Subject: New USAT column: Trump's GOP won't be party of no
From: "Lawrence, Jill" <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 14:03:40 +0000

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/03/donald-trump-indiana-gop-art-of-the-deal-party-of-no-jill-lawrence/83866752/

Trump's GOP won't be party of no: Jill Lawrence
Jill Lawrence<http://www.usatoday.com/staff/10046642/jill-lawrence/>, USA TODAY9:09 p.m. EDT May 3, 2016
Republicans are about to nominate a consummate dealmaker. Beyond the irony, the country could benefit.
[lawrence050316]

(Photo: Jeff Morehead, (Marion, Ind.) Chronicle-Tribune, via AP)
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Of all the Republican pillars smashed to shards by Donald Trump's wrecking ball, the most fundamental repudiation is this: The presidential nominee for the "party of no" will almost surely be the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal.

With a big Indiana win behind him,  a 34-point lead<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ca/california_republican_presidential_primary-5322.html>in the latest poll of California and Ted Cruz out of the race, Trump appears to have lost nothing and perhaps has gained much by talking constantly about the need to make deals. It's possible, in fact, to view his entire campaign as one big opening bid. Making deals is his core identity and, like so many things he says and does, completely counter to the GOP line.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was unable to make Barack Obama a one-term president, but even in Obama's second term he has stuck to the strategy that failed: opposing nearly anything Obama wants. The result is mostly paralysis, even in areas where common ground is not hard to find.

There is, or once was, bipartisan support<http://americasvoice.org/press_releases/updated-15-17-gop-primary-exit-polls-republican-voters-support-legalization-deportation/> for immigration reforms<http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/308307-senate-approves-immigration-bill-in-68-32-vote>, infrastructure<https://www.uschamber.com/press-release/us-chamber-afl-cio-urge-infrastructure-bank> projects, business-friendly changes to Obamacare<http://www.npr.org/2014/05/28/316692125/study-questions-need-for-employer-health-care-requirement>, the Trans-Pacific Partnership<http://www.marketpulse.com/20150618/tpp-back-on-track-in-the-usd-due-to-bipartisan-support/>, universal gun background checks<https://www.qu.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2312>, and Merrick Garland (at least before he was nominated<http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/john-gizzi-orrin-hatch-obama-will-nominate/2016/03/13/id/718871/> to the Supreme Court).

But nothing happened and, as Roll Call columnist Walter Shapiro noted<http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/trumps-dominance-draws-angry-middle-class> recently, that handed Trump an opportunity. "Nobody knows politicians better than I do. They're all talk, they're no action, nothing gets done," Trump has said<http://bigstory.ap.org/article/77ab7f0ac8854934bf0d83dba2a5d592/latest-updates-republican-presidential-debate>. Message: I will take charge of the swollen inert blob of do-nothingism that is Washington and kick its butt into gear. In my direction. I will win. We will all win, always. But make no mistake. There will be deals.

That's far from Trump's only departure from GOP orthodoxy, of course. It starts with the insults, the attacks, the slurs and misogyny, the subtle and not-so-subtle incitements to violence. This is the exact opposite of what the GOP establishment had in mind with its urgent call for outreach<http://goproject.gop.com/rnc_growth_opportunity_book_2013.pdf> to women and minorities after Mitt Romney's 2012 loss. That goes triple for Trump's in-your-face immigration rhetoric.

Some Republicans also like Trump's caution on foreign intervention<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/21/donald-trump-reveals-foreign-policy-team-in-meeting-with-the-washington-post/> - the opposite of the hawkish, neoconservative McCain-Graham wing of the GOP, and a stand that undermines the conservative argument that Obama is a wimp on the global stage. Nor do many Republican primary voters seem to care that Trump has contributed to politicians of both parties<http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/28/426888268/donald-trumps-flipping-political-donations> and held a variety of positions<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/03/donald-trumps-ever-shifting-positions-on-abortion/> on issues that are supposedly near and dear to ... Republican primary voters.

Perhaps not by accident, the primary had evolved into a well-defined contest between Cruz's purism and Trump's promise of pragmatism (despite his sometimes extreme proposals). Cruz was the most conservative, obstructionist candidate of 2016 and Trump, as questioner Mary Katharine Ham noted at a February debate<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/06/transcript-of-the-feb-6-gop-debate-annotated/>, "literally wrote the book" on making deals.

Trump has repeatedly defended his approach while mocking Cruz for staging a filibuster to try to get Obama to kill his own signature health bill. "What came of it? Nothing," Trump said in March in Detroit<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=111711>. "You have to be able to have some flexibility, some negotiation."

Trump has looked back through rosy lenses at the agreements President Reaganreached with Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill. "They got along, they had relationships, and they got things, and very beautifully. Nobody is complaining about the deals that Ronald Reagan made," he said<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=115148>. (At least now. He had a few complaints about the 1986 tax deal<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-reagan-tax-cuts_us_56cf5c95e4b03260bf75fcbd> back when.)

Trump has talked of hugs, kisses, grabbing people and cajoling them. "There always has to be some, you know, tug and pull and deal" on immigration "and almost anything else," he said<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=111711>. On trade. On Iran. On Cuba. On the height of his wall on the Mexican border. Even on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - "probably the toughest negotiation<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=115148> of all time. But maybe we can get a deal done."

After several presidential nominees who some Republicans view as too moderate and bipartisan, there's a craving for a die-hard conservative nominee like Cruz. Chief among them was Cruz himself<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cruz-vows-distance-ahead-crucial-indiana-primary/story?id=38785106>: "The way we win is we provide a clear contrast, we paint in bold colors." But if Cruz couldn't win primaries dominated by conservatives, how could he possibly win a general election?

Given that Trump has vowed to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and is still trying to decide whether he'd order the military to commit war crimes, one can only hope that he'll tone down his own bold colors. As he himself has said<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1603/04/acd.03.html>, "Sometimes you ask for more than you want and you negotiate down to the point."

Cruz could not wrap his brain around that sales pitch. "Do you want another Washington dealmaker who will do business as usual, cut deals with the Democrats?" he asked Republicans<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-republican-debate-south-carolina/>.

Apparently, a lot of them do.

This is surprising, and not just to Cruz. Polls routinely show that unlike Democrats, most Republicans prefer politicians who stand on principle<http://ap-gfkpoll.com/uncategorized/ap-gfk-poll-republicans-want-principles-not-compromise> rather than negotiate compromises. Yet a quintessential dealmaker is running away with the GOP nomination. This strongly suggests that the Republican voters intent on besting Democrats and coming off as winners also want a functioning government. If Trump offers any benefit to the country or his party, it will be by forcing Republican leaders like McConnell to consider a governing philosophy that goes beyond "no."

Jill Lawrence is commentary editor of USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter@JillDLawrence<https://twitter.com/JillDLawrence>.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors<http://preview.usatoday.com/reporters/boc.html>. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page<http://preview.usatoday.com/opinion/> and follow us on Twitter @USATOpinion<http://www.usatoday.com/opinion/>.

Jill Lawrence
Commentary Editor
USA TODAY
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