Democrats Are Losing Their War With Trump

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY:

Democrats Are Losing Their War With Trump:

Leaders in the Democratic Party probably should have thought twice before deciding to mount a scorched-earth campaign against President Trump. So far, they’ve failed to stop any of Trump’s picks, or gain public support for their cause. They have, however, succeeded in making themselves look unhinged.

As we write this, not a single Trump Cabinet pick has withdrawn or failed to secure confirmation, which puts him well ahead of President Obama, who was forced to withdraw several of his initial appointments due to scandals. That included Tom Daschle, Obama’s pick for Health and Human Services, who’d failed to pay taxes, and his Commerce pick, Bill Richardson, who was being investigated for allegedly doling out government contracts in exchange for campaign contributions while governor of New Mexico.

The best Democrats have been able to accomplish was to force Vice President Pence to cast the tiebreaking vote to confirm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
They’ve also failed to convince a majority — or even a plurality — of the public to oppose any of Trump’s executive orders, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll, which asked about 11 of his most controversial ones.

In fact, the orders Democrats invested the most time and energy in attacking get the strongest public support.

Fully 55% approve of Trump’s executive order putting a temporary hold on visas and refugees from terror-prone countries. Only 38% disapprove it. (The IBD/TIPP poll found that 51% support Trump’s order on refugees.) The same share approves of Trump’s order to revoke funding for sanctuary cities. A majority (54%) also back Trump’s call to freeze all federal regulations.

This is a stunning failure on the part of Democrats to sway public opinion, despite having the full support of sign-wielding activists, several corporate executives, most celebrities and the entire mainstream press.

As for the press, their unrelenting campaign against Trump — and their determination to label just about everything he says as a lie — has backfired as well. An Emerson College poll found that the public views the Trump administration as more truthful than the news media, with 48% saying Trump is truthful, compared with only 39% who say the media are being truthful.

Reasonableness and self-control will take you a long way. If you possess them to begin with.

68Posted at 7:04 am by Glenn Reynolds   

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EIGHT YEARS AGO, ON INSTAPUNDIT:

JACOB SULLUM:

Just as the PATRIOT Act was a grab bag of legal changes that law enforcement and intelligence agencies had been seeking for years, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a grab bag of expenditures that leftish Democrats have long wanted, repackaged for the crisis du jour. In both cases, instilling fear was the key to suspending skepticism and cutting off debate.

Yep. Here’s what I wrote on September 14, 2001:

I have no doubt, even as I write this, that longstanding bureaucratic wish lists are being transformed into “essential” anti-terrorist precautions. I also have no doubt that most of them won’t do any more good than the dumb “are you a terrorist?” questions immigration officials have been asking embarking passengers for years.

That’s how it worked out, and the main result was job security for bureaucrats. We’ll be lucky if this bill is only as bad as the Patriot Act . . . .

We weren’t that lucky.

10Posted at 7:01 am by Glenn Reynolds   

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