The Battle

The anti-Trump hysteria that has gripped Washington and the four constituencies that serve big government is historic and troubling. George Melloan discusses this when he writes:

This Washington hysteria comes at a time of full employment, booming stocks, relative peace and technological marvels like an electronic robot named Alexa who fetches and plays for you songs of your choice. What’s the fuss about?

We all know the answer: Donald Trump. The Washington body politic has been invaded by an alien presence and, true to the laws of nature, that body is feverishly trying to expel it. These particular laws of nature demand rejection of anything that threatens the livelihoods and prestige of the permanent governing class.

The “threat” that has Washington quaking is the first serious effort in a long time to curb federal regulatory power, wasteful spending, and a propensity to run up mountainous budget deficits and debt. That’s presumably what the voters wanted when they elected Donald Trump. Democrats—accurately regarded as the party of government—seem to fear that Mr. Trump might actually, against all odds, pull it off.

The Washington Post, the New York Times and other apostles of the Democratic Party have apparently set out to prove that despite their shaky business models they can still ignite an anti-Trump bonfire. A recent headline in the Post. asserted that “Trump’s scandals stoke fear for the 2018 midterms among Republicans nationwide.”

What scandals would those be?

The answer is simple—there have been no scandals (misdeeds backed by hard facts and evidence along with a government cover-up)—except in the fevered imaginations of one or more of the four constituencies. But that's irrelevant. The four constituencies borrow from the playbook of the infamous anti-Communist Joseph McCarthy and use leaks, rumors, and innuendo in lieu of hard facts or evidence (which they do not have) to pillory Trump and his administration. Melloan explains:

The Washington community [the four constituencies] knows how to fight back when it feels threatened. Leakers are having a ball, even if it has taken a lot of journalistic imagination to turn the most notorious leaks into “scandals.” Almost everyone in town has a stake in fending off the Trump threat: government workers and the businesses that serve them, public unions, lobbyists and their clients, owners of posh hotels and restaurants that cater to well-heeled visitors seeking government favors, journalists whose prestige derives from the power center they cover, academics who show politicians how to mismanage the economy, real-estate agents feeding on the boom—to name a few. It’s a good living, and few take kindly to a brash outsider who proclaims it is his mission to drain the swamp.

It just might be that the 'swamp' will win this battle. If it does ... if the four constituencies subvert the will of 60+ million of their fellow citizens, crippling Trump and anything he attempts to do, another battle will be joined. As the fight begins in the new battle, there will be collateral damage, and those who suffer the most grievous injuries will be the four constituencies themselves.

UPDATE:
-----------------
Victor Davis Hansen asks a few salient questions:

Is there a Democratic-party alternative to President Trump’s tax plan?

Is there a Democratic congressional proposal to stop the hemorrhaging and impending implosion of Obamacare?

Do Democrats have some sort of comprehensive package to help the economy grow or to deal with the recent doubling of the national debt?

What is the Democratic alternative to Trump’s apparent foreign policy of pragmatic realism or his neglect of entitlement reform?

The answers are all no, because for all practical purposes there is no Democratic party as we have traditionally known it.

It is no longer a liberal (a word now replaced by progressive) political alternative to conservatism as much as a cultural movement fueled by coastal elites, academics, celebrities — and the media. Its interests are not so much political as cultural. True to its new media identity, the Democratic party is against anything Trump rather than being for something. It seeks to shock and entertain in the fashion of a red-carpet celebrity or MSNBC talking head rather than to legislate or formulate policy as a political party.

In 2016, the Dems argued that they should be elected because they were not Donald Trump. That didn't work out well. Today, they argue that a combination of fake news and innuendo are a good reason to vote for them because—Not Trump!

In reality, I suspect that the Dems understand that their big government "solutions" are out of step with the majority of Americans, that socialism just won't lift off with the mainstream, that the average Joe don't give a damn about the political opinions of Sara Silverman or Ben Affleck, so they focus on destroying their opponents, rather than proposing a viable alternative to their oppositions policies and programs. After all, is more and more spending, fueled by higher and higher taxes, resulting in bigger and bigger government, leading to crushing debt a viable alternative? The voters don't think so.

Maybe that's why the only thing the Dems can do well is the politics of personal destruction. No viable ideas grounded in reality—no problem. After all, why do you need viable ideas when you're the party of the #Resistance.