Edward R. Murrow noted that, "The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer." So, it's refreshing to read this, a very candid, astute, convincing and compelling argument one that - unfortunately - isn't reflected in the NYT and other "mainstream media" analyses, opinion pieces and "reporting.". Rather, the endless parsing of "constitutional crisis" and the mindless pursuit of "balance" hides the obvious behind the obscure.
Unfortunately, what's lacking here is the "opposition party" plan for countering the onslaught of Trump. The damage has been done and there's no cogent, rational, pragmatic strategy - nor for that matter, a charismatic, dynamic leader - to present it to the public.
To sum up and as Walt Kelly wrote in 1970, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Bigley. Sad
I would argue that there are potential leaders, people like AOC for example. But the official "opposition party" (i.e. the Democrats) is too hidebound to actually oppose Trump and is only adept at stifling actual leadership inside and outside of their ranks. The Jim Clyburns and Nancy Pelosi's of the world will do anything in their power to keep her or someone like her from upsetting their sinecures, even surrendering to Trump outright.
Oh goody! Another light, upbeat, encouraging post about everyone’s favorite fascist. (Seriously, you do work that is both good and important. But these days, it’s also pretty depressing.)
You DO realize that it was Democrats who first violated the constitution first in censoring the free press during but the Hunter Biden laptop scandals (remember, the Dem's own the upper and lower house and Pelosi was speaker while Trump was in office), and the pandemic discussion was also censored and manipulated through sheer power by Dems, BOTH of which affected the results of the 2020 election AND censored the free speech of the 'free' world.
It's really easy to blame others. It's much harder to find our own faults but this soul searching is where all good things come from.
We're now in a game of Tit for Tat with retaliations increasing in both intensity and volatility. I can only imagine what the Dems will be capable of doing the next time they hold the presidency. It won't be pretty, and they'll be just as guilty as Trump in violating laws, just as they were before Trump.
God, Biden's laptop again. A president clearly out of control, enriching himself over a billion dollars since January, and not helping the economy in any way, not even caring about his base. My I suggest you go back to watching your Faux TV lies, right wing conspiracy podcasts and leave the truth to those who speak it? He just showed a political protest picture with crosses to the visiting South Africans and said it was actual dead people!! He is out of his mind, those around him know it was lies and no one corrects him!
So an entire political party including the President, Vice President and MOST of the media blatantly lied to the general public about something that directly affected an election and then pardoned his entire family for the lies before leaving office and you want to forget it and pretend it never happened?
Do you think that's a good look for ANYONE?
You CAN admit that Dems and the media lied, affected the election AND still criticize Trump. Why are the two mutually exclusive?
Or is it because you have a preferred outcome and that preferred outcome is to protect the lie?
As a citizen who didn't obsessively follow the whole Hunter Biden mess, please explain to me why this was important. He was a pathetic, deplorable addict who used his daddy's name to make a buck. Just like all the Trump kids before him (Well, maybe not addicts, so they have even less excuse.. To my knowledge, there was never credible evidence that Joe was involved. I'm sure that's the first thing Trump's justice department looked into and so far nothing. I thought Hunter was convicted, so what is the problem? I really don't get it.
If Hunter was 'convicted' and Joe was innocent, why did Biden pardon his entire family retroactively, right up to the time of the Barisma affair in the Ukraine?
And why did the Biden family spend so much time denying things that were totally true (like the laptop, the evidence found on the laptop for which Hunter was convicted, Joe's mental illness and health and many other things)?
You must be kidding. He pardoned his family (and Fauci) to protect them from the retribution of a sadistic psychopath. I repeat, there is no credible evidence that Joe Biden did anything criminal, or even wrong. Why are you so obsessed.
You make it sound like the Left did not influence social media, the legacy media or the public, when in fact there are government documents proving they did, and for selfish purposes.
Read it or not. No going to engage on it further. ;-)
The House was led by Democrats during the end of Trump's rule and Trump only led for 8 months during the pandemic. The Dems led during the majority of the pandemic.
