In Federalist No. 69, Alexander Hamilton explains the key difference between the "king of Great Britain" and the "President of the United States." A king, Hamilton explains, is "sacred and inviolable" and "there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is amenable." As a result, "no punishment to which he can be subjected without involving the crisis of a national revolution." The President of the United States, in contrast, can be "impeached" and "removed from office." Further, the President of the United States, after leaving office, is "liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law."
Well, Trump never claimed to have read the Constitution, and he obviously has NO understanding of it. The same is true of most people in this country. The Senators who failed to vote to impeach Trump did so primarily out of fear for their lives, the lives of their families, and their likely loss of power. Mitt Romney verified this abject fear of some of his Republican colleagues in his book. We saw what happened to Republicans in the House who voted to impeach--all lost their Congressional seats, and worst, their lives and those of their families were threatened multiple times. This is the MAGA way.
Regardless of the fact DT has not read the Constitution, he believes it does not apply to him. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership - The Conservative Promise” is his north star.
Further to your point about understanding the basic contents of the Constitution, I will assert that a majority of MAGA idiots have not, nor even have read the Constitution. At this point they only recite what Alina Habba has said and they hold that as truth. We're doomed.
We are doomed if we decide we are doomed. In state after state maga has lost key battles. Plus it destroyed some of its own key infrastructure. It ran the MI GOP into the ground where it is in deep debt; gave up its headquarters building & embroiled in internal warfare. In LA the state defied Speaker Johnson, redrew the congressional map to conform with a court order which creates a 2nd majority Black district. (I could go on but I’ll spare ya. 😊)
Do "go on" because these are important happenings. Overall, "MAGA" and Trump have prevailed in both the House and Senate, and now in Davos Jamie Dimon has argued in favor of speaking respectfully about MAGA and seeing how Trump was right about many things including NATO! Money is like life blood to too many of those in power.
B. Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking, and other evidence-based actions. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
(And yes, if you're skeptical, Simon is ALL data-driven and evidence-based. For example, he started predicting ONE YEAR before the November 2022 midterms that there would be no "Red Wave" -- and he was right. I thankfully learned about his work shortly before that election, and he cured me of a bad case of RWF -- Red Wave Fatalism.)
For ‘TV commentators’ I recommend MSNBC. There is a reason Donnie put it on his retribution list. Also, it is the Senate rules that foil some of what the Dems want to do & when they pass legislation the House rebels.
Personally, I believe A. The GOP did not prevail in the Senate as much as they exposed themselves. B. We are reaping the benefits of Biden legislation the Dem House & Senate managed to pass before the House fell into total chaos. C. Most of the GOP knows it. McConnell for one is worried. His playbook is to stop everything an Dem president does & here he is railing on the House for acting crazy. (It has always been considered BAD for the party of one chamber to criticize its members in the other. Something he avoided like the plague - until now.)
Changes of behavior have meaning. For ex: Here in the land of Mitch you could tell the GOPers were concerned a 2 yrs ahead of the governor’s race. Our Dem gov was too popular & they started moving his authority to other offices. Mitch had them change the rules on how he (or any) Senator would be replaced if they left during their term. Things they would never do if they believed they were about to take back the mansion. (They were correct, Beshear won a 2nd term.)
Now we have the Senate GOP clamoring to pass the compromise on immigration. Lindsey Graham says it is the best deal they will ever get while DJT tells his folks to pass nothing. We also hear zip from the House after a group of GOPers voted with Dems to stymie the Mayorkas impeachment process. Makes no sense if they believe they are poised for a big win.
Redistricting is still up in the air in NY. The last map for 2022 was enough to give us the GOP the House (and George Santos). Redrawing the map is now the chore of a ‘neutral’ commission & will need to be approved by the Dem controlled legislature. Although the Dems have not won all the redistricting battles from the last election, the big GOP advantage is being whittle down. Important when the House margin is 2-3 votes.
Last but not least, the good news of the economy is breaking through. A ‘soft landing’ is becoming reality. The GOP is working hard to turn attention away from it. Donnie advocates government shutdown and hopes for collapse.
