Trump’s recent demand that the US Senate should confirm his appointees via recess appointments, similarly really does not strike me as Trump caring about what party elites think.
Trump made that demand and John Thune became Senate majority leader without making a clear promise to appoint all candidates via recess appointments.
Elites already managed to prevent the pro-antitrust, pro-Snowden pardon appointment of Matt Gaetz and replace him with a more conventional Republican that’s less likely to go after corporate power and other elite interests.
I know that Trump doesn’t have control of the legislature or anything, but I guess I’m still not quite understanding how all this is supposed to relate to the Jones Act question. Do you think if (big if) Trump wanted the Jones Act repealed, it would not be possible to find a (potentially bipartisan) majority of votes for this in the House and the Senate? (Let’s leave the filibuster aside for a moment.) This is not like e.g. cutting entitlement programs; the interest groups defending the Jones Act are just not that powerful.
If you don’t think it relates to the question at hand, why did you brought up the point in the first place?
I think you are too much focused on Trump (likely because the media likes to focus on Trump) and not on how a successful campaign to repeal the act would look like. It’s unlikely that Trump makes it his agenda, but that’s not required given that the legislature is independent from the executive.
Maybe our disagreement is that I’m more skeptical about the legislature proactively suggesting any good legislation? My default assumption is that without leadership, hardly anything of value gets done. Like, it’s an obviously good idea to repeal the Jones Act, and yet it’s persisted for a hundred years.
Trump made that demand and John Thune became Senate majority leader without making a clear promise to appoint all candidates via recess appointments.
Elites already managed to prevent the pro-antitrust, pro-Snowden pardon appointment of Matt Gaetz and replace him with a more conventional Republican that’s less likely to go after corporate power and other elite interests.
I know that Trump doesn’t have control of the legislature or anything, but I guess I’m still not quite understanding how all this is supposed to relate to the Jones Act question. Do you think if (big if) Trump wanted the Jones Act repealed, it would not be possible to find a (potentially bipartisan) majority of votes for this in the House and the Senate? (Let’s leave the filibuster aside for a moment.) This is not like e.g. cutting entitlement programs; the interest groups defending the Jones Act are just not that powerful.
If you don’t think it relates to the question at hand, why did you brought up the point in the first place?
I think you are too much focused on Trump (likely because the media likes to focus on Trump) and not on how a successful campaign to repeal the act would look like. It’s unlikely that Trump makes it his agenda, but that’s not required given that the legislature is independent from the executive.
Maybe our disagreement is that I’m more skeptical about the legislature proactively suggesting any good legislation? My default assumption is that without leadership, hardly anything of value gets done. Like, it’s an obviously good idea to repeal the Jones Act, and yet it’s persisted for a hundred years.
Congress does have leadership that’s separate from the president. People like Nancy Pelosi have political power.
You also have a lot of other organizations. Organizations like the Chamber of Commerce can drive legislative change as well.