Further, it was Liberal governments around the world (and not just in the US) that voted to keep schools and businesses closed, censored the airwaves and exaggerated the pandemic. It happened in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US - not just in the US.
And the world is aware of it....yet the Left are pretending that not only didn't happen, but that everyone is not aware that it happened.
It's a hilarious situation that the Left hasn't grasped yet. This is why they lost and continue to lose in countries around the world as the world awakens to the atrocities and manipulations of the Left.
You're going to have to elaborate. Which part of my post has no connection in reality, because it's factually accurate and proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Nobody "censored the press" during the laptop nonsense. The White House did ask (not demand) that social media not post Hunter nude (which is illegal under multiple revenge-porn statutes anyway, so social media did take those down once pointed out). Right-wing fever-dream sites pretend that the "laptop" stories didn't get much play because of political pressure, when actually the reluctance of most outlets to touch any claims about what "the laptop" said was because of the forensic examination showing that at least six folders in the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-hard-drive circulated as "the laptop" were generated years after the laptop left Hunter's possession, and matched much of the material Lev Parnas acknowledged passing from Russian agents to Giuliani and other credulous Trumpists. And the claims made from "the laptop" made no sense in their own terms: Hunter's reference to 10% for the "big guy" were taken as a smoking gun that money went to Joe, when the context made it clear that the "big guy" was a Chinese official with the power to approve or disapprove their business plans, presumably the same as the "chairman" although the chairman of the Chinese state-run company they were dealing with vigorously denies soliciting a kickback.
The pandemic discussion was polluted by cranks pushing fake cures which did nothing or did active harm, fighting against every sane preventive measure that would have kept the death toll, and elaborating ludicrously false claims about the very nature of the disease. Trump of course was among the worst. Again, right-wing fever-dream sites think that most outlets were reluctant to post their dangerous insanity because of political pressure, rather than because it was, you know, dangerous insanity.
There is a physical laptop but the copy of a copy of a copy of a hard drive that has been circulated as "the laptop" contains at least six folders which, forensic examiners concluded, were created months or years after the laptop left Hunter's possession, and which strongly match the fake Russian propaganda that Lev Parnas and others were peddling to Rudi Giuliani a year before "the laptop" was "discovered": it is an absolute fact, not a "lie", that what you are relying on is full of Russian disinformation.
The American electorate is not a monolith. Any viable path back to a constitutional order must contend with the fact that nearly half our thus far fellow citizens are plainly unfit for participation in the governance of a civilized polity, and likely either too stupid or too evil to persuade. It is their votes that are ruining the country their betters made great.
I would take the states-rights angle further. It is approaching time to break up the country and make the Big Sort formal, so that Blue Americans can get on with the task of building a worthy successor state to the once-great USA.
It has always been thus. The old remedy for American idiocy was to keep them marginalized by out-voting them. Another way they stayed marginalized is like Archie Bunker, they didn't vote, they just complained. Social media was captured by RW media to weaponize this cohort to its advantage. It was a problem foreseen by the framers.
No one has yet figured out to engineer this problem out of the system because all the old ways smack of discrimination. Please stop with the secession talk. Red states are nothing like what they are portrayed in the media. A better plan would be for Democrats to stop writing us off and start selling their popular policies. See, e.g. Jess Piper here on Substack. She is not alone. There are Democrats in every Red state trying to DIY democracy. A little help instead of contempt would be appreciated.
This is kind of funny .. what makes you think "blue America" would be allowed to secede? Here's the hypothetical condensed secession of "blue America": cutoff from food distribution networks and utilities, densely populated urban areas are starved into submission within ten days.
The "big sort" is already happening as "blue America's" population evaporates with its residents relocating based on cost of living.
One thing that bothers me is the belief that persists that there are Blue states that hold the keys to restoration. If one looks at the electoral maps one sees what are essentially Blue city states surrounded by oceans of less populated Red counties and districts who would resist any departure from the rest of Red America.
One hopeful note is that if genuine political persecution becomes real some of us may be able to find political asylum elsewhere.
