Why Is This A Surprise?

I think the headline says it all:

Centrist Democrats: We can work with President Trump

By way of elaboration:

As Democrats portray Donald Trump as a dangerous leader for his party, most of them barely acknowledge he could be president. But some centrist Democrats say they’re ready and willing to work with the business mogul should he defeat their party’s nominee.

“The people will have a chance to vote. If Donald Trump is elected president there will be a great opportunity to sit down and have a conversation about what that agenda looks like,” explained Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who has long backed Hillary Clinton. “If he’s president, we’re going to have disagreement. But we’d better all figure out how to come up with an agenda for the American people.”

We used to call them "Blue Dogs" -- at this point, "centrist" translates as "Republicans lite." Anyone who thinks they can work with Donald Trump is dreaming -- yes, he's a deal-maker, but he's also dictatorial, a game-player, and shoots too much from the hip: they're not going to pin him down to anything, basically.

Still, centrist Democrats sound strong notes of skepticism about a President Trump's relationship with Congress: They think he’s got a bad habit of rewriting his policy platform on the fly from one day to the next. In the words of Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Trump’s policy portfolio seems “very schizophrenic.”

“I don’t know if he’d send one piece of legislation over in the morning, and then send the exact opposite legislation that afternoon,” McCaskill said. “You go down every single issue, he is all over the place. So I have no idea. I don’t think he knows. It’s clear to me he’s kind of making this up as he goes along.”

As for breaking up the gridlock in Congress, I found this statement quite humorous, considering the source:

“People are very angry. They’re angry at Republicans, they’re angry at Democrats, they’re angry at Washington for not solving the biggest problems. So what they’ve done is nominate a candidate who’s of neither camp to basically shake things up,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. “And hopefully help us to address some of these long-standing issues that we know are a problem.”

Says one of the people who has steadfastly refused to address those issues.

Here's a big part of the problem:

[Sen. Joe] Manchin [D-WV], who represents a state in which Obama is very unpopular and that is poised to be a landslide for Trump, said his constituents are eager for someone that understands what’s become of manufacturing cities and coal country.

“My people are really hurting,” Manchin said. “They don’t believe this administration or Barack Obama really cares about them.”

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, because you haven't been out there countering the bullshit coming from the Republicans.

Via Digby, who wonders:

None of these people are up for reelection this year. There is no good reason for them to even hint at some kind of common cause with the fascist demagogue Donald Trump when even Republicans are desperately trying to run away from him. To treat him as a normal politician is a betrayal.

They're taking the long view, which is about two years: they are up for re-election in 2018, and if the unthinkable happens, they want to be able to take advantage of it. Make no mistake: their primary interest is not the needs of their constituents or the country as a whole. It's their own political careers.