Obstructionism Derailed

By

       M. Richard Maxson

"I have a concern that we're in this mad cycle of mutually assured destruction, and if our attitude is we're not going to do anything — even if it's meritorious because it might redound to the benefit of this president — I think that we are only going to increase the level of already very significant cynicism people have about whether the system can work. If that happens, it's actually Democrats who will suffer the most" 

                                            - David Axelrod, Barack Obama's longtime political strategist

       Democrats, enraged by the 2016 election, have sought to obstruct and delay the functioning of the American government by leaving key presidential appointment vacant. For the first time in memory, the minority party in the Senate has exploited procedure to systematically obstruct the president from staffing up his administration and it has gone on for over two years! Top Democrats have admitted that their obstructionism is political at its core. We aren’t talking about limited opposition to a few high-profile nominees or unusual circumstances. It’s mindless, undiscriminating, almost endless obstruction for the sake of obstruction. Even uncontroversial lower-level nominees whom literally no senators oppose are not spared and when they do come up for a vote, as the Democrats usually vote FOR the nominee.

       Here is what is happening: Democrats are requiring that Republicans check all the procedural boxes on most nominees, even those they intend to eventually support. That requires the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, to request a formal “cloture” vote to move forward. An “intervening day” is then required to allow the cloture request to “ripen.” Next is a vote to impose cloture followed by 30 hours of “post-cloture” debate before a final vote. Democrats have refused to shorten the debate time — to “yield back,” in the parlance of the Senate — though in most cases there is little to debate. In the end, many Democrats end up voting for the nominee.

       The Senate, under the Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations combined only had to hold 24 total cloture votes on nominations. That’s the once-rare procedural step that unlocks an up-or-down confirmation vote even though a minority has sought to block it. In President Trump’s first two years the Senate had to hold a stunning 128 cloture votes to advance nominations. The Senate proposal would only reduce the time a minority can keep delaying lower-tier nominations after a majority has invoked cloture.

       This new, across-the-board obstruction is anti-American and unfair to the American people who expect a functioning government. With the exception of the acrimonious Civil War era, the Senate has always deferred overwhelmingly to presidents who need to staff the executive branch. Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have been extremely hesitant to change Senate rules and traditions, but they finally had enough. So after more than two years of putting up with the Democratic obstruction or resistance or whatever other Leftist catchphrase they want to call it, Senate Republicans finally voted to curtail abuse of Senate prerogatives and restore the principle that most presidential appointees can be confirmed with a simple majority vote. In other words, most people nominated by the president for government positions will now actually get a fair up-or-down vote, just as the framers of the Constitution envisioned.

      In most previous administrations, the Senate has confirmed almost all political and judicial nominees. The Senate’s confirmation power was intended to stop only those who were patently unqualified. Obviously the ones nominated were qualified as the Democrats eventually vote for them so their obstruction is completely political. This is a fundamental and unpatriotic break with the past. It also puts Americans in danger.

      Crucial jobs are still being held empty out of political spite. Here are just a few examples of what the Democrats abhorrent behavior has not done:

• It’s been 354 days and counting for the president’s nominee to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

• There is still no assistant secretary of state for East Asia, despite the critical need to coordinate our foreign policy toward a threatening China.

• Two-hundred eighty-seven days and counting for the under secretary of state for management.

• There is still no confirmed president of the Export-Import Bank, which makes loans crucial to finance big-ticket U.S. exports such as airplanes.

• There is still no undersecretary of state for economic growth, despite massive change in the way we trade with the world.

• It took six months of partisan delays and several railroad accidents before Democrats let the Senate confirm a federal railroad administrator, even though none of them actually voted against the nominee in the end.

• Noncontroversial lower court nominees have languished for months for no discernible reason before they, too, were confirmed unanimously.

      These are just a few examples of the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats but without missing a beat, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried the old Communist tactic of shifting the blame when the facts are plain to see by stating that it was a “sad day in the Senate’s history,” adding that he was sorry “that my Republican colleagues have gone along with Sen. McConnell’s debasement of the Senate.”

      Americans know hypocrisy when they see it. This is a classic case of "projection," where one takes their own conduct and accuses someone else of engaging in it. This shows something Constitutionalists have long known: For Democrats, forwarding their Leftist agenda and destroying the other party is more important than the prosperity of the nation. We disagree, because we know that partisan bickering is never worth cheating Americans out of policies that help them and their communities. Patriots want a strong prosperous country, not Progressive Socialism at all costs.