I notice this sort of avoids addressing the big question: can we really get away with *just* the equivalent of the post-Civil War settlement, or is this going to be more like replacing the Articles of Confederation with the 1788 Constitution? I tend to think the latter—it's not the whole problem, but a big part of the problem is the Supreme Court, which is really a problem with the Senate (because the Senate confirms justices), and Article 5 as-written makes it basically impossible to ever fix Senate malaportionment.
The medium is the message. If the US had removed FOX News from existence, reinstated the equal time rule and rescinded Citizens United then this lopsided idiocracy would never have come into being.
“We are past the point of crisis and have entered an era when our political disputes will be settled by the raw exercise of power, not the law.”
This shift from principled governance to power-driven politics makes me wonder just where exactly does it go from here? I like to think there is an optimistic and hopeful answer to this...
Congress as a whole can stop this madness. They're just too scared of what this Mango Moron will do to them. So, in reality, they have ignored their oaths in order to allow this to happen, and for that, each of them should be prosecuted as well.
“The future of our system of government is what we make of it.”
That’s been true since the founding of the Republic, before the doctrine of judicial review was established, true following the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War and Reconstruction, following the Great Depression, following Vietnam & Watergate, and now eventually, following Trump and the ceaseless consolidation of unbridled executive power that was at almost full steam before his election.
This isn’t the first time the framework has been radically challenged, or that a “post-constitutional order” has been posited. It probably won’t be the last. I have more confidence in the resilience of the constitutional framework than Mr. Craig. And despite my dismay over what is happening, I choose not to give in to hyperbolic despair.
*Is* it hyperbolic? What is it about the American voting populace that makes you think that they will be up for putting in the hard work -- and personal sacrifice -- required to rebuild?
At the barest minimum, revitalizing necessary institutions is going to require increasing taxes. There is simply no way that will be a successful undertaking.
Terrific, and terrifying article. But do not underestimate the damage Trump's contempt for rule of law will do to our economy. This is the subject of my recent article.
While AOC has charisma, whatever she is selling isn't being purchased by the general electorate. Every sentient analysis I've read basically boils down to the same (obvious) formula: appeal to voters' economic aspirations, don't demean, dismiss and denigrate their sometimes retrograde (by "coastal" standards) core beliefs and let go of social engineering plans. The "left" Dems don't seem to grasp that blatantly self-evident series of data points. AOC is an exemplar of misdirected identity politics and that isn't capturing Americans' votes. Time to get back to "A chicken in every pot" or the modern version, "A big-ass pickup truck in every driveway."
I find you passive aggressive. Why aren't "great" minds trying to bring to light that the trifecta was engineered and that America is under attack vs. dribble.
Does it occur to you Andy, that "we the people " were sick and disgusted with YOUR law and order that allowed millions to invade our borders? With YOUR law and order that commandeered biological law and rammed it down on females from sports to bathrooms? With YOUR law and order that allows politicians to support unsustainable bankrupting ponzi scheme? With YOUR law and order that has destroyed our foundation in family, such that 70% of black children are now born in illegitimacy, translating into the depraved inner city's of our society? That YOUR law and order attempted to enforce racist hiring for jobs and entrance to schools? That YOUR law and order had destroyed our educations system with trillions of dollars of ideological experiments with our children? And that YOUR law and order has allowed the our capital and jobs to be liquidated? And YOUR law and order that has bankrupted our country? Maybe the status quo ante no longer is a desirable place to return to. Maybe only by tearing down the Washington national system can we return to the concept of a republic as United States .
Too many brain worms to swat here, but let's start with the first:
>>> "Does it occur to you Andy, that "we the people " were sick and disgusted with YOUR law and order that allowed millions to invade our borders?"
Immigration is a good thing. Millions of people coming here is actually awesome. It turbo charges the economy. It's a key ingredient that keeps us prosperous. We need more, not less. Without it, or too little of it, all our problems become worse and we decline. Immigration is the cheat code to economic growth, more babies, and prosperity.
