Is Bernie a bully? After Trump, we need to talk about “power”
According to Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders would be a “my way or the highway” president. By mocking Buttigieg’s accomplishments with sidewalks and parks in South Bend, a recent ad for Joe Biden suggests a mayor’s experience with power is poor preparation for the presidency.
How will the candidates leverage the power of the Presidency?
The primary season is in full swing, and although Donald Trump continues to demonstrate the risks of someone willing to abuse the power of their office, we have had little discussion of how the Democratic candidates would leverage the power of the presidency at home and abroad. We should ask this question not because any of the Democratic choices would act with the disregard for the Constitution that the current president has shown, but because both wise and corrupt uses of power are at the heart of any leader’s ability to effect change.
It’s not unusual for voters to know more about a candidate’s position on nuclear power than on executive power. But given that evidence and persuasion no longer seem to break through partisan boundaries, it is important to know not only what a candidate’s health care policy or immigration policy is, but how they would implement those initiatives. Given the damage that Trump has done to America’s standing among world leaders, it’s vital that we discuss how a Democratic president would restore our power abroad.
The New York Times asked specific questions of all the Democratic candidates about the use and abuse of presidential power, seeming to recognize the importance of that issue. Not surprising, however, the responses were general commitments to legality, transparency, and respect for Congress. What is needed is reporting, not transcribing. We need journalists and the candidates themselves to point to examples that reveal how each has used power and authority effectively and ethically — or not.
Using the candidate’s past actions to show how they will act
We have some information about this, but not enough. We have candidates who have been executives — mayors and a vice president, candidates who have been legislators, candidates who have been prosecutors, and teachers. Each comes with different authority and power, not all of which is apparent by calculating the number of convictions, arms deals, or bills passed.
Writing in The American Prospect last August, David Dayen noted that members of Congress can do more than vote. They can work on the inside; using hearings and letters and pressure that nobody sees, to effect change. “Quiet pressure from the inside doesn’t show up on a ‘key vote’ scorecard or as a bill becoming law,” he said.
Dayen noted that Bernie Sanders chiefly uses the “bully pulpit” to advocate for change. In contrast, Dayen outlined how Warren works both on the inside and the outside — advocating publicly for policies but also working quietly on the inside to identify obstacles and persistently pursue a path to success.
A Washington Post article in January by Jeff Stein and Sean Sullivan reported that Bernie Sanders is preparing a number of executive orders for his first days in office, should he be elected. “The unilateral actions considered by Sanders’s campaign are likely to be fiercely opposed by conservatives and even moderate liberals. Sanders could face criticism for moving to take more power away from the legislative branch amid ever-expanding executive authority,” they wrote.
Joe Biden has a long record in public service, but his references to his past effectiveness in Congress fail to reflect that today’s Congress is far more partisan than in the days when he and Lindsay Graham were not just colleagues but friends. In his 2012 Atlantic article, Michael Hirsh compared Biden as Vice President to Dick Cheney, saying that despite many differences: “Both are known to be confident in pushing their views, and both became masters of the Washington insider game.”
Persuasion in the present political climate
Persuasion may be an archaic leadership tool in a political environment so partisan that only one Senator broke ranks with their party after hearing the evidence in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Trump, of course, does not waste time trying to persuade others to embrace his point of view. He acts with sweeping authority and dares his staff, Congress, the Department of Justice, and the courts to check it. He has used the power of the office to bully people into submission and to humiliate and retaliate against anyone who opposes him.
Every Republican Senator who voted to acquit the president endorsed that practice.
House managers warned that acquitting Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress would set a dangerous precedent. They are correct as long as there is a president who chooses to use power as Donald Trump has.
It seems unlikely that any of the Democratic candidates would try to abuse power the way Trump has. But power is a seductive force, and it can be abused not only for personal gain, but to force well intentioned changes. If collaboration and compromise with political opponents is no longer realistic, we need to know not just what policies a candidate favors, but what strategies they will use to enact them. If Democrats say, “I don’t care how my candidate for president does it, as long as it gets done,” then they will be no better than the Republicans they are currently criticizing.
