Andrew Sullivan’s latest column is quite the downer, as he compares Plato’s tyrant – who apparently arises from a corrupt and decadent democracy – to President Trump. I’ve never read that particular bit of Plato, so I don’t know the details, but there’s also a striking comparison to the last days of Rome’s old and impotent Senate:
The real possibility of a nuclear conflict with North Korea is getting more real by the day (can you imagine Bolton’s counsel for the Kim Jong-un meeting?); and with Bolton in place, the groundwork for ending the Iran nuclear deal is also finally complete. And what’s noticeable in all this is the irrelevance of the Senate. They refuse to reclaim their treaty-making powers with respect to trade (they could end Trump’s China shenanigans overnight); they have abdicated any influence on foreign policy and war just as they have done nothing to protect the special counsel. They are just like the Roman Senate as the republic collapsed. The forms survive; there is nothing of substance behind them.
And the key figure here is Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). He’d have to rally his Republican colleagues, of course, but as their long-time leader, that would not be difficult; and I suspect the Democrats would be more than happy to remove Trump’s treaty-making and return that power to the Senate (I’m assuming Andrew has this assertion right). It’s within him power to do so.
But Andrew’s point concerning the current Senate is also true in the larger context. It’s been confirming the Trump appointees, rag-tag as many of them have been, with nothing more than a bit of whimpering, at least until Trump sent three very dubious candidates and had them rejected.
Additionally, their efforts to pass the AHCA (failed) and the tax change bill (successful) have not been impressive. Those sorts of efforts should have been a matter of months of work, with public hearings, testimony from experts, and all the usual grinding that goes on in a republic. Instead, they were written in secret by a small group devoid of expertise, and ramrodded through the Senate with no bipartisan support.
In short, Mitch McConnell’s record in this Senate has been pathetically inadequate.