It sucks our immigration system is so dysfunctional it can't handle the high demand, and so many people feel they have to bypass it to get here. We should fix THAT problem.
The operative immigration law of the land is the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which in addition to setting quotas stated that those quotas should be filled by "those who can contribute most to this country – to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit," Biden failed to uphold the law. We should never respond to demand of the mobs of immigrants. So Trump is left with the job of cleaning up the mess created by Biden.
The immigration mess was not "created by Biden". It is the collective failure of the administrations of both parties and the presidents over decades. Too afraid or more likely bought off to sit down and craft a reasonable immigration policy and system, congress and the presidents let the problems be passed from one admin to the next. The economy and tolerated business owners became dependent on the cheap and pliable labor.
The confusion of the yes-you-can-stay and no-you-can't policies permitted and encouraged legal and illegal immigration. The real crime now is how the US is treating them, painting millions of decent and talented peopleand their with the crimes of a few who will exist in any large enough group of people. The failure to recognize and legitimize the honest, working, contributing immigrants will haunt the country for a long time. Simply deporting thousands and thousands indiscriminately makes the country poorer and is an international embarrassment.
Well said. One thing to notice here, is the term "immigration mess".
The "mess" to us is that our immigration system is dysfunctional and doesn't have the capacity to handle the demand.
The "mess" to folks like Dickerson, is basically just that millions of people want/try to immigrate here. It's the attitude that America is like an over capacity life raft stranded at sea, and hordes of savages in the water are trying to climb their way on. The more that come, the more we all have to sacrifice, in a zero sum game. They want to swat them all away to "save" themselves.
In reality, every person that comes here is like another little raft that ties itself to our big raft, and helps create something more resilient and stable. Even the low skill immigrants help grow the economy, keep jobs filled and create demand. It's a win/win. It's not a sacrifice, it's a boon.
Too much idiocy to address all of it. Three points. 1. I believe that public education in NJ is superior to that in MAGA Alabama. 2. BY FAR the largest increase in the Fiscal deficit occurred in Trump's first term. 3. New York City is actually among the safest places in the country. Folks like Mr. Dickerson believe NYC is inhabited by Godless demons and should be destroyed by fire and brimstone, but it's actually inhabited by hard working folk like (presumably) him. Anyway, Jesus likes immigrants. It's in the Bible.
Charles, If you want to beat your Bible for immigrants please do so. The political system that brought the rules of law the author claims to defend,, has brought with it the litany of problems I describe and more. The Washington national system of bureaucratic singularity of law and rules must be knocked down so that every state can set their path to betterment in order to form a more perfect union. And congrats on NJ's educational sucess! By the way only 44% of your students are proficient in math and 38% in reading. How do your students stack up internationally? The US is 17th place. Just think in a few years if NJ keeps spending at over twice the rate of per pupil for education than Alabama, maybe in a few years your students can rise to the level of Poland? Somethings wrong Charles and our Washington Department of Education has failed and needs to be taken down like many other of the Washington's bureaucracy because they have failed. Admit it!
Edward R. Murrow noted that, "The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer." So, it's refreshing to read this, a very candid, astute, convincing and compelling argument one that - unfortunately - isn't reflected in the NYT and other "mainstream media" analyses, opinion pieces and "reporting.". Rather, the endless parsing of "constitutional crisis" and the mindless pursuit of "balance" hides the obvious behind the obscure.
Unfortunately, what's lacking here is the "opposition party" plan for countering the onslaught of Trump. The damage has been done and there's no cogent, rational, pragmatic strategy - nor for that matter, a charismatic, dynamic leader - to present it to the public.
To sum up and as Walt Kelly wrote in 1970, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Bigley. Sad
I would argue that there are potential leaders, people like AOC for example. But the official "opposition party" (i.e. the Democrats) is too hidebound to actually oppose Trump and is only adept at stifling actual leadership inside and outside of their ranks. The Jim Clyburns and Nancy Pelosi's of the world will do anything in their power to keep her or someone like her from upsetting their sinecures, even surrendering to Trump outright.
