Triaging Trump

Despite systematic and strategic obstruction on the part of Republicans, President Obama will be remembered as a successful president who left the office with the country in better shape than he found it.

Unlike the Republican "scorched earth" approach to Obama I hope President Trump, too, is a successful president who leaves the office with the nation in better shape than when he assumed it.

But while I think it bad for the nation to hope for Trump's failure as a president, Republicans must not be rewarded for their attempted de-legitimization of the nation's first African-American president.

Therefore I believe that first; the Democratic minority in the Senate must deny consideration of any of President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.

Republicans should be put on notice that, should they choose to use the "nuclear option" and remove the filibuster, then Democratic senators will use every imaginable procedural obstacle against their passing of any legislation whatsoever for the balance of President Trump's presidency.

And, of course, they would also leave this game-changing power in the hands of the Democratic majority that will surely succeed them at some future point.

Second, Democrats must use the same tactic to block any attempt by Republicans to weaken the Bill of Rights to further President Trump's oft-repeated threats against women, people of color, Muslims, the disabled, LGBT persons or any other group he attempts to legally marginalize.

Third, Democrats must recognize that - aside from those two extraordinary remedies in response to the Republican Party's extraordinary delegitimazation of Barack Obama as the duly elected President of the United States - Republicans did win the election legally even if they won it through corrupting their public offices for political gain during the last eight years.

For that reason, as well as the fact that America cannot afford a failed Trump presidency or further assaults on democratic institutions (such as not honoring legal agreements with other nations, judges deemed corrupt by reason of their ethnicity, and a reserved willingness to question the legitimacy of free and fair and transparent elections), Democrats must function as the loyal party in opposition ensuring their minority voice is heard but allowing the majority party to decide.

And given that stance, Democrats (and others) must mobilize public opinion to their side to ensure that the Republican majority does the right thing whether or not they choose to do it for the right reason.