Why Trump’s Refusal To Accept The Election Results Can’t Be Dismissed

Politicians’ attitudes help move public opinion. Public policy often follows. Rhetoric, therefore, that isn’t followed by executive action cannot be easily dismissed.

There’s often a difference between Trump the rhetorician (if one can call the oddly-capitalized mish-mash of sentence fragments the president spews “rhetoric” without making Aristotle weep) and Trump the politician.

Contrary to the president’s bombast, Mexico still hasn’t paid for the border wall, America hasn’t won any of the supposedly easy trade wars the president started and trade deficits with multiple nations are bigger than ever (actually a net positive for consumers). He hasn’t taxed any of the companies looking to build plants overseas “like never before,” as he threatened.

Of course, there are plenty of instances where the president’s actions do match his rhetoric. Unilateral executive action on trade, again, sticks out. Bailouts to farmers stick out. Fixing drug prices stick out.

But while these policies are ultimately not fantastic for anyone who thinks executive legislation sets a dangerous Constitutional precedent, they’re also less permanent than laws passed by Congress.