John Quiggin: Transactional Trumpism: "Why were so few traditional Republicans repelled by Trump... and why does Trump continue to attract such strong Republican support? One answer is... 'transactional Trumpism'... him because of his success in delivering a traditional Republican agenda. The problem I have with this explanation is: what success? The standard items on the list are: Supreme Court appointments, tax cuts and deregulation. But (1) these things are the absolute minimum that would be expected from any Republican president (2) Trump has made a mess of all them...
...The appointment of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh required the end of the 60-vote requirement and the rejection of the #MeToo movement... a further step in delegitimising the Roberts Court. It’s pretty clear now that the power of the 5-4 major.... As regards regulatory change... Trump has... [a] high failure rate (90 per cent, by one estimate). The crucial issue is that this is a process that requires competence, a commodity that is almost completely absent in the Trump White House.... “Transactional Trumpism” doesn’t make much sense...
#noted
