The Democrats’ partisan damage

Now imagine if Dems had taken a different course. Imagine if Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had acted as responsible opposition leaders starting in 2017 instead of surrendering to the mob.

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They would have found a president eager to negotiate on almost ­everything. Trump prides himself on being a dealmaker and loves nothing more than a signing ceremony.

Call it vanity, but because that’s who he is, Pelosi and Schumer could have gotten much of what they wanted. Trump, remember, had been a Democrat, a party donor, and many of his policy outcomes, such as rising wages for poor and middle-class families and record low unemployment for black and Latino workers, were things Democrats always said they wanted to achieve.

But in the early months of his presidency, Pelosi and Schumer and the party establishment decided they would not make deals with Trump and would not even seriously negotiate on most issues. To do so, they concluded, would legitimize him — and probably cost them their leadership positions. So they abdicated their responsibility to the nation in exchange for partisan power.

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