On immigration the House wackadoodles are in the position of being unable to take ‘yes’ for an answer again as the Senate GOP blasts them. The Mayorkas impeachment has stalled when a group of GOP members voted with Dems. The WH has what I call the GOP ‘refusal’ list, trying to cut funding for border patrol, refusing a funding supplement for border security & now basically admitting DJT doesn’t want a bill. Then there is Troy Nehls, TX, who spells it out. He’s not voting for anything that will improve Biden’s approval rating.
The headwinds are still there, though: the rise of inequality, instability, violence all over the world. With them, the rise of populism, authoritarianism, far right, fringe politics, discontent, and con men like Trump capitalizing on all that.
Few understood the threat in 2016, and it seems we're still focusing on Trump - and not trumpism or the headwinds. Trump will hopefully end up in jail - yet someone much smarter (and cleaner, and polished - yet with the same talent and penchant to capitalize on the discontent and rile up the "deplorables") will take his place, and then what? Brownshirts marching on Times Square, Kristallnachts in Brooklyn and on La Brea, ethnic cleansings, and most certainly, a world war? Is it as far-fetched as someone like Trump winning in 2016? Germany is protesting the rise of far right, and in the US? "Gas prices out of control!"? Let's take a good look at who we are and what we are in this country. It's not a good look. So maybe focus on getting better, vs. thinking Trump is the sole source of ultimate evil and once he is in jail, all is peachy?
Then there's the whole economic outlook. We're literally painting ourselves in the corner thinking the economy can continue growing unhindered given the climate change when it's the economy that brought us there. We keep thinking we'll come up with a magic bullet when the only viable option is degrowth. I am not even touching on thoroughly and irreversibly trashing (and killing) the planet, and not having the will or the mind to consume less, to trash less.
Can we humans get wise enough in time for the future inhabitants of the planet to look back and say, "at least they made an effort"? We sure aren't making one now, instead galloping towards the abyss and taking the entire planet with us.
Back to rosy outlooks: I am all for optimism when it's paired with a level-headed assessment of where we are and what needs to be done. Is there a party or civic movement focusing on wisdom, humility, and degrowth? I'd like to join one.
I don’t deny the headwinds. There is a lot of room between having headwinds and believing we are doomed. When people believe they are doomed many give up. It is an effective form of suppression where we suppress ourselves. We’ve never had a “good look” unless we close at least one eye to reality. Definitely easier if we wipe transgressions from our memories - and I don’t mean ancient memories. I remember 1967, when a group of us (about 30) commemorated our friend who died in Vietnam with a Christmas Eve totally silent candlelight walk to the cemetery, led by a pastor. The “auxiliary” police patrolled with their shotguns aimed out the car windows at us. (I take some pleasure remembering it was so cold the snow squeaked. The breeze through their car windows made them give up.) Other things like the Weatherman organization of the late 1960s and through the 1970s; the bombing in the city of “love” & home of the Liberty Bell, by the Philadelphia PD to rid themselves of the very annoying “MOVE” members - wiped away even though it happened in 1985. https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name
I live in maga world. I remember before maga the rising christian right & some of their antics. Their allies who began stirring up violence. The day a phone call came in objecting to an endorsement the organization I worked for made. Hearing one of our directors tell a caller when our CEO (also a state legislator) would be in the office. The caller wanted to show our CEO how the 2nd amendment works. I gave him “what for” about that. He waved his hand & said “He’s 70 miles away and isn’t going to bother coming here.” True then, maybe not today.
I know what it’s like to have your governor hung in effigy not so long ago (outside the mansion where his children’s bedrooms are); calls for “patriots” with their guns to monitor the polls & way back before the hanging chad election the KY GOP put out a call for volunteers to be challengers at the polls. The challenger thing was a forerunner to what we see now. (It fell apart because of overwhelming bad P/R. The precincts they chose were black &/or low income places where the GOP was failing to provide poll workers as required by state law. Only poll workers have authority at the polls.) The Brooks Brothers Riot was more successful and also resurfaced in a more menacing form in 2020.
