Schumer’s resistance is a boost for conservatives

As a conservative, I’m thrilled by the arrival of unified Republican government. But the politician I’m most grateful to in Washington, D.C., today is not President Trump, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

It’s Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

That’s because the Senate minority leader is doing more than anyone in our nation’s capital to make sure that Democrats who voted for Trump in 2016 stay in the GOP fold in 2018 and beyond.

The biggest fear many conservatives had after the 2016 election was that Trump would be too quick to cut deals with the Democrats. Trump holds heterodox positions on everything from spending, foreign policy and entitlements to the minimum wage, trade and health care. If Democrats were smart, they would have reached across the aisle to Trump and offered to work with him.

Trump is a dealmaker, not an ideologue. He would have loved nothing better than to cut deals with Schumer. Indeed, Trump reportedly called Schumer the morning after the election offering to do just that.

Instead of accepting Trump’s outstretched hand, Schumer’s Democrats are opposing virtually everything that Trump does. They are attempting to block not only his Cabinet nominees but also his sub-Cabinet appointments. And they have expressed zero interest in working with him on bipartisan legislation. The battle cry of the Democratic Party is “Resist!”

This unrelenting resistance has pushed Trump to the right. Since Trump knows he can’t get Democratic votes for his health and tax plans, he does not need to make any concessions to win over Democrats.

Imagine what might have happened if Schumer had greeted Trump’s post-inaugural outreach by publicly declaring: “I know Donald Trump well. He was one of my biggest donors. We worked together for years. And I look more forward to working with him as president. We agree on a lot of things, and where we do agree I will be his strongest ally in Congress. Where we disagree, I will try to bring him over to our side, because Trump is nothing if not flexible. And where we can’t cut a deal, we will let the democratic process sort it out.”

It would have been Schumer with Trump in the White House bowling alley, hammering out their differences on health care, instead of the members of the Freedom Caucus.

This would have been smart policy, and it would have been smart politics. But Democrats are in such a hysterical state right now that they are not interested in bipartisanship. They want to destroy Trump. As a result, Schumer is passing up golden opportunities to win policy victories and divide Republicans – all in an effort to placate his Trump-deranged, far-left base.

So thank you, Chuck Schumer. Let’s hope he continues to lead the resistance. Let’s hope he continues to block Trump’s agenda and forces vulnerable Senate Democrats to be Trump obstructionists.

If Republicans don’t blow the opportunity, the result will be legislation that is more conservative – and expanded congressional majorities in 2018.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 5:02 AM with the headline "Schumer’s resistance is a boost for conservatives."