CIA Director Mike Pompeo was a particularly distinguished, well-qualified nominee to become the next secretary of state. So why did most Senate Democrats vote “no” when his nomination came up for a vote? Because their most motivated voters, the “progressives” who form the angry core of the Resistance, demanded it.
As Victor Davis Hanson wrote in National Review this week, “the aim of the so-called Resistance to Donald J. Trump is ending Trump’s presidency by any means necessary before the 2020 election.” The message from progressive voters to their representatives in Congress is clear: Oppose President Trump on every matter, all the time, or else. As a practical matter, this means Democrats in Congress are expected to never pass up a skirmish or any opportunity to resist a Trump appointee or initiative — which gets us back to Pompeo.
Pompeo is a proven leader. He is a U.S. Army veteran who graduated first in his class at West Point, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and went on to have a successful career in business and at the highest levels of government. By opposing someone of Pompeo’s caliber, the left allowed its emotional disdain for the president to erode its political judgment. Its mindless opposition to anything and everything Trump diminished its sense of what is fair and what is right and wrong.
Ordinarily no one would think that the nomination for secretary of state would be a useful place to pick a fight or display petty rancor. Remember, John Kerry received overwhelming support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013 when he was confirmed for the post. Hillary Clinton also won an overwhelming majority of support in 2009 with just one Republican voting against her confirmation in…
