James Capretta argues on the home page today that Republican congressmen should advance a practical and politically appealing conservative agenda because neither Trump nor Cruz is likely to do so. I agree with Capretta’s (and Speaker Ryan’s) conclusion that the congressional party should advance its own agenda, but I’d make a different argument for that conclusion: It’s what congressmen should be doing regardless of the quality of the presidential nominee. And it is what they have usually done.
We have gotten accustomed to the idea that it’s presidents who set the agenda, and the purpose of a congressional majority is either to implement the one set by an allied president or to block the one set by an opposing president. But that’s not the way Congress has related to any of the last three presidents. A lot of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign agenda consisted of signing congressional Democratic proposals that President George H. W. Bush had vetoed. Substitute a few words and the same is true of 2000 and 2008.
A lot of Republican congressmen have in recent years complained that the legislature has atrophied and needs to reclaim its power in the constitutional order. Part of that reclamation involves fighting back against presidential unilateralism. But surely part of it should also involve coming to see themselves once more as having an independent role in figuring out what public policy should be.
Congress Needs Self-Respect