We Knew it was Bad, but…
Millions of Americans have known for decades that our government was broken, but I don’t think any of us realized just how badly is was broken. The Trump infestation of the WH has exposed the manifest weaknesses in our system of government which cynical career politicians have exploited for personal and ideological gain. When the Framers established our Constitution and supporting laws, the assumption was that that those who governed would uphold the public trust; if an elected official betrayed that trust, they provided a provision for impeachment and removal from office. They didn’t envision a time that the majority of representatives would be abjectly corrupt. We’re there.
The most shocking feature of the Trump regime is the amount of damage one president can inflict with virtually zero accountability. In three short years, Trump took over the Republican party, the Congress, the courts, and even the Justice Department. He has pardoned criminals, unilaterally withdrawn from longstanding treaties, started trade wars, attacked countries, disbanded entire agencies that blinded us to massive threats like the Coronavirus pandemic, has undone decades of environmental, education, employment, and safety regulations, wrecked dozens of alliances, sidled up to murderous dictators, and ceased funding global efforts that support healthcare, security, and human rights. He illegally extorted a foreign leader for to damage a political opponent. He is actively trying to whip up a scandal in the Obama administration which is invented from whole cloth with zero basis in fact. He personally profits from his presidency on a daily basis, and makes public policy to advantage himself and his family.
Worse, anyone who gets in his way is either fired, slandered, or both. He’s now fired an FBI director, two Attorneys General, and five Inspectors General. He continues attempts to illegally out the whistleblower in the Ukrainian extortion effort. His current AG is violating the public trust and the law by covering up major crimes and participating in smearing Trump’s political opponents by initiating “investigations” of non-existent crime. As he does this, he willfully ignores the tsunami of actual crimes being committed by Trump and his cronies.
How did we get here? In a word, corruption. The US is no longer a functioning democracy and the majority of our elected representatives no longer actually represent Americans. Over the last 4 decades the money has gotten so big for congressmen and senators that making money has taken over from representation. To avoid responsibility, congress has steadily ceded authority to the president. For example, Article 1 of the Constitution specifically authorizes the CONGRESS to determine international trade policy, but for years that authority has been delegated to the president under “expedited” rules. Trump has run wild with that authority, starting and inflaming global trade wars while the Congress (especially the Senate) just sits there doing nothing. The Constitution also assigns authority to declare wars on other nations, but through legislation has also delegated that to the president, leading to never ending war and deadly attacks on other countries without so much as a “Go to hell” to the Congress. It goes on and on, from selling off federal land to private interests to unwinding decades of environmental protections to shutting down agencies and engaging in abject corruption which lines the president’s and his children’s pockets with zero oversight. Add all that to a now hands-off anything political judiciary and we don’t even remotely resemble the federal structure envisioned by the Framers.
The Framers designed a system of checks and balances to prevent rule by one branch and corruption. Over the years all three branches have altered that design and what we now have is a zombie version of the federal system. Add a profoundly corrupt president with evil enablers and you get what we see today, a president unilaterally wrecking the US government, the economy, the healthcare system, the federal safety net, anti-corruption legislation, international treaties, global alliances, and even the rule of law.
The system is broken. Even when we rid ourselves of the Trump infestation, massive damage will have been done chances are remote that anyone left in authority will have incentive to fix it. Yeah, it ain’t pretty.
Hopefully the Democrats will win control of the House and the Senate in November, and start reducing the Imperial Presidency laws we’ve seen. For some, we may need a Constitutional Amendment.
1Juanita sums it up beautifully. Every day is another assault against we the people and our democracy. Conned by the Don. I am expecting the GOP (Greed Over People) party which is totally complicit with this to begin their search for a gold crown for their new king. We might see a coronation soon.
2Reminder. This great column was written by El Jefe. I’d like to take credit for it, though.
3I don’t always agree with El Jefe, but I’m with him in the main on this one. I too fear for our future after Trump. At a minimum we need both a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. We need to fix the (erstwhile) Supreme Court as well.
4What you said, El Jefe! Every damning word is the truth. Here’s where I am this morning – vacillating between a nap because sleep has been on the deprivation side of normal this week. Or, staying awake to stumble through what feels like a bit of Harry Reid PTSD. Remember Harry sort of laying down without fighting Moscow Mitch to the mat? So, just what is it I would like Chuck Schumer to do is the next logical question.
Honestly not too sure how productive I’ve been because the ‘best’ of my thinking is for Chuck to literally punch Moscow Mitch in the nose. Or, at a minimum come out swinging and screaming. Am I wrong? Yeah, admittedly violence is never a good solution, but Moscow Mitch is holding us hostage to the temper tantrums of one Toddler-in-Thief*. That seems like a punching offense to me. Your thoughts El Jefe, Ms. Juanita Jean Herownself and everyone?
5El Jefe, I wish that I didn’t have to agree with your dismal assessment of our government, and the shambles that awaits our next president–but I do. Every pathetic word of it. We’re going to have a lot of re-tooling to do. If this doesn’t encourage every Democrat and Democratic-leading voter to vote in November, nothing will.
6I agree with El Jefe on this. And unfortunately, even if Biden somehow ekes out a win in November, he is the completely wrong person to begin to rebuild our government.
He hasn’t realized that the political world has shifted from what he once knew. He still believes that the Senate is a collegial place where all the members are good friends and everyone is working for the best interests of the country. He learned nothing, it seems, after eight years in the Obama WH.
We are screwed.
7Thanks El Jefe! But you, like many others, have it backward … The extremist Republican Party took over the presidency , the Congress, the courts, and even the Justice Department.