Oh goody! Another light, upbeat, encouraging post about everyone’s favorite fascist. (Seriously, you do work that is both good and important. But these days, it’s also pretty depressing.)
You DO realize that it was Democrats who first violated the constitution first in censoring the free press during but the Hunter Biden laptop scandals (remember, the Dem's own the upper and lower house and Pelosi was speaker while Trump was in office), and the pandemic discussion was also censored and manipulated through sheer power by Dems, BOTH of which affected the results of the 2020 election AND censored the free speech of the 'free' world.
It's really easy to blame others. It's much harder to find our own faults but this soul searching is where all good things come from.
We're now in a game of Tit for Tat with retaliations increasing in both intensity and volatility. I can only imagine what the Dems will be capable of doing the next time they hold the presidency. It won't be pretty, and they'll be just as guilty as Trump in violating laws, just as they were before Trump.
God, Biden's laptop again. A president clearly out of control, enriching himself over a billion dollars since January, and not helping the economy in any way, not even caring about his base. My I suggest you go back to watching your Faux TV lies, right wing conspiracy podcasts and leave the truth to those who speak it? He just showed a political protest picture with crosses to the visiting South Africans and said it was actual dead people!! He is out of his mind, those around him know it was lies and no one corrects him!
So an entire political party including the President, Vice President and MOST of the media blatantly lied to the general public about something that directly affected an election and then pardoned his entire family for the lies before leaving office and you want to forget it and pretend it never happened?
Do you think that's a good look for ANYONE?
You CAN admit that Dems and the media lied, affected the election AND still criticize Trump. Why are the two mutually exclusive?
Or is it because you have a preferred outcome and that preferred outcome is to protect the lie?
As a citizen who didn't obsessively follow the whole Hunter Biden mess, please explain to me why this was important. He was a pathetic, deplorable addict who used his daddy's name to make a buck. Just like all the Trump kids before him (Well, maybe not addicts, so they have even less excuse.. To my knowledge, there was never credible evidence that Joe was involved. I'm sure that's the first thing Trump's justice department looked into and so far nothing. I thought Hunter was convicted, so what is the problem? I really don't get it.
If Hunter was 'convicted' and Joe was innocent, why did Biden pardon his entire family retroactively, right up to the time of the Barisma affair in the Ukraine?
And why did the Biden family spend so much time denying things that were totally true (like the laptop, the evidence found on the laptop for which Hunter was convicted, Joe's mental illness and health and many other things)?
You must be kidding. He pardoned his family (and Fauci) to protect them from the retribution of a sadistic psychopath. I repeat, there is no credible evidence that Joe Biden did anything criminal, or even wrong. Why are you so obsessed.
I'll leave it to this to correct your *completely* imaginary history of the Hunter Biden laptop saga: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/07/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-twitter-and-hunter-bidens-laptop/
Read it or not. Not going to engage on it further.
But even if things occurred more or less like you say, past wrongdoing is not a permission slip to escalate the wrongdoing in the future.
Trump and the R's have agency. They are responsible for their own actions. The democrats didn't make them do it.
You make it sound like the Left did not influence social media, the legacy media or the public, when in fact there are government documents proving they did, and for selfish purposes.
Read it or not. No going to engage on it further. ;-)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-biden-censored
Trump is obscenely corrupt, and that is happening right now. I make no excuses for Biden.
Trump is obscenely corrupt.
I don't want to litigate this again, sorry. Nothing can justify what has been done.
> and the pandemic discussion was also censored and manipulated through sheer power by Dems,
Impressive to be able to do that when you're the opposition.
The House was led by Democrats during the end of Trump's rule and Trump only led for 8 months during the pandemic. The Dems led during the majority of the pandemic.
Further, it was Liberal governments around the world (and not just in the US) that voted to keep schools and businesses closed, censored the airwaves and exaggerated the pandemic. It happened in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US - not just in the US.
And the world is aware of it....yet the Left are pretending that not only didn't happen, but that everyone is not aware that it happened.
