286 Chapter 8Chapter 8 || Political PartiesPolitical Partiesreform, however, Trump was unable to persuade Republicans to support his plans to
enact substantial reductions in legal immigration into the United States. In fact, when
the Senate voted on several proposals in February 2017, Trump’s proposal received
the lowest number of Republican votes. These two examples illustrate the limits
of presidential persuasion: presidential victories have more to do with proposing
something that members of Congress already like than with pressuring them to
support a proposal they oppose.
Coordination can also occur between caucuses or conferences in the House and
Senate. At the same time that President Trump and Republicans in Congress were
negotiating over tax reform, congressional Democrats were devising strategies
for delaying and defeating these proposals. Although Democratic efforts did not
prevent the enactment of tax legislation, the strong opposition of the Democrats
required the president and congressional leaders to accept many changes favored
by moderate and conservative Republicans in order to enact the legislation without
Democratic support.
Such coordination efforts require real work and compromise since party leaders
in the House and the Senate do not have authority over each other or over the elected
members of their party. Nor can the president order a House member or senator to do
anything, even if the legislator is from the president’s own party. In 2017, for example,
President Trump and congressional leaders needed the votes of several moderate
Republicans, including Senator Susan Collins, to pass tax cut legislation through the
Senate. The congressional leaders and the president held repeated meetings with
Collins and her allies, offering various promises and enticements to secure their votes.
Ultimately, these legislators voted for the proposal, but neither the president nor party
leaders could have forced them to support it.Accountability One of the most important functions political parties play in a
democracy is to give citizens identifiable groups to reward or punish for government
action or inaction. Using the ballot box, voters will reward and punish elected
officials, often based on their party affiliation and on the behavior of that party’s
members in office. In this way, the party system gives the electorate a mechanism
that can be used to hold officials accountable for outcomes such as the state of the
economy or America’s relations with other nations. This mechanism is most clear
during periods of unified government, when one party holds majorities in both the
House and the Senate and controls the presidency, meaning that party has enough
votes to enact policies in Congress and a good chance of having them signed into law
by the president. Arguments along these lines were one of the central themes of the
Democratic campaigns during the 2018 midterms— that majority control of the House
or Senate would enable Democratic legislators to limit the regulatory changes, judicial
appointments, and budget cuts favored by congressional Republicans and the Trump
administration.
In contrast, during times of divided government, when one party controls
Congress but not the presidency or when different parties control the House and
Senate (such as during most of Obama’s presidency), it is not clear which party should
be held accountable for the state of the nation. While Republicans argued in 2012 that
Democrats and Obama should be punished for the relatively poor state of the American
economy, these arguments did not resonate with the electorate, who believed, at least
in part, that Republican majorities in the House and Senate bore some responsibility as
well, and reelected Obama to a second term.
Focusing on parties makes it easy for citizens to issue rewards and punishments.
For example, if the economy is doing well, people can reward the party in power by
voting for its candidates. But if the economy is doing poorly, or if people feel thatunified government
A situation in which one party holds
a majority of seats in the House and
Senate and the president is a member
of that same party.divided government
A situation in which the House,
Senate, and presidency are not
controlled by the same party—for
example, when Democrats hold the
majority of House and Senate seats
and the president is a Republican.Parties don’t exert total control over
their members. Republican Party
leaders could not stop then–freshman
senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) from
filibustering for 23 hours in an attempt
to stop a budget compromise.Full_09_APT_64431_ch08_262-295.indd 286 16/11/18 1:41 PM