Washington's Real-Time Capitulation
This weekend, I was in Washington, DC for my father’s celebration of life.* I spent time with a lot of folks my dad and/or I worked with over the past 20 years. Most of them are part of either official or semi-official Washington, what I call America’s ‘political bureaucracy’ those people, groups, organizations, and companies that represent the personal, personnel, and financial aspects of a company town whose reputation has shifted from fetid swamp to gilded imperial capital.
To all those (me included) who demanded, suggested, then pleaded and begged that Washingtonians should resist premature capitulation, I regret to inform you we were weeks, perhaps months, too late.
As chaotic, insane, and on-brand Donald Trump’s transition has been to date, so the lobbying, public affairs, public relations firms who rely on experience and relationships, both existing and prospective, they can sell to Corporate America as they determine what (overpriced) services they’ll willing to pay for in a government controlled by Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
For the consultants and mavens, Trump is just one more new administration to decode in time for Christmas parties, New Years, and the quadrennial cash bonanza that is the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Tens of millions will pour into the “PIC” as it’s called, from across the political spectrum, and with Trump’s crew, likely from around the world as well, though we’ll see if they even try and hide that fact as they did in 2017.
I grew up in the swamp. I came of age in the swamp. I know a lot of people there. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances that slog to their (virtual) offices every day trying to mine the next vein of opportunity in Trump’s transactional government. While ‘pre-existing’ relationships have cleared a lot of contracts, accepted a suite’s worth of Nationals tickets, and ensured invitations to this reception or that, Trump’s people do present a different challenge.
First, few of them will have any experience with Washington itself, or the departments or agencies into which they’ll soon parachute. Consequently, the retreads that typically move up one office and several GS steps will be in short supply for the K Street Carrion Catchers. More nights at [insert Trump hangout] on the boss’s expense account.
Next, while jockeying for position in DC is nothing new, the lengths to which the MAGAs will go to knife one another creates instability in the power structure. Remember: The only people they hate more than you and me are each other. The biggest shark tank will sit on Pennsylvania Avenue, of course. Up and down Constitution and Independence Avenues, though, will have its own collection of Beta-filled fishbowls as low-rent Jonah Ryans tattle on one another in the hopes that Secretary Bobby Kennedy, Jr. notices them.
Lastly, the Bobos just don’t know how far Trump is willing to go with his stated goals. They’ll go about their days hoping it’s not as bad as it could be, thanking their stars for any ‘normal’ day they don’t have to explain to their bosses or their clients.
Washington’s professional Democrats collapsed long ago as any sort of efficient or effective fighting force. Unlike their Republican partners and friends, the Democrats will do all they can to protect what they already have.
While it may be fashionable to say you’re ‘fighting’ or ‘resisting’ their reality is far less heroic: How do they convince Client X, who’s responsible for 45% of the firm’s annual revenue, to keep their business with me? Or do they have to hire a Trump/Johnson/Thune-adjacent Republican to boost their bona fides? Cheap enough, for four years (probably.)
The mainstream media’s capitulation began at the top of the escalator nine years ago and hasn’t stopped since. While the Morning Joe crew’s creep down to Mar-A-Lago was the most visible and prominent capitulation, it won’t be the last.
Scarborough will make it easier for high-profile anchors and editors to make their own Faustian pilgrimages in the coming days and weeks. They must be able to cover the transition! They must have a spot across from the reviewing stand on Inauguration Day! Most importantly, they must be granted a seat in the Sean Spicer Memorial White House Briefing Room.
Regardless, most national news outlets are deep into their clickbait legacy. As much as they ‘hate’ Trump’s threats against them, his chaos creates an unending stream of copy ready-made for Acela Corridor elites to tut-tut about over their morning Americanos. Think about how many ‘scoops’ Breitbart and One America News are likely to drop over the next 50 months if we’re (the media) not there.
Outlets such as The Washington Post recently featured Lara Trump and Kelly Anne Conway in their third annual Women’s Global Summit. Did any of the Democratic leaders refuse to appear? No. Did any of the reporters refuse to participate? No. Did sponsors such as Goldman Sachs, AARP, and Boston Consulting Group pull their money or their names? Of course not.
Living and working in Washington, DC today is not about big ideas, ideologies, or serving the American people. It’s about being on the stage at the next Axios event, making sure your boss gets quoted, or signing that big deal to keep your firm in good stead. None of this new, and I’m not so naïve as to believe Trump’s return would really change anything inside the Beltway. It didn’t before and it won’t now.
It is a reminder, though, that the most important work to be done will happen far outside the gilded halls of the Old Executive Office Building or the gilt bars Trump loyalists and their suitors will inhabit. They don’t believe the owe us, John, and Joan Q. Public anything. This is their game, one I used to play.
I don’t care what Matt Gaetz does with his life from now on. He’s not going to be Attorney General of the United States, and that is an objectively good thing. DC is still abuzz with what might be in his still-hidden ethics report. Whatever is in it will be disgusting and disqualifying, and thousands of miles and a universe away from what the average American will deal with tomorrow.
If you need me, I’ll be out in the country looking for the American I know and I believe in. I hope you’ll join me in the work and on the journey.
*Thanks to all of those who attended my dad’s event this weekend, and the multitudes who sent kind notes, texts, messages, and letters about him. They mean the world to me and my family. -Reed
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