What Trump needs to consider during his first 100 days

A Non-Polarizing Secretary of the Interior | The Antiplanner

​More below.

"In 1993, Bill Clinton swept into office with a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate. His attempt to pass a controversial health-care bill failed but generated enough of a backlash that the Republicans took over both houses of Congress in 1995.

In 2001, George H.W. Bush entered the White House with Republicans in control of both houses. The events of 9/11 muted criticism of Bush for a time, but by 2007 Democrats had taken over Congress.

In 2009, Barack Obama became president and Democrats held both houses of Congress. He succeeded where Clinton failed in passing a health-care bill, but Republicans took over the House in 2011 and the senate in 2015.

Pundits say that Americans like to have the party in the White House be a different party from the one running Congress. But, in fact, Americans are angry at the gridlock that results. So why do they vote that way?

I think the answer is that the party that takes over is so full of itself that it overreaches, which has the effect of polarizing the other side. The party in power would be better off taking small steps that lead to genuine results rather than try to take large steps that either can’t be achieved (Hillarycare) or that create more problems than they solve (Obamacare)."

The Antiplanner goes on to advise appointment of a non-polarizing Secretary of the Interior. While not a bad idea, I think a more important one is the idea of how to prioritize policy initiatives.

Trump transition team begins minority outreach with "new deal for Black America"

This is a terrific idea. I think that the failures of the Presidents discussed by the Antiplanner is that they tried to ramrod their parties big goals down the throats of their opponents. A better course of action would be for President Trump to assess which of his most important policy goals could find reasonable support from the other side of the aisle. 

After Clinton's disastrous run with Hillarycare, he hit the sweet spot in his Presidency, and during this time his found that working with the Republicans by taking issues they were already comfortable with, and redrafting them to be comfortable for Democrats he was able to attain a positive legislative agenda. One of the policies that came out of this was adding work requirements to welfare payments. 

Trump needs to find a number of issues that a significant number of both Republicans, and Democrats are willing to work towards, and salt them into his first 100 days legislative agenda. Doing so will allow him to successfully move both parties, create legislative achievements, and build bridges with players on both sides of the aisle which he will be able to use in the future. 

Yes, he should also make an attempt to follow the Antiplanner's advice here. 

A successful Trump Presidency will occur if he is willing to follow the Reagan, and Clinton model of working with the other side to achieve mutual goals, failure will occur if he follows the Obama model, ignores the opposing party, and seeks to force his parties wildest dreams on the opposition party.