The Growing Polarization In Washington

Wall Street Journal: As Donald Trump Heads to Congress, a New Polarization Is Hardening

An inability to find common ground could test the president’s agenda.

It was possible, not so long ago, to imagine Donald Trump to be such an unconventional figure that he could bust apart traditional partisan alliances and use his populist approach to create new kinds of political coalitions.

As President Trump gets set to appear before a joint session of Congress for the first time Tuesday night, that possibility seems a long way off.

Instead, just over a month into his term, Mr. Trump stands as an exceptionally polarizing figure. He inspires intense support among his admirers and equally intense animosity among his detractors, with remarkably few Americans standing in the middle without a strong view. Everybody appears to have an opinion about Donald Trump, and those opinions already appear locked in.

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WNU Editor: From my vantage point .... Washington D.C. has always been a polarizing place .... but it is definitely worse now. President Trump is the outsider coming in .... and his agenda is not what many in Washington favor or support. But he did win the Presidential election .... and he was very clear on what he was going to do. This is the quandary that many of President Trump's opponents are in right now .... they do not have the mandate that he has .... so their options on stopping him are limited .... but they are still going to try. Will President Trump succeed .... I do not know. He inherited a losing war in Afghanistan, a Middle East in complete and utter chaos, a new Cold War with Russia, and a rising China that has no patience on what the U.S. wants. On the economic front .... dismal growth, 100 million American adults not working, a failing infrastructure, a health care system in crisis, a massive budget deficit, and a Federal Reserve that has on its books trillions in funds from quantitative easing that will need to be washed through the financial system .... an inflationary catastrophe if there ever was one. Is President Trump responsible for all of this .... no. The ones who are responsible for all of this are the ones in Congress, past Presidents, academia, media, pundits, and special interest groups .... and they are now almost all unified against this President. This is an unprecedented moment in American history .... and quoting Robert F. Kennedy in a 1966 speech .... There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. Sighhh .... indeed.