It's a hilarious situation that the Left hasn't grasped yet. This is why they lost and continue to lose in countries around the world as the world awakens to the atrocities and manipulations of the Left.
This has no connection to reality. It is the spread of this kind of collective psychosis that drains me of hope the most.
You're going to have to elaborate. Which part of my post has no connection in reality, because it's factually accurate and proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Nobody "censored the press" during the laptop nonsense. The White House did ask (not demand) that social media not post Hunter nude (which is illegal under multiple revenge-porn statutes anyway, so social media did take those down once pointed out). Right-wing fever-dream sites pretend that the "laptop" stories didn't get much play because of political pressure, when actually the reluctance of most outlets to touch any claims about what "the laptop" said was because of the forensic examination showing that at least six folders in the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-hard-drive circulated as "the laptop" were generated years after the laptop left Hunter's possession, and matched much of the material Lev Parnas acknowledged passing from Russian agents to Giuliani and other credulous Trumpists. And the claims made from "the laptop" made no sense in their own terms: Hunter's reference to 10% for the "big guy" were taken as a smoking gun that money went to Joe, when the context made it clear that the "big guy" was a Chinese official with the power to approve or disapprove their business plans, presumably the same as the "chairman" although the chairman of the Chinese state-run company they were dealing with vigorously denies soliciting a kickback.
The pandemic discussion was polluted by cranks pushing fake cures which did nothing or did active harm, fighting against every sane preventive measure that would have kept the death toll, and elaborating ludicrously false claims about the very nature of the disease. Trump of course was among the worst. Again, right-wing fever-dream sites think that most outlets were reluctant to post their dangerous insanity because of political pressure, rather than because it was, you know, dangerous insanity.
The Democrats and Biden LIED and DENIED the laptop was even real and called it "Russian Disinformation".
Which part of this lie are you trying to justify?
There is a physical laptop but the copy of a copy of a copy of a hard drive that has been circulated as "the laptop" contains at least six folders which, forensic examiners concluded, were created months or years after the laptop left Hunter's possession, and which strongly match the fake Russian propaganda that Lev Parnas and others were peddling to Rudi Giuliani a year before "the laptop" was "discovered": it is an absolute fact, not a "lie", that what you are relying on is full of Russian disinformation.
really? that was the first violation of the constitution ever? in history?
This really resonates with me as what will happen. Very perceptive.
The American electorate is not a monolith. Any viable path back to a constitutional order must contend with the fact that nearly half our thus far fellow citizens are plainly unfit for participation in the governance of a civilized polity, and likely either too stupid or too evil to persuade. It is their votes that are ruining the country their betters made great.
I would take the states-rights angle further. It is approaching time to break up the country and make the Big Sort formal, so that Blue Americans can get on with the task of building a worthy successor state to the once-great USA.
It has always been thus. The old remedy for American idiocy was to keep them marginalized by out-voting them. Another way they stayed marginalized is like Archie Bunker, they didn't vote, they just complained. Social media was captured by RW media to weaponize this cohort to its advantage. It was a problem foreseen by the framers.
No one has yet figured out to engineer this problem out of the system because all the old ways smack of discrimination. Please stop with the secession talk. Red states are nothing like what they are portrayed in the media. A better plan would be for Democrats to stop writing us off and start selling their popular policies. See, e.g. Jess Piper here on Substack. She is not alone. There are Democrats in every Red state trying to DIY democracy. A little help instead of contempt would be appreciated.
Secession isn't going to make anything better - we'd be at war almost immediately.
This is kind of funny .. what makes you think "blue America" would be allowed to secede? Here's the hypothetical condensed secession of "blue America": cutoff from food distribution networks and utilities, densely populated urban areas are starved into submission within ten days.
The "big sort" is already happening as "blue America's" population evaporates with its residents relocating based on cost of living.
Nothing will ever be the same.
Another great read but I am less optimistic.
One thing that bothers me is the belief that persists that there are Blue states that hold the keys to restoration. If one looks at the electoral maps one sees what are essentially Blue city states surrounded by oceans of less populated Red counties and districts who would resist any departure from the rest of Red America.
