What is going on with our politics?
President Donald Trump has been in office for barely a month.
Republican elected officials are besieged by citizens afraid of losing their healthcare with the promised demise of Obamacare (which the Republicans do finally have the power to scrap). Others have asked for an investigation of Russian involvement in the presidential election.
Is this the Democratic version of the Tea Party? Or will the anger subside?
The president has declared the press is the enemy and attacked any court that rules against him. Are these part of a long-term strategy to weaken the underpinnings of democracy, a free press and an independent judiciary, or is the president just acting spontaneously?
The future of both Arizona senators seems increasingly implicated: Sen. John McCain has emerged as among Trump’s most vociferous critics (at least with respect to foreign policy). Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Flake has to make a choice: Does he face the voters and risk the kind of angry crowds that many of his colleagues have faced? Or does he duck them and take grief for being unwilling to meet his constituents?
The former choice could result in some bad TV images and the latter would be difficult to justify for very long; no easy choice. And he faces the voters in 2018, where he looks increasingly likely to face both a primary challenger and a tough November opponent.
Long-time Arizona political observers Chris Herstam and Chad Campbell provide insight into these and other aspects of our contemporary politics.
