Congress is either a national joke or a national disgrace, depending on your point of view. It can make a perfect straw man for Presidential candidates. Harry Truman wasn’t supposed to win in 1948, but “Give ’em hell Harry” ran against not just Republican Dewey, but a “do nothing Congress.”
It was hard to attack Dewey, a widely respected, cautious and courteous man. But Congress was easy to go after. Whenever you take on Congress you’re in a target rich environment. It’s like, where do you begin?
The House just passed a CR to keep the government open for a couple more months. This is nothing new. At 538.com they have a nifty chart showing “20 years of Budget Procrastination.” Since 1977 Congress has passed an average of 4.6 CR’s every fiscal year.
So instead of writing a budget (the one thing every legislature has to do every year) they screw around with public spectacles they call hearings. Accomplishing nothing, but giving members a chance to strut their stuff.
Politicians want to be movie stars, movie stars want to be politicians. It doesn’t work, either way. Let me put it kindly. Most Congressmen suffer from public exposure.
Everybody’s sick of Congress. Galljup says they’re at 20% approval. They haven’t been over 30% for 10 years.
So I think Trump takes a page out of Harry Truman’s playbook, and runs against Congress, as well as the Democrat. But he won’t call it a “do nothing Congress.” He’ll come up with something better.
reaganproject.com 