One hopeful note is that if genuine political persecution becomes real some of us may be able to find political asylum elsewhere.
I notice this sort of avoids addressing the big question: can we really get away with *just* the equivalent of the post-Civil War settlement, or is this going to be more like replacing the Articles of Confederation with the 1788 Constitution? I tend to think the latter—it's not the whole problem, but a big part of the problem is the Supreme Court, which is really a problem with the Senate (because the Senate confirms justices), and Article 5 as-written makes it basically impossible to ever fix Senate malaportionment.
The medium is the message. If the US had removed FOX News from existence, reinstated the equal time rule and rescinded Citizens United then this lopsided idiocracy would never have come into being.
So let’s do this already!
“We are past the point of crisis and have entered an era when our political disputes will be settled by the raw exercise of power, not the law.”
This shift from principled governance to power-driven politics makes me wonder just where exactly does it go from here? I like to think there is an optimistic and hopeful answer to this...
We would all like to think so, but I don't think America escapes at a price less than millions of corpses.
Isn't the verdict clear? There is only one outlet now for our democracy, an Article V convention.
Clearly DJT has shown our present system fatally flawed in it's ability to restrain executive power.
We just need a different system, with a week executive, a parliamentary one.
The legislature needs to take back power. Executive orders are one of the worst ways to do policy
The failure of those responsible for understanding and operating the system, doesn't mean the system itself is to blame.
We have a real crisis among competence and expertise in the field of politics.
Congress as a whole can stop this madness. They're just too scared of what this Mango Moron will do to them. So, in reality, they have ignored their oaths in order to allow this to happen, and for that, each of them should be prosecuted as well.
“The future of our system of government is what we make of it.”
That’s been true since the founding of the Republic, before the doctrine of judicial review was established, true following the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War and Reconstruction, following the Great Depression, following Vietnam & Watergate, and now eventually, following Trump and the ceaseless consolidation of unbridled executive power that was at almost full steam before his election.
This isn’t the first time the framework has been radically challenged, or that a “post-constitutional order” has been posited. It probably won’t be the last. I have more confidence in the resilience of the constitutional framework than Mr. Craig. And despite my dismay over what is happening, I choose not to give in to hyperbolic despair.
*Is* it hyperbolic? What is it about the American voting populace that makes you think that they will be up for putting in the hard work -- and personal sacrifice -- required to rebuild?
At the barest minimum, revitalizing necessary institutions is going to require increasing taxes. There is simply no way that will be a successful undertaking.
Terrific, and terrifying article. But do not underestimate the damage Trump's contempt for rule of law will do to our economy. This is the subject of my recent article.
https://charles72f.substack.com/p/vendettanomics-trumps-war-on-econ
While AOC has charisma, whatever she is selling isn't being purchased by the general electorate. Every sentient analysis I've read basically boils down to the same (obvious) formula: appeal to voters' economic aspirations, don't demean, dismiss and denigrate their sometimes retrograde (by "coastal" standards) core beliefs and let go of social engineering plans. The "left" Dems don't seem to grasp that blatantly self-evident series of data points. AOC is an exemplar of misdirected identity politics and that isn't capturing Americans' votes. Time to get back to "A chicken in every pot" or the modern version, "A big-ass pickup truck in every driveway."
I find you passive aggressive. Why aren't "great" minds trying to bring to light that the trifecta was engineered and that America is under attack vs. dribble.
Does it occur to you Andy, that "we the people " were sick and disgusted with YOUR law and order that allowed millions to invade our borders? With YOUR law and order that commandeered biological law and rammed it down on females from sports to bathrooms? With YOUR law and order that allows politicians to support unsustainable bankrupting ponzi scheme? With YOUR law and order that has destroyed our foundation in family, such that 70% of black children are now born in illegitimacy, translating into the depraved inner city's of our society? That YOUR law and order attempted to enforce racist hiring for jobs and entrance to schools? That YOUR law and order had destroyed our educations system with trillions of dollars of ideological experiments with our children? And that YOUR law and order has allowed the our capital and jobs to be liquidated? And YOUR law and order that has bankrupted our country? Maybe the status quo ante no longer is a desirable place to return to. Maybe only by tearing down the Washington national system can we return to the concept of a republic as United States .
