The End of Trump’s Governing Coalition

The following post for members is by David T. S. Jonas, who most recently served as policy director for Tom Perriello’s (D) campaign for Virginia Governor.

Governing coalitions in modern American politics have a funny way of falling apart. Obama’s individual popularity saw him through to two terms, but his governing coalition pretty much collapsed after the Republican wave in the 2010 elections. George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans actually gained seats in his first midterm elections in 2002 (passing major tax cuts in the process), but by 2006, the Iraq War and the onset of an economic downturn brought the Democrats back to power. And Bill Clinton barely made it past his first real budget in 1993 before having to “triangulate” and fashion a new governing coalition passing (by today’s standards) some pretty conservative bills on welfare reform and banking deregulation.