Op-Ed: Alfonso Aguilar: Democrats turn to extreme left tactics in their confirmation obstruction of Trump nominees
Senators left Washington for their August recess without Democrats allowing the quick confirmation of dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees to positions in his administration. The minority’s unprecedented efforts to slowdown the confirmation process is yet more evidence of their newfound disdain for democracy. Not willing to behave like loyal opposition, they have embraced the tactics of the hard Left. If they cannot get their way through the democratic process, they will burn down the house and, of course, blame Republicans for it.
Asked about his extreme maneuvers on confirmations, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) is not hiding their extreme goal either. Democrats, he said, are going to use “every tool at our disposal” to undermine the “disastrous Donald Trump, Republican agenda.”
As Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) reminded his colleagues in remarks in the Senate floor, Senate Democrats have not allowed any Trump civilian nominee to be confirmed through voice vote or unanimous consent, which is the first time in history this happened.
The minority, for the sake of good governance, has always allowed most civilian appointees to be confirmed in an expeditious manner. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama got 90 percent of their non-military nominees confirmed that way. And, while the political polarization in Washington has intensified since then, even under Trump I and under Joe Biden administrations, the Senate managed to use these methods to confirm the majority of their civilian nominees, 65 percent and 57 percent respectively.
Voting expeditiously for most civilian appointees, often in bloc, has always been the norm. After all, it makes no sense to go through a long roll-call vote that wastes precious legislative time to consider individually the confirmation of every lower lever political appointee.
The case of the presidential nominees to the Department of Education (DOE) is illustrative of the Democrats’ undemocratic obstructionism. For over six months, since the start of the new administration, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was the only Senate-confirmed official President Trump had at the Department. Recently, the Senate finally confirmed education expert Nicholas Kent as undersecretary. Even so, five non-controversial assistant secretary nominees remain to be confirmed.
A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) purposely delayed the expedited confirmation of Trump’s for Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Congressional Affairs, Mary Riley, just because she is frustrated with administration policies she does not like.
One has to wonder, by the way, why the Senate has to give its stamp of approval to who is going to hold such innocuous position as the agency’s liaison to Congress.
President Trump and Leader Thune initially thought that by delaying the start of the Senate’s August recess Democrats would reconsider their intransigence. But that did not happen, as Schumer stalled and made unreasonable demands that he knew the White House would not accept.
Fed up with the Democrats’ delay tactics, President Trump took to social media and called on Republicans to not “accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are.”
With over 150 nominees awaiting confirmation, Senate Republicans are now discussing rule changes to overcome the Democrats’ gridlock. From reducing debate time over a nominee to decreasing the number of nominees who have to go through confirmation, different alternatives are being considered to get the appointees confirmed when the Senate is back from recess.
It is unfortunate that Democrats are opting to break the rules of democratic civility. In the not-so-distant past, the opposition, even when having great policy differences with the governing party, not only facilitated a smooth transition from one government to another, but also helped the incoming administration secure the staff it needed to function properly. This was considered a patriotic duty, the constitutionally responsible way to comply with the mandate of the American people to form a new government. Yet, Democrats do not seem to care about constitutional order, which is ironic considering all the time they spend denouncing Trump for supposedly being a threat to the Constitution.
In the past days, in pushing Senate Republicans to confirm his nominees, President Trump encouraged them to “save our Country from the Lunatic Left.” And “lunacy” is precisely what appears to have taken over Democrats, as they follow the extreme Left’s tactics of coopting or destroying the basic institutions of democratic governance. They seem oblivious, in their long march through the institutions, that their undemocratic behavior is a disservice to the American people, who deserve to have a functioning government to address the many challenges the nation faces.
Alfonso Aguilar is the Director of Federal Affairs at Parents Defending Education Action.