There is no lack of commentary on the prospects under a Trump presidency, but in my view one thing has been missing. It is that Democratic control of Congress would be insignificant. A President Trump would not be bound by ordinary Congressional constraints. He would marginalize an uncooperative Congress, just as Republican state legislatures under shield of gerrymander and voter disenfranchisement move to disempower victorious Democratic candidates for governor.
I sometimes think the great allegorical cartoon of our times is the "Far Side" single-panel where a circus bear, with his muzzle in his hand, says to his fellow bears "Hey, what do you know; these things just snap right off!" The bear of course is the contemporary GOP, and the muzzle represents all those restraints enforced by Custom about what office-holders can't do, because... it isn't done! And the trainer in the background, putting another circus bear through his routine, is the remnant of Democracy which is about to be torn to pieces.
I would say that Congress still has the power of the purse. But that doesn't mean much, I suppose, if every morning Trump would pardon the latest violators of the Anti-Deficiency Act. And I don't suppose that Trump would care much about the subsequent opinions of Mr. Market.
I sometimes think the great allegorical cartoon of our times is the "Far Side" single-panel where a circus bear, with his muzzle in his hand, says to his fellow bears "Hey, what do you know; these things just snap right off!" The bear of course is the contemporary GOP, and the muzzle represents all those restraints enforced by Custom about what office-holders can't do, because... it isn't done! And the trainer in the background, putting another circus bear through his routine, is the remnant of Democracy which is about to be torn to pieces.
I would say that Congress still has the power of the purse. But that doesn't mean much, I suppose, if every morning Trump would pardon the latest violators of the Anti-Deficiency Act. And I don't suppose that Trump would care much about the subsequent opinions of Mr. Market.