The Leftist Agenda

Henry Houston has done his usual good job with his piece on Rep. Peter Defazio (Nov. 29). DeFazio’s comment that he plans to stay in politics until “the U.S. gets rid of Trump [and] Democrats take the Senate” probably means he’ll be in politics a long time.

I expect President Trump to be ousted in 2020, largely due to the immigration mess. Even former open borders advocates John Kerry and Hillary Clinton recently acknowledged that uncontrolled immigration is “crushing” Europe. It will eventually overwhelm the U.S., too, but as the November election results indicate, Americans largely don’t see that as a problem.

That’s a bad omen for Trump and others who support the rule of law.

Regarding the Senate, though, it’s a different ballgame than the House, where the liberal enclaves on both coasts hold major voting blocs. The Senate is the great equalizer. Each state — red and blue — has only two senate seats, and the states in the heartland tend to be more conservative. So there’s a good chance Republicans will hang on to the upper chamber, at least for awhile.

This and Trump’s veto pen likely mean the new crop of “progressives” and socialists just elected to the House will not, at least in the near term, be able to move their leftist agenda. They will, however, stop Trump from advancing many of his priorities. Accordingly, it’ll probably continue to be business as usual where little gets done and the division grows worse.

Jerry Ritter

Springfield