Presidential elections are decided by many things: media exposure, financial backing, personal chemistry, timing and luck. Policy positions often are just a way of signaling where a candidate stands on the political spectrum. But 2020 is shaping up to be different, the most ideas-driven election in recent American history. On the Democratic side, a robust debate about inequality has given rise to ambitious proposals to redress the imbalance in Americans’ economic situations.
“With Trump gone you’re going to begin to see things change,” Biden said in early June. “Because these folks know better. They know this isn’t what they’re supposed to be doing.” The growing Democratic push for more presidential power has its roots in a U-turn Obama made about halfway through his presidency — and a lingering sense of regret among progressives about how much more he could have accomplished if he’d reversed course earlier.
The obstruction began immediately. When Obama’s stimulus package came up for a vote that February, the entire House Republican caucus voted against it. Under Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush, the Senate confirmed between 79 and 93 percent of the judicial nominees put forward during each administration's first 18 months. The confirmation rate during Obama’s first year and a half was 43 percent, or roughly half the historical norm.
Not after 2012. By the end of his second term, Obama had added cutting carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, strengthening gun background checks, requiring insurers to cover birth control and raising labor standards for federal contractors to his go-it-alone list. California Sen. Kamala Harris is perhaps the best example. Last week, Harris announced that as president she will reinstate Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which Trump has attempted to end. But she won’t stop there. In addition, Harris plans to make it easier for DACA recipients to apply for citizenship while extending the program’s protections to their parents and other law-abiding immigrants with strong community ties.
By campaigning in advance on plans meant to circumvent future obstruction — as opposed to just responding to existing obstruction with executive workarounds — Harris is taking Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” strategy more literally than Obama himself did, building a popular mandate for an approach to presidential power that at least partially writes off congressional engagement from the get-go.
You forgot free medical for illegals! How convenient to leave that out!
So, SOCIALISM for all is their 2020 platform?
Why stop at every American....
AndrewRomano Democrats lack civility. They scream in your face, become violent (remember Maxine Waters), push, shove, & do anything necessary to silence conservatives. If the Dems want civility, start in your own party.
AndrewRomano The ideas election? LOL. It's the 'You Get Free Money' Primary. No ideas. Just pandering.