on board, or not. If the Democrats can start peeling away Republican congressmen and start cobbling together some kind of working majority that way, then meaningful opposition to Trump can begin. Alternatively, the GOP can deny them that, but to do that they will likely have to exact some kind of influence on Trump to tamp down the worst of his excesses—they can do some inside dirty boxing and horse-trading to try to piece out of Trump’s platform some kind of workable policy and talking point structure that their members can take back to their voters.

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http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/which-republican-will-lead-the-trump-opposition/

[Warpy]

1. Which REPUBLICAN?

Jeez, Newsweek, there's your problem.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. really. what an absolutely insipid article, demonstrating that

whoever is responsible for this tripe should be fired posthaste, as they/he/she has zero insight into the groupthink that comprises the KGOP at this point.

they're going to ride this Hindenburg straight into the tarmac, or straight into the fourth reich; it all depends on how monumentally ignorant/apathetic the 'majority' of the benighted masses remain

[loyalsister]

8. It's the only possible way to prevent the damage he can do

We don't have the power to stop him right now. Unfortunatly, our only shred of hope lies with some kind of republican initiative. Painful but true.

[vlyons]

2. checks and balances - "if they are to come at all"

don't hold your breath waiting for Ryan or McConnell. Newsweek article is a load of nonsense, and that's being polite. Hey MSM! Republicans don't care what anyone thinks about them. They cannot be shamed. They can only be embarrassed that they did not make more money and bigger tax cuts for Wall St.

[NNadir]

3. Vladmir Putin if Trump doesn't come through. He runs the party.

[dalton99a]

4. All greedy chickenshit cowards. Every damn one of them.

[emulatorloo]

6. IMHO McConnell's in on the cover-up

Maybe Ryan as well. Both are far too resistant to meanful investigation.

[gratuitous]

7. Spine-ectomy required for GOP officeholders

So, nobody.

[Blecht]

9. SNL nailed this last night

Newsweek, not so much.