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
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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...
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
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.
Trump is obscenely corrupt, and that is happening right now. I make no excuses for Biden.
Trump is obscenely corrupt.
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.
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.
really? that was the first violation of the constitution ever? in history?
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.
“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.
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.
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
This really resonates with me as what will happen. Very perceptive.
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 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!
That's just silly talk
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.
Nothing will ever be the same.
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.
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.
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.
Who does the “Our” in this title refer to?
“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...