I remember a lot of other things too. Like when Reagan took Carter’s solar panels off the WH and Obama put them back. Obviously, narcissists and others who live for power in the moment are not going to go away or care about the planet when trump is not on the scene. All these things & many more, tell me the headwinds are always here to be capitalized on for dark desires of bad people. Periodically we must to beat them back so we can move forward. To succeed we need the ability to see what holds hope to avoid getting lost.
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
Thank you. (Yes, I believe self fulfilling prophecy works both ways. Especially online where whatever you “engage with” is reinforced by more appearing in your ‘feed’ or recommendations (algorithms).)
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
I don't believe for one hot second that Shoen's argument that Trump could be criminally prosecuted after leaving office persuaded one single Republican to vote to acquit. I firmly believe that as been proven throughout history, Republicans put party over country every single day with every single vote. Even when Nixon was persuaded to resign by Howard Baker it was not to save the country, it was to save the Republican Party from having to vote in the Senate to convict an obviously corrupt crook. Of course 50 years on Republicans lost any scruples and any conscience and found it easy to vote to acquit an obviously corrupt thug. Once again, to save the party - they knew that if they dumped Trump the MAGA horde would turn on them and every single one of them would lose a primary. And that was, to Republican office holders, unthinkable.
Why is there even a MAGA horde? I clicked on the link to the trump rally and began to read the transcript. The guy cannot verbalize one coherent thought. I get the fact that people like the idea of a strongman who can just get things done. There were once virtues that guided the citizenry of this country: Character. Values. Truth. Right vs Wrong. Reliance on facts and evidence. Logic. The ability to think independently. Fully one third of this country has simply tossed those virtues aside for a quick, shallow feel-good.
I don't get it either. But when I drive around rural Upstate New York I get a sense of the appeal. I see Trump flags and banners outside more than a few homes that should be condemned, or in towns with shuttered factories. He hates the people they hate. And he is willing to give them scapegoats for their hate and grievance, even if those scapegoats have nothing to do with their problems. It wasn't gays, trans kids, people of color or women who closed their factory and sent the jobs to China. It wasn't any of those groups that brought about the climate change that caused their crops to fail. It wasn't any of those groups that drove down the fam price of milk so that the middlemen made all the profits. It was rich assholes like Trump. And billionaire robber barons like Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, Jack Welch and David Solomon. But Trump speaks in monosyllables that they can understand. And because they all watched "The Apprentice", they think he's a genius.
Rally goers go there to hear him "Riff" all the old grievance points. Brown people bad, taking all yer jobs, poisoning the country are all dog whistles of hate. If they had brain cells that would fire correctly they would realize that we are a maturing industrialized nation, aging quickly and without a backdrop of available workers. Families are at best have 1-2 kids and not nearly enough to make up workforce voids. Republican most often have voted against family paid leave and other bills meant to soften the blow of raising children while taking time off from work. The Koch Brothers, Dick Uline and a list of "entitlement deniers" work feverishly to extract entitlements from the citizenry. We need a pathway for immigrants to take and do jobs that Americans are UNWILLING TO DO! It's that simple. Add more judges to the asylum process, and have these people pay taxes as quickly as possible. After all when out parents age and need care, who are the ones to change their Poopy diapers?
What the MAGAs fail to understand is that immigration has always provided the workforce to fill the jobs that "Americans" wouldn't do. Whether the Germans, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the whatever, they always took the jobs that earlier waves had moved on from. And we still desperately need those workers. I know a guy who runs a painting company. He brings workers in from Central America because when he tries to hire "Americans" they either don't show up after the first day, or show up drunk or stoned.
Ask farmers, orchard owners, contractors, etc. what happens when they hire "Americans", they will all tell you the same story.
He creates an emotional connection & scapegoats for their fears, anxiety and anger. This makes them believe he is genuine. Emotion literally trumps reason.
That DT fascists are arguing that a president is above the law and cannot be held accountable reveals how far off the rails these traitors have gone. Another DT presidency and this nation, and the world, would crash and burn.
Americans must vote in order to preserve our freedoms. We cannot allow our destiny to be determined by people who do not vote.
Doubtful more than a few of those Republican Senators who voted against finding Trump guilty, either time he was impeached, were really listening to any legal arguments. Certainly not McConnell. And now we have to hope this Supreme Court does?
