Christian Schneider

Opinion columnist

Throughout his life, progressive paragon Woodrow Wilson sneered at a system of government that vested so much power with Congress. Wilson, who enjoyed pointing out that the president was the only person elected by all the people of America, was frustrated by this disequilibrium. "The Senate always has the last word," he complained.

A century later, Wilson's enthusiasm for consolidation of power within the presidency has a powerful new fan. Last week, President Trump offered a Wilsonesque critique of the U.S. Senate, arguing he should be given more authority because he's "a closer."

"You look at the rules of the Senate, even the rules of the House, but the rule of the Senate and some of the things you have to go through, it's really a bad thing for the country in my opinion," Trump told Fox News on April 28.

Trump further argued for "tak[ing] those rules on" such as the Senate filibuster "because for the good of the nation things are going to have to be different." He added, "You can't go through a process like this. It's not fair, it forces you to make bad decisions."

Naturally, in the Trump vernacular, any decision he gets to make unilaterally is necessarily a "good" one, and every proposal slowed by a deliberative body is, by definition, "bad." In this way, the current Republican shares the Progressive Era's lack of constitutional humility.

But while Wilson's antipathy for the separation of powers was derived from years of scholarship (as an undergraduate he proposed allowing the president to choose his cabinet from among members of Congress, British Parliament-style), Trump's latest position seems to be crafted only upon visiting Washington, D.C. on the days he can get away from Mar-a-Lago.

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Ironically, Trump's lack of knowledge of how Congress works actually makes the case of why Congress is now more important than ever. As he learns history on the job (sample tidbit about Abraham Lincoln from a March speech: "Great president. Most people don’t even know he was a Republican, right?"), the legislative branch can provide him a valuable constitutional lesson by asserting its rightful authority.

Clearly in Trump's years in the private sector, his view of politicians took on a cartoonish bent, most likely informed by cable news and television dramas. During Republican presidential debates, the eventual GOP winner openly bragged about buying off politicians (mostly Democrats), arguing — incredibly — that his own corrupt practices were proof that only he could fix such a "broken system." (This recalls the time on Cheers when Norm derided the sad, pathetic people who sat next to him at the bar hour after hour, day after day.)

No doubt in Trump's New York City politicians were simply a procedural hurdle to be overcome when a building needed to be built — salt the city with a few dollars here and there and city council members would one day earn a ride in one of his golden elevators.

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But Congress can now prove that it's not simply a beagle eager to have its belly scratched. For instance, Congress should take the advice of TV star Trump when he asserted that Congress should approve military operations in Syria, even if President Trump disagrees. The House and Senate should craft responsible infrastructure and health care plans independent of Trump's capricious Twitter meanderings. Trump wants billions in taxpayer funding for a southern border wall? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should send over a copy of The Federalist 51, a golden shovel, and tell the president to start digging.

It's not as if presidents haven't always felt dyspepsia about the role of Congress. When President Andrew Johnson faced impeachment in 1868, one of the articles against him charged that he had plotted to "excite the odium and resentment of all good people of the United States against Congress" and that he had used, "with a loud voice, certain intemperate, inflammatory and scandalous harangues, and therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces." These are phrases that should be emblazoned on the china in the Trump White House dining room.

"The office (of president)," Woodrow Wilson once observed, "is so much greater than any man could honestly imagine himself to be that the most he can do is to look grave enough and self-possessed enough to seem to fill it." Last week, Wilson's philosophical descendant, Donald Trump, similarly noted that he thought being president "would be easier" than it has been during his first 100 days.

Undoubtedly, the two presidents could learn much from each other. Perhaps one of these days Trump will pick up the phone and invite Wilson and Frederick Douglass to dinner.

Christian Schneider is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this piece was first published. Follow him on Twitter @Schneider_CM

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