Everyone, Take a Chill Pill: Trump Is Neither Satan or the Savior

As the reality of President-elect Trump sets in, emotions continue to run high. Riots are rocking big cities such as Portland, Seattle, and San Jose. Hillary supporters are screaming “Not my president!” on Twitter. And the calls for “healing” and “togetherness” from Barack Obama and Clinton herself are being roundly rejected.

I have gay friends who believe that Trump is gunning for them and say they don’t feel safe. They worry that he will roll back gay marriage and anti-discrimination laws and think that he has a personal vendetta against them. Meanwhile, I have friends on the Right who are gleefully gloating that Trump will change everything, that he’s overthrown the political establishment, and that things like illegal immigration and Obamacare might as well be history.

Let’s all take a step back and remind ourselves that we still have a government of more than one person, with legislative and judicial processes that have to be followed.

Yes, it’s true that Republicans will control both the House and Senate as well as the presidency. United government can be a scary thing, especially if you want the government to do as little as possible, as I do. But Republicans hold only a narrow majority in the Senate — either 51 or 52 seats, depending on how Louisiana goes. This is well short of the 60-vote majority that is needed to stop a Democratic filibuster. And while it is possible that Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (F, 40%) will employ the so-called “nuclear option” to pass legislation with a simple majority, we have to remember that there are still plenty of moderate Republican senators. It’s not going to be easy for McConnell to muster even a simple majority to pass anything as controversial as Social Security reform or even a repeal of Obamacare.

I spent years working with an advocacy organization trying to get Republican legislators to stand up to Obama and push back against the Democratic agenda. I think most people in America would be surprised to learn how difficult that task was. It’s easy to think of lawmakers as being motivated by ideology: If they have the chance to do something, they will.

In my experience, this is true only for a very small minority. Much more pressing is the fear of losing re-election. The next election is always only two years away, and this is a fact that is never far from the mind of most lawmakers. They will avoid taking big risks, resorting to the age-old adage “Now is not the time.”

And speaking of the nuclear option, I can only assume that the people who think Trump will bring about the nuclear holocaust just don’t understand how government works. The president can’t just launch a nuclear missile whenever he feels like it. There are other people involved in that decision, people with enough foreign policy experience and common sense to know that mutually assured destruction is not a desirable outcome.

The main thing Trump might — and could — do on his own initiative would be slow down and roll back some executive branch regulations, from the EPA, Health and Human Services, and other agencies. That would be great, but don’t expect Obamacare to get repealed in its entirety tomorrow, Trump fans. It’s something we should push for, to be sure, but we have to remember that the political optics of “taking away people’s health insurance” has given Republicans cold feet before, and it will do so again.

It’s worth remembering that there is a difference between campaign rhetoric and actually governing. Since the election, Trump has already walked back his campaign promises to prosecute Hillary Clinton and overturn the gay marriage decision. He has even started to waver on his famous border wall, rolling out an immigration plan that doesn’t look too dissimilar from Barack Obama’s. It’s foolish to believe anything a politician says on the campaign trail, much less to believe it so strongly that you’re willing to riot over it.

The president is not a dictator. Not yet, anyway. A Trump presidency will see some changes in the country, but not so much as to make it unrecognizable. We will not wake up the day after inauguration to either a right-wing capitalist utopia or a pre-enlightenment land of death camps and intolerance. Trump will govern as other presidents have governed, fighting some good fights, exceeding his authority in some places, and generally accomplishing less than anyone hoped or feared. I don’t begrudge anyone their celebrations; I don’t begrudge anyone their mourning. But a little dose of reality never hurt anyone. (For more from the author of “Everyone, Take a Chill Pill: Trump Is Neither Satan or the Savior” please click HERE)

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