8Trump is just a pawn, like Bush, etc. in this dangerous extremist Conservative Cult.
They’ve been working tirelessly and patiently for years for this moment, and they will not give it up easily.
El Jefe, chock this day up on a calendar. You have not only successfully herded cats, you have succeeded at an even more impossible feat – you created consensus among Democrats. And, without a shot fired. Not even a hint of “shooting the messenger” in return. Impressive.
That is the energy needed. Turn that energy to ridding Congress of Republicons and conservatives. Vote.
9Biden better hit the ground running, because the congressional moves necessary to reverse even SOME of this mess will greatly annoy the Voters, since the debt service alone will be billions per year. Higher taxes, gun law changes, etc.
The Dems will lose the Senate again in 2022, since the spasmodic and lazy swing voters will stay home, and the GOP will still gerrymander and suppress voting…for Democrats.
In the age of psy-ops, the human species is not adapted for this niche.
10SEl Jefe sums this Con disease pathology up quite well.
Except for stating the main root cause of most of this stuff, which extends worldwide, namely: religious zealotry of all stripes.
The US Religio-Rethug connection goes back decades. Without the present day Talibangelicals the Rethugs wouldn’t be reshaping -our- government on their theo-autocratic model.
Worldwide we’ve seen enough of the rest, especially from the Middle East snakepit.
[Most of you may have heard of the latest US domestic ME-related terrorist attack, in Corpus Christi. One or two [presumed] Islamist zealots attacked the north gate [Ocean Drive] of NAS-Corpus Christi at 0615h yesterday morning.
11This attack occurred ~200yd from my SiL’s watch station as he was going offwatch, my daughter and grandkids reside aboard base less than a mile away [partly because they feel ‘more secure’ in a base residence…]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Corpus_Christi
“2020 shooting
On May 21, 2020, a motorist crashed through a northern perimeter gate at NAS Corpus Christi, activating vehicle barriers that stopped the vehicle. The driver then got out and opened fire before being shot and killed. A Navy police officer was shot but was protected by a ballistic vest. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the incident was terrorism-related and a second person of interest may be at large.[2][3] The shooter was later identified as Adam Alsalhi, a 20-year-old Corpus Christi resident born in Syria, who had expressed support for ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.[4] The incident was the second fatal shooting and the fourth security incident that caused NAS Corpus Christi to be locked down since February 2019.[5]”
Sandridge:
12I sure hope your folks are okay.
P.P. @12, Thanks, they’re OK.
Station security is many-layered, tight, effective, and has excellent notifications [they’re on their second or third ToD at CGAS-CC]. An interesting base with a lot of history, it even still has the old seaplane pens/moorings on the bayfront.
You’ve probably been near the NAS [from Hstn?], daughter also used to live at [right under the 13R runway approach] and attend TAMU-CC, adjacent across little Oso Bay, she’s spent more lifetime there in CC than anywhere else.
I do worry about such stuff though, any military base is a magnet for certain whackjobs of various stripes.
13At certain stations/bases [like SoPadreIsl] the ‘drug cartel’ groups have made threats, even personal/personnel ones against the military, part of our utterly failed so-called ‘War on Drugs’.
Jefe:
14You’ve definitely put things in perspective. For me at least, it’s soooo many individual realizations that are bad enough on their own. But when taken all together, they show just how far down the nationalist, isolationist, right wing rat hole we’ve gone. Because it makes a relatively few people disgustingly rich and powerful. All the more disgusting because increasingly the few are maximising the corruption to ensure that their riches equal power.
And lex, yeah trump is just the most nauseating symptom of the real deep state. But he’s done more towards enabling the corruption and destruction of our democracy than any other single public figure. Because he gleefully says things that used to be unthinkable for a public figure to say.
From the West Wing.
Doing more to normalize the contemptuous scorn for government being the vehicle to protect EVERY CITIZEN than the Koch brothers could have envisioned in their wettest dreams. IMHO meaning him dying, going to prison, or just going away won’t make things much better. He’s shown the world what we as a nation are capable of. The line of trump wannabes goes on forever. They used to keep quiet in polite company. Now they realize a lot of company will tolerate their scorn.
I’m not much of a Chess player.
But f**king trump isn’t a pawn.
He’s the Queen.
I have decided that we no longer have to worry about anarchy. When I see all those people ignoring government rules and when I see what Trump is doing in Washington (which has led to that disrespect for the government), I believe anarchy is already here.
15And Gangs of New York is on HBO.
16f**king trump is doing his best Bill the Butcher impression.
Natural laws may have provided a remedy to end the corruption in the White House!
17This is a keeper. Nailed it in every way.
18theres will be a move after november elections if,mcconnel or trump prevail. the wall street mob,includes barr, will make it their own game,forever.. though biden will ,or, may, prevail with obama folowing him around to rebuild what biden forgets. seems biden has been trying to flank trump on rehetoric,something we dont need.. id be more inetrested in what mcconnels plan is now,that he gave money away to the poor,and what he expects in return? those public,private,projects,PPP, for infrastructure issues, dont be fooled,its aplan to cut wages while filling pockets on wall street,while maintaining poverty wages forever.suppress the working class,you get little return..steve kings,the white nazi in congress,his hr734 to kill davis-bacon act,of prevailing wage is still on the table.kill it and the construction workers get poverty wages,now go build that bridge.. and you distroy yet another union ,living like wage structure. of course all those right wing judges he pushed thru with no regard to standards,mcconnel is far more dangerous than trump. add it all up, its biden and a restructure of our needs,over wall atreets paid for demise of our democracy..
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