Friday Mailbag!

Pre-Thanksgiving edition!

Start here: Thanksgiving is the best holiday.

My case:

• It’s centered entirely on eating

• Related corollary: Pies are delicious and we should always find more times to eat them

• Football is on literally all day

• There are very low family expectations — unlike Christmas — and so less chance for unhappiness/blowups

• Did I mention the pies?

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Ok, now to the business at hand — your questions!

Every Friday I answer queries, comments, critiques and kudos(?) from the “So What” community. (NOTE: That community is growing rapidly. We are now over 22,000 subscribers!)

Everyone can read the first few questions and answers. But to read the whole thing you need to become a paid subscriber. So, why not give yourself an early Thanksgiving present — is that a thing? — and become one! It’s $6 a month or $60 for the year.

To the questions!

Q: The only way I see the Dems getting rid of Trump and Trumpism is to let him fail, miserably, by allowing him to get his way, not blocking appointments or bills, etc. Only then will his supporters see how bad he is and hopefully stop supporting him. Painful, I know. But if he's hindered in any way, he'll blame others for his failures and will continue to garnish support. Thoughts?

A: It’s an interesting theory but a) I don’t think it will happen and b) I am not sure that even if Democrats did let it happen it would get the results you want.

On the first point: I just don’t think Democrats, the opposition party, can, as a strategy, just say “Do whatever the hell you want!”

It reminds me of how Bunny Colvin in “The Wire” decided to basically stop policing Hamsterdam — so that he could keep the other parts of Baltimore drug-free and safe.

It’s a great idea in theory. But in the real world it doesn’t work.

As for what might happen if Democrats did go “Hamsterdam,” I think you (and lots of Democrats) believe that Trump’s voters would suddenly (or even not-so-suddenly) realize they had made a mistake in voting for him and his policies.

I simply do not believe that is true. Even if the economy tanked, I don’t think those people would turn on Trump. They would find other factors to blame. Nothing — and I mean nothing — will change how his die-hard supporters see Trump. I believe that to my core.

Q: Chris, why are you so convinced our democratic institutions will survive a second Trump presidency?

A: Well, let’s take this week as an example.

Nine days ago, Trump chose Matt Gaetz as his pick to be Attorney General. Gaetz was woefully underqualified for the job but Trump clearly wanted to test the limits of loyalty he had from Republican Senators.

That test didn’t go well. Gaetz spent this week on Capitol Hill meeting with GOP Senators — conversations that led him to conclude on Thursday that he didn’t have the votes.

Doing that same math, Trump called Gaetz and told him to get out. And then the president-elect quickly pivoted to Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General as his pick to replace Gaetz.

While you may disagree with some of Bondi’s positions, she’s clearly a more qualified and competent person to serve as AG than Gaetz.

And so, the process of advise and consent worked! Trump made his pick. The Senate — led by Republicans — said “no way.” And so Trump moved on and picked someone less, well, radical.

People insisting that the sky is falling and that democracy is on the verge of dying would do well to study what happened this week. This is how things are supposed to work.

Q: Since Gaetz was reelected, can he be seated in January?

A: He can be, yes. I would be STUNNED if he was, however. A huge part of Gaetz accepting the AG nomination was that it allowed him a way to resign from the House — and likely avoid the release of the House Ethics Committee report. If he decided to be a member again in the 119th Congress, he would, again, be subject to the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.

Ans his wife, Ginger, seemed to signal that the couple was done with Washington in a post Thursday after Gaetz withdrew:

Q: Without the fear of reprisals from Donald Trump now that Matt Gaetz is no longer an AG candidate, aren’t there some Republicans who hate him enough to see that the report is released? They don’t owe him a future career as governor and what harm would come to them if they screwed the guy?