Too many brain worms to swat here, but let's start with the first:
>>> "Does it occur to you Andy, that "we the people " were sick and disgusted with YOUR law and order that allowed millions to invade our borders?"
Immigration is a good thing. Millions of people coming here is actually awesome. It turbo charges the economy. It's a key ingredient that keeps us prosperous. We need more, not less. Without it, or too little of it, all our problems become worse and we decline. Immigration is the cheat code to economic growth, more babies, and prosperity.
It sucks our immigration system is so dysfunctional it can't handle the high demand, and so many people feel they have to bypass it to get here. We should fix THAT problem.
The operative immigration law of the land is the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which in addition to setting quotas stated that those quotas should be filled by "those who can contribute most to this country – to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit," Biden failed to uphold the law. We should never respond to demand of the mobs of immigrants. So Trump is left with the job of cleaning up the mess created by Biden.
The immigration mess was not "created by Biden". It is the collective failure of the administrations of both parties and the presidents over decades. Too afraid or more likely bought off to sit down and craft a reasonable immigration policy and system, congress and the presidents let the problems be passed from one admin to the next. The economy and tolerated business owners became dependent on the cheap and pliable labor.
The confusion of the yes-you-can-stay and no-you-can't policies permitted and encouraged legal and illegal immigration. The real crime now is how the US is treating them, painting millions of decent and talented peopleand their with the crimes of a few who will exist in any large enough group of people. The failure to recognize and legitimize the honest, working, contributing immigrants will haunt the country for a long time. Simply deporting thousands and thousands indiscriminately makes the country poorer and is an international embarrassment.
Well said. One thing to notice here, is the term "immigration mess".
The "mess" to us is that our immigration system is dysfunctional and doesn't have the capacity to handle the demand.
The "mess" to folks like Dickerson, is basically just that millions of people want/try to immigrate here. It's the attitude that America is like an over capacity life raft stranded at sea, and hordes of savages in the water are trying to climb their way on. The more that come, the more we all have to sacrifice, in a zero sum game. They want to swat them all away to "save" themselves.
In reality, every person that comes here is like another little raft that ties itself to our big raft, and helps create something more resilient and stable. Even the low skill immigrants help grow the economy, keep jobs filled and create demand. It's a win/win. It's not a sacrifice, it's a boon.
Too much idiocy to address all of it. Three points. 1. I believe that public education in NJ is superior to that in MAGA Alabama. 2. BY FAR the largest increase in the Fiscal deficit occurred in Trump's first term. 3. New York City is actually among the safest places in the country. Folks like Mr. Dickerson believe NYC is inhabited by Godless demons and should be destroyed by fire and brimstone, but it's actually inhabited by hard working folk like (presumably) him. Anyway, Jesus likes immigrants. It's in the Bible.
Charles, If you want to beat your Bible for immigrants please do so. The political system that brought the rules of law the author claims to defend,, has brought with it the litany of problems I describe and more. The Washington national system of bureaucratic singularity of law and rules must be knocked down so that every state can set their path to betterment in order to form a more perfect union. And congrats on NJ's educational sucess! By the way only 44% of your students are proficient in math and 38% in reading. How do your students stack up internationally? The US is 17th place. Just think in a few years if NJ keeps spending at over twice the rate of per pupil for education than Alabama, maybe in a few years your students can rise to the level of Poland? Somethings wrong Charles and our Washington Department of Education has failed and needs to be taken down like many other of the Washington's bureaucracy because they have failed. Admit it!
"If you want to beat your Bible for immigrants please do so." Worship Antichrist if you must, but please don't call yourself "Christian"
That's just silly talk
Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch are the only immigrants who have ever harmed me in any way.