In an opinion piece at Crooked.com, Tim Miller notes Donald Trump’s “expansive view of the possible,” a quality that led the president to place “no artificial limits on his aspirations in business or in life,” up to and including the presidency. In contrast, Miller observes, opponents of Trump lack any commensurate imagination in opposing him, viewing the president as somehow invulnerable. Nowhere is this divide more telling or dangerous, he notes, than in our current moment, in which “the writing of [Trump’s] demise is on the wall and it is past time his critics started acting like it.”
Miller concentrates the majority of his critique on fellow Republicans who have failed to stand up to the president, though he damningly notes that the Democrats appear to have largely decided to keep their powder dry for now in the hope that the midterms bring a hoped-for blue wave. This, along with his observation that not a single likely Democratic presidential contender has thrown him- or herself wholesale into gumming up the ability of the Senate to get any work done as means of slowing down this presidency, provide a good summary of what lack of imagination looks like on the Democratic side of the aisle, for good and for bad. The Democrats are largely committed to resolving the crisis of the Trump presidency at the ballot box in November and beyond, and by avoiding the substance or reputation of being a purely obstructionist party while still opposing Donald Trump on most or nearly all matters of substance.
What Miller suggests with his “lack of imagination” critique is that the Democrats may have failed to understand that their attempt to thread the needle in their opposition to Trump ignores or downplays two factors: that unyielding opposition might in fact weaken the president and/or strengthen the Democratic Party, and that this presidency has now arrived at a point where Trump is much more vulnerable than his opponents suppose him. In fact, this new, weakened phase of the Trump presidency should encourage the Democrats to re-think and stiffen their opposition to the president. In many respects, this is due to the specific nature of his vulnerability: the mounting and irrefutable evidence that Donald Trump has been, and continues to be, enmeshed in criminal enterprises of diverse scope, from conspiracy to break election laws, to using his charitable foundation for personal gain, to accepting the assistance of Russia to gain the presidency.
The Democrats’ fears of being pigeon-holed and punished as the party of "no" have been amplified by their ongoing internal struggle over identity and direction; the risk of being seen as obstructionist logically rises along with a lack of a clear agenda being advocated. But I think the Democrats have greatly underestimated the room for maneuver Trump has given them to adopt policies and arguments that can unite the vast majority of Democrats, a great many independents, and even non-Trump-worshipping Republicans. For instance, in his subversion of the rule of law and attacks on voting rights, the president has opened up great swathes of uncontroversial American values for the Democratic Party to claim as its own. This is one area in which “lack of imagination” is a decent critique for why the Democrats are not moving more forcefully to identify themselves as the party of law and defense of the Constitution. The Democrats may still have troubling and serious conflicts to work out, but for the time being, there is plenty of common ground on which to put forward substantive policies.
Likewise, “lack of imagination” might describe the failure so far to press the case that the Trumpified GOP is simply no longer fit to hold power in our democracy. Republican officials have largely compromised themselves by running cover for this administration’s law-breaking, collusion, larceny, and general corruption. All opposition to Trump should ever and always be tied to a larger strategy to make the GOP pay for becoming indistinguishable from this absurd president. A party that has adopted policies of voter suppression and ginning up support for white nationalism in order to maintain its grip on power until the end of time deserves only to be discredited and defeated.
Thinking imaginatively also seems like a good prescription in light of the dangers that accompany the president’s increasingly besieged state. There’s a good case to be made that we’re entering the most dangerous phase yet of the Trump presidency. The heartening news, though, is that Trump’s behavior to date means that his maneuvers in the coming months will follow predictable patterns. Such predictability provides an opportunity for his opponents to anticipate and either block or mitigate the harm he might do. At worst, putting forward a narrative of an increasingly desperate president who will do anything to save himself will provide a framework for public understanding of the awful intent of his actions, and help build a case for unyielding opposition. At best, such a narrative will constrain the president from doing his worst out of concern for engaging in actions already painted in the public sphere as unacceptable. At the most fundamental level, Democrats need to regain the initiative against this president, which is at odds with their deference to the Mueller and other investigations, but necessary when faced with a president who is willing to undermine the rule of law in order to save his own skin.