OPINION:
Everything in this mortal world is subject to limits, even seemingly unstoppable forces such as President Trump.
The extent of these limits in the political world is usually notional, but once in a while, events make the contours obvious. We had such a moment last week, when the president was unable to bend the Senate to his will on the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Consequently, consideration of the reconciliation bill was set aside for a few weeks to see if the more unsavory appearances associated with the fund and its provenance could be sanded down a bit.
The delay was also partly driven by concerns that it might look bad to spend $1 billion on something that has been described (incorrectly) as a ballroom while people are paying a gazillion dollars for gasoline.
Over in the House, leadership postponed, presumably indefinitely, a vote on a War Powers Act resolution that was likely to win — despite the fact that it is not the preferred flavor of the administration.
I’m not sure why anyone really cares about that vote. The resolution, being a modern legislative product, is entirely propaganda. It is designed to allow Congress to say it’s doing something about whatever shooting Americans may be involved in when in fact, it’s doing pretty close to nothing about said shooting.
Nevertheless, team Trump did not like the optics, so it opposed even the modest propaganda effort, which left it in the position of opposing something that is easy to pass, costs nothing and lets members of Congress get on record against an unpopular war.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the week is that just two days before letting Congress spit the bit, team Trump had imposed its will in elections across the South, including wiping out Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican.
What to make of all of this?
First of all, everyone and everything on this planet is subject to limits, no matter how it may appear at any given moment. The president himself is keenly aware that he is limited by time, energy, judges, political competitors, history, tradition, his personnel and on and on.
One of the durable features of the American political system is that the last two years of any second term is usually a tale of slow decline and increasing irrelevance in a world that cares more about what is coming next than it does about what is happening now.
Conscious of this, team Trump has flooded the zone since the first day of his second term. That is wise and prudent. The downside of such an approach is that there are usually plenty of policies and actions in play that generate opposition.
The reality in this instance is that the president has gone a little too far a little too fast and has not always listened to concerns of those on his own side.
The good news is that the Democrats had their own troubles last week, when the long-awaited autopsy of the 2024 election defeat was released. The surprising conclusion was that the Democrats need to talk more and recruit candidates who can at least appear to be more normal.
However bad things are for the Republicans, at least it hasn’t come to that.
The hard fact of life in these United States is that Americans are always more interested in the future than the past or even the present. That fact is especially remorseless for presidents running the bell lap.
No matter how much they fear a president, members of Congress at some point soon invariably fear voters more, because the voters will be there after the president is gone.
No matter how interested voters are in what a president might have to say, at a certain point they are more concerned about who will rule them next.
We are all subject to limits — of time, of place, of history, of law and of our own choices. Pretending otherwise helps no one.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor to The Washington Times.
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