It was their fig leaf. Being the weasel that his is, McConnell was reported to say behind the scenes that Dems were going to take care of their DJT problem. He saw too much division in his conference and went with weak legal arguments bolstered by the DOJ can handle it later routine to appease everyone.
Y'all may want yo read the NY Times interview with the Director of Project 2025, which will organize and jumpstart Trump's Day 1 take-over of our Federal Government. He is with the Heritage Foundation. This Day 1 project is more serious than just a Trump whim. It is chilling.
How few people, ie voters, know of Project 2025 is most alarming. The NY Times and other mainstream media haven't been exactly been ringing the firebell on it. We are in the election year and finally there's coverage? Guess better late than never. But this is a serious threat to our form of government and really how we live in the future.
The NY Times and other mainstream newspapers have so far not covered the stakes in this election at all well. They are largely still stuck in an old tired rut of covering Trump like he's a "normal" candidate. I'm at least finally seeing signs that their editors are rising from their comfortable torpor. But they'd better ramp it up. While most people don't read the Times, Times editors can influence election coverage in other cities across the nation.
Totally agree. Now the big money is getting behind Haley that might make a difference, but she isn't much of a choice as she is just another wolf in Sheep's clothing.
A quick search shows this has been reported for months in a variety of sources. Personally, I believe it doesn’t break through as much as war, the economy and other news because people think it is boring. It is administrative and detail oriented. The same reason they don’t know how government actually works and think the president does everything / can solve everything on his own.
Washington Post
Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term
Advisers have also discussed deploying the military to quell potential unrest on Inauguration Day. Critics have called the ideas under...
.Nov 5, 2023
The New York Times
How Trump Plans to Wield Power in 2025: What We Know
Donald J. Trump and his allies are already laying the groundwork for a possible second Trump presidency, forging plans for an even more...
.4 weeks ago
NBC News
Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025
Project 2025's board of more than 80 conservative organizations includes nearly 40 that have received funding from dark-money groups linked to...
.Nov 17, 2023
AP News
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump's vision
With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White...
.Aug 29, 2023
The Guardian
‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president
Rightwing groups penned a conservative wish list of proposals for the next conservative president to gut environmental protections.
.Jul 27, 2023
Axios
Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab
Former President Trump's allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented...
Most of these since November. Unfortunately people don't read like they did and circulation is way down. Project 2025 has been around for sometime and yet something this important should be an expose' in Mainstream Media and that includes video and social media. It's the ownership imho
That was a 0.25 second search. A search (for New York Times “project 2025”) brings up tons of articles dating back to at least April of last year - something on tiktok and then other outlets show up. I didn’t search for videos but they are out there. That kind of TV reporting is posted by CNN and MSNBC etc. I would hope there would be impactful pieces closer to the election.
The public has a short attention span (8.25 seconds on average) & a short memory. This is the kind of thing that needs to be a docudrama or set out in a series of focused smaller components to break through the noise.
We’ve had years and years of denigrating public employees & “the government”. Now people need to understand one of the most dangerous pieces is the wholesale replacement of federal employees.
Well I predict Trump would get a low score on the Achievement Drive Test, so he only reaches for the low hanging felony fruit or phones in a felony. If he does win another term I expect him to, like last time, mostly work on his golf game and let his nationalist regime run amok.
Punish the fat bastard to the full extent of the law...after a fair trial before a jury of his peers. Hamilton knows what we have on our hands: a malicious tub of goo named Trump.
The DOJ has been too slow to act on the major crimes, and seems to have let slide the emoluments clause and the Hatch act. Why isn't continuing to tell the big lie, and manipulate citizens, a continuation of the insurrection and also a criminal act?
They are slow to act for several reasons...most of which are a lack of resources and archaic laws regarding protections of rights, which did not take into account controls for communication of misinformation and AI reaching millions of citizens worldwide in nanoseconds. Among many other things.
I always appreciate background as to why we are a nation of laws. We are living in a time where the vast majority of lawmakers are answering, “ no we’re not.” “ we’ve decided to be a nation of power by any means.”
