How Washington has and hasnt changed in the time of Trump.
It was hard to choose the paragraphs to include in this OP. This article is long and offers insight into the pall 45 has cast over DC. The opening part on Spicer is rather interesting.
This Town Melts Down
A veteran political reporter takes stock of how Washington has — and hasn’t — changed in the time of Trump.
"Trump was elected in part by portraying and revealing politicians to be feckless weenies — and many of them went out and reinforced this view by displaying their willingness to be rolled by Trump in the campaign and unwillingness to stand up to him in office. This gets to one ethic of This Town that has endured and that Trump has reinforced: The interests of self-perpetuation drive nearly everything. Much of the Republican base still loves Trump, and few Republicans in Congress can afford to alienate these voters by defying him too forcefully, even though many of them — particularly senators — plainly hold the president in low regard.
There have been exceptions, but by far the most vocal critics of Trump on the right have been the columnists, political consultants and former Republican officeholders who don’t need to face voters. Trump ‘‘has been a complete disaster’’ in office beyond foreign policy, said John Boehner, the former Republican speaker — the key word being ‘‘former.’’ (He was speaking at a private event in Houston; he later tried to walk the comment back.) You encounter many elected Republicans these days who struggle to calibrate their reactions to the president by what the Republican media consultant Rick Wilson refers to as ‘‘F.O.M.T.’’ — ‘‘Fear of Mean Tweets.’’ ‘‘It’s the great dichotomy of my life right now,’’ says Wilson, an outspoken anti-Trump voice who speaks often to clients and friends who are Republican officeholders. ‘‘I have guys call me literally on the verge of tears some days, like, ‘This guy is going to get us killed,’?’’ Wilson told me. ‘‘And then they go out the next day, and they can’t wait to build the wall, they want to ‘make America great again’ all day long.’’
Elected Republicans operate in their own distinct habitat when figuring how to deal with this White House. They are, in a partisan sense, on Trump’s team. They share policy goals and agenda items. They need each other, ostensibly. But members of Congress live in their own parallel power centers, with their own districts, voters and issues to worry about, not to mention the peculiar dynamics of their institution. Being married to Trump can make for tense and uncomfortable times, as any Republican of Capitol Hill these days can attest when they’re not running away."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/magazine/washington-dc-politics-trump-this-town-melts-down.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
