A YEAR WITHOUT A PRESIDENTIt seems like forever,but it was just...

A YEAR WITHOUT A PRESIDENT

It seems like forever,
but it was just one year ago that Donald Trump was elected president. So what
have we learned about the presidency and who is running the country? 

1. The first big thing
we’ve learned is that Trump is not really the president of the United States –
because he’s not governing.

A president who’s
governing doesn’t blast his Attorney General for doing his duty and recusing
himself from an FBI investigation of the president.

A president who’s
governing doesn’t leave the top echelons of departments and agencies empty for
almost a year.

He doesn’t publicly
tell his Secretary of State he’s wasting time trying to open relations with
North Korea. Any president with the slightest interest in governing would
already know and approve of what his Secretary of State was doing.

He doesn’t fire half
his key White House staff in the first nine months, creating utter chaos.

A president who is
governing works with his cabinet and staff to develop policy. He doesn’t just
tweet new public policy out of the blue – for example, that transgender people
can’t serve in the military. His Secretary of Defense is likely to have some
thoughts on the matter – and if not consulted might decide to ignore the
tweet.

He doesn’t just decide
to withdraw from the Paris Accord without any reason or analysis.

A president who is
governing works with Congress. He doesn’t just punt to Congress hard decisions
– as he did with DACA, the Iran nuclear deal, insurance subsidies under the
Affordable Care Act, and details of his tax plan.

He doesn’t tell a
crowd of supporters that he’s ended the Clean Power Plan – “Did you see what I
did to that? Boom, gone” – when any such repeal requires a legal process, and
must then withstand court challenges.

Instead of governing,
Donald Trump has been insulting, throwing tantrums, and getting even:

Equating white
supremacists with people who protest against them. Questioning the
patriotism of NFL players who are peacefully protesting police violence and
racism.

Making nasty remarks
about journalists, about his predecessor as president, his political opponent
in the last election, national heroes like Congressman John Lewis and Senator
John McCain, even the mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico.

Or he’s busy lying and
then covering up the lies. Claiming he would have won the popular vote if
millions hadn’t voted fraudulently for his opponent – without a shred of
evidence to support his claim, and then setting up a fraudulent commission to
find the evidence.

Or firing the head of
the FBI who wouldn’t promise to be more loyal to him than to the American
public.

A president’s job is
to govern. Trump doesn’t know how to govern, or apparently doesn’t care. So,
logically, he’s not President.

2. The second thing we’ve
learned is that Trump’s influence is waning.  

Since he lost the
popular vote, his approval ratings have dropped even further. One year in,
Trump is the least popular president in history with only 37 percent of
Americans behind him.

Most Republicans still
approve of him, but that may not be for long.

He couldn’t get his
pick elected to a Senate primary in Alabama, a state bulging with Trump voters.

Republican senators
refused to go along with his repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And they’re
taking increased interest in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Business leaders
deserted him over his remarks over Charlottesville. They vacated his business
advisory councils.

NFL owners have turned
on him over his remarks about players. Tom Brady, who once called Trump “a good
friend,” now calls him “divisive” and “wrong.”

There’s no question
he’s violated the Constitution. There are at least three grounds for
impeachment – his violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution by
raking in money from foreign governments, his obstruction of justice by firing
the head of the FBI, and his failure to faithfully execute the law by not
implementing the Affordable Care Act. And a fourth if he or his aides colluded
with Russia in the 2016 election.

But both houses of
Congress would have to vote for his removal, which won’t happen unless
Democrats win control in 2018 or Republicans in Congress decide Trump is a
political liability.

3. The third big thing
we’ve learned is where the governing of the country is actually occurring.

Much is being done by
lobbyists for big business, who now swarm over the Trump administration like
honey bees over a hedgerow of hollyhocks.

But the real
leadership of America is coming from outside the Trump administration.

Leadership on the
environment is now coming from California – whose rules every automaker and
many other corporations have to meet in order to sell in a state that’s home to
one out of eight Americans.

Leadership on civil
rights is coming from the federal courts, which have struck down three
different versions of Trump’s travel ban, told states their voter ID laws are
unconstitutional, and pushed police departments to stop profiling and harassing
minorities.

Leadership on the
economy is coming from the Federal Reserve Board, whose decisions on interest
rates are more important than ever now that the country lacks a fiscal policy
guided by the White House.

Most of the rest of
leadership in America is now coming from the grassroots – from people all over
the country who are determined to reclaim our democracy and make the economy
work for the many rather than the few.

They stopped Congress
from repealing the Affordable Care Act.

They’re fighting Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos’s plan to spend taxpayer money on for-profit schools and
colleges that cheat their students.

They’re fighting EPA
director Scott Pruitt’s crusade against climate science.

And Attorney General
Jeff Sessions’s attempts to tear down the wall between church and state.

They’re fighting
against the biggest tax cut for the wealthy in American history – that will be
paid for by draconian cuts in services and dangerous levels of federal debt.

They’re fighting
against the bigotry, racism, and xenophobia that Trump has unleashed.

And they’re fighting
for a Congress that, starting with next year’s midterm elections, will reverse
everything Trump is doing to America.

But their most
important effort – your effort, our effort – is not just resisting Trump.
It’s laying the groundwork for a new politics in America, a new era of decency
and social justice, a reassertion of the common good.

Millions are already
mobilizing and organizing. It’s the one good thing that’s happened since
Election Day last year – the silver lining on the dark Trump cloud.

If you’re not yet part
of it, join up.