The Most Normal Thing about the Trump Administration

In one area (with an important caveat) this has been a pretty normal administration.

One thing I am struck by in the middle of the entire SCOTUS discussion is that it is mostly normal.  Trump’s nominations to date are normal for a Republican president and the reaction from the opposition is what we would expect.  The whole discussion in the Senate (e.g., Collins and Murkowski and the behavior of red state Democratic Senators and their electoral calculations) are all pretty true to form.  Really, the basic script of these things has been followed pretty closely.

Had it not been for the whole Merrick Garland affair, this would be the most normal thing about the Trump administration.  But, of course, the way the Republicans handled that vacancy has created a great deal of tension and was a maneuver that will go down negatively in the history of democratic government in the US.  This, of therefore, even makes the most normal thing about this administration abnormal.  This is no small caveat.

(I will also note that the TV reality show vibe of the announcement are a bit odd, not that far off from the norm).

FILED UNDER: Law and the Courts, Supreme Court, US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Mike Schilling says:

    (I will also note that the TV reality show vibe of the announcement are a bit odd, not that far off from the norm).

    That was weird even for a basketball player.

  2. Modulo Myself says:

    Trump’s base is the normal everyday GOP. There’s no mystery and no difference. Tax cuts and white supremacy–that’s it.Republicans who are sneering at liberals for thinking Roe will be overturned will laugh in a second if it is. They don’t care. They think women are chattel and they’re defensive when women call them out on this. The anti-Trump critics like Ben Sasse would let him rape their daughters in return to 100 grand. Normal Republicans tired of elitists and they would pay fortunes to get their dumb brood into Harvard. The GOP craves power and they suck at everything other than craving power and it’s completely destroyed them as human beings, which is why Trump is President.

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  3. Hal_10000 says:

    Trump’s nominees are normal because he’s outsourced them. Picking a judge is hard and there is no way he would have the patience to do the actual hard work needed to sort out candidates for himself. Heritage gave him exactly what he wanted: a list of candidates he could meet and choose from. And thank goodness. If he had to do it himself, it would be a fiasco (Justice Jeannine, anyone?). I just wish the rest of the government would figure out a way to box him in on every other decision.

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  4. MBunge says:

    @Modulo Myself: They think women are chattel

    And if we’re going to argue the point on that level, your side is made up of the mass murderers of innocent children. I’m not sure that debate works out quite as well for you as you expect.

    Mike

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  5. MBunge says:

    @Hal_10000: there is no way he would have the patience to do the actual hard work needed

    I wouldn’t vouch for Trump’s attention span but the man ran for President and won practically by himself, and that’s after spending years in the mildly competitive world of high-end real estate development and then reinventing himself as a celebrity at an age when most famous folk have been relegated to “Whatever happened to…?” features in People magazine. The suggestion hard work had nothing to do with any of that is kind is silly.

    If you want to keep up with the “I KNOW Trump” shtick, you can’t give yourself away like that.

    Mike

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  6. rachel says:

    I wouldn’t vouch for Trump’s attention span but the man ran for President and won practically by himself

    Sure, if “practically by himself” means “with an assist from various foreign interests”.

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  7. Guarneri says:
  8. Guarneri says:

    @Modulo Myself:

    Speaking of normal, we have the normal boneheaded leftist commentary.

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  9. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @MBunge: You need some executive time.

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  10. teve tory says:

    @rachel:

    Sure, if “practically by himself” means “with an assist from various foreign interests”.

    And $400 million from the GOP and what was estimated to be ~$5 billion worth of free airtime from ratings-greedy ‘news’ operations.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy/

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  11. CSK says:

    @MBunge:

    Trump’s casinos went bankrupt and he failed, spectacularly, at selling vodka. Anyone who can’t make money promoting gambling and peddling booze is…an idiot.

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  12. gVOR08 says:

    @rachel:

    Sure, if “practically by himself” means “with an assist from various foreign interests”.

    Don’t forget all the help he got from James Comey and FTFYNT.

    2