President Donald J. Trump carried a plurality of the popular vote and won the electoral college decisively (312 to 226). This has given his second presidency a unique feeling of authority – indeed a mandate from the American people.
President Abraham Lincoln’s rule that with popular sentiment anything is possible and without popular sentiment nothing is possible is being borne out right in front of us.
According to Rasmussen Reports, 55 percent of American voters believed the election conferred a clear mandate for President Trump’s policies. Only 32 percent thought he did not have a mandate (13 percent were not sure).
This is almost 2:1 support for a mandate for the Trump agenda among those who have made up their minds.
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The fact is: President Trump has a broad and creative program for reducing the size of government, cutting taxes, increasing take home pay, and solving a number of the nation’s problems.
The American people agree that the torch has been passed from a cognitively declining, increasingly passive liberal Democrat to President-elect Trump. President Trump is filling the vacuum with remarkable speed.
As I wrote recently, we are beginning to see the first effects of public opinion support for the Trump agenda and the momentum of international acceptance of President Trump as the de facto president. Some Democrats are trying to figure out how to respond to the changing times and politics of our time.
The report this week that Sen. John Fetterman signed up for Truth Social, and sent out his first truth was an early sign that some Democrats are open to working with the Trump administration. The Pennsylvania Democrat even attacked the legal cases against President Trump as political and called for President Joe Biden to pardon the new president-elect.
It is possible that Sen. Fetterman is going to fill the void left by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin as an independent thinker willing to work with both parties.
Adding Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to President Trump’s change-oriented team has added a level of prestige and energy that is transformative. Having a chance to meet with the world’s richest man and swapping ideas with two extraordinary entrepreneurs is a real break from the normally dull pattern of meetings members attend.
It was encouraging when CNN reported on Dec. 4:
"Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz joined a Republican-led congressional caucus supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, co-led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna has said he will work with Musk on certain issues, and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders recently posted on X that ‘Elon Musk is right.’"
Congressman Khanna represents a large part of the high-tech innovative sector in Northern California. He has a real sense of how much new technology and entrepreneurship can modernize government and reduce its cost. He wrote an entire article headlined "Democrats can work with DOGE" for MSNBC pointing out how the Pentagon could be made less expensive and more effective.
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These early indicators of potential collaboration can be grown into a genuine bipartisan legislative majority for President Trump’s agenda.
Most of the issues on which President Trump campaigned on are 60 percent to 80 percent approval issues. With the bully pulpit of the White House and the grassroots activists who were a major key to the president winning on Nov. 5, it may be positive to undertake a series of legislative initiatives which attract Democratic votes.
When I was in Congress, I participated in two amazing cycles of bipartisan victories for popular conservatives issues.
In 1981, as a relatively new member, I worked on President Ronald Reagan’s three-year tax cut program. By appealing to the American people and explaining how the bill would make their lives better, enough grassroots pressure developed to get one-third of House Democrats to vote with us.
In 1996, as Speaker of the House, we passed the welfare reform bill which was the largest conservative social reform in my lifetime. By emphasizing a work requirement and refocusing welfare offices to be employment assistance agencies, we led to a greater increase in children leaving poverty than at any other time in American history. Even though the hard left hated the work requirements, the grassroots support for welfare reform (about 90 percent in one poll, including 88 percent of those on welfare) led the Democrats to split in half. We carried 101 Democrats while losing 101 Democrats.
A reconciliation bill that cuts taxes and reforms regulations to create jobs – with three or four months of grassroots communication, education and organization – could lead to a substantial number of Democrats deciding they had to support the bill or face certain defeat.
The potential is here for a positive bipartisanship that reforms the establishment and creates a much more dynamic, safer, and more prosperous America.