Like everyone else, I’ve been listening to, “the rule of law,” screamed far and wide . I get that the law is slow, I get democracy is messy, I’m very concerned at how worn down people seem to be giving into the strong man mindset. Specifically the number of elected officials, state, and federal coalesced around power, and it is too soon to tell if Democrats are answering adequately. There are some bright spots in issues and elections but the drumbeat of, “Power, power power, I’m here for my own power,” is still deafening
This might be too much to hope for, but if a far ranging cross-section of individuals who are shining the spot light on the rule of law versus authoritarianism, would get together on a regular basis, discuss the recent news, and what we can do about it as a citizen is pretty much essential at this time. I think people need help to hope and if we lose hope we lose everything.
That's exactly what FDR did, and exactly why a new FDR will appear. (Biden certainly fits the bill, but this situation has to get even worse! before such a stellar leader bursts on the scene to properly shame the criminals who would be dictators).
I believe that were in this situation in part because millions of Americans lack basic background knowledge about the history of the founding of our country. They don't understand our identity as a democracy as opposed to a dictatorship. Because of this ignorance, not stupidity, they are prey to conman Trump's (and his team's) lies.
Statistically, stupidity is just as much at fault as lack of knowledge, if not more. Half the voters are yet to change their minds after eight years of lies, impeachments, and over 90 criminal charges, not counting the civil ones.
That’s more closely related to a lack of “emotional intelligence”.
Emotion trumps reason - especially when people are fearful, stressed &/or angry. But they believe they are using reason as shown in some of the most bizarre things they say in interviews.
I don’t think that is how it works. I live in maga world and if you notice they are big on ‘common sense’ and following their ‘gut’. Conflicting methods but neither are related to claims of knowledge or expertise.
If you look at the job situation in areas and how they vote a pattern emerges. In fact one said areas where Biden made headway over HRC and flipped states were where jobs/GDP improved - theoretically should have helped DJT. People reason better when not under duress but emotion wins out more than we admit. That is why marketers & politicians aim for emotion with hyperbole and ‘stories.’
I totally agree about emotion and stress. And about lack of knowl edge. But I also believe very intelligent people believe very stupid things. I know of a very intelligent, highly educated professional whose Limbaugh-loving racist views were surely affected by emotional factors, no question. But it is also true that irrationality, especially among people who should know better, is a form of stupidity. When the person comes to his senses, the person then says: "I can't believe how stupid I was to believe that!" I suppose irrationality has more to do with emotion than reasoning. But after eight years of Trump and there is no rejection of him? I can't tell if that's psychopathy or stupidity. In any case it's dumb as hell!
Okay. I see. You are focused on “stupidity” as in believing and doing things contrary to reason & good sense as opposed to “being stupid” which is more about lack of intelligence.
EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN, including liar Donald Trump, knows that, under our Constitution, “No One Is Above The Law.”
The BIG QUESTION is, WHAT DO American Citizens DO, WHAT ACTIONS DO WE TAKE, if a majority-corrupt Supreme Court, one laden with at least two Justices (Thomas and Alito) who are on the take and at least two Justices (Kavanaugh and Barrett) who are blatant liars, rule, purely for political purposes and to protect disgrace Donald Trump, that “No One Is Above The Law” does not apply to the President of The United States?
What do we DO, Joel? For one, we keep winning elections despite SCOTUS corruption and the GOP having become the Party of Lawless Disorder. Also: Dems keep winning largely BECAUSE of such corruption and awfulness, because large majorities do not like the values or want the policies of MAGA.
What each of us can DO, today, right now, and tomorrow, and onward:
(B) Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
Thank you, Judd, for this column. Your clarity rings through so that even the non-lawyers among your readers can understand that Trump is way out of bounds and must be held accountable for his crimes.
Enough. The Constitution and the Law are very clear. A president is not above the law. Full stop. It seems that our judges, especially the Supreme Court, are trying to twist themselves in knots to come up with some strange argument to abrogate what is the foundation of our Democracy. This entire controversy can and should be put to rest immediately. For the love of god, there is only one right answer here. To find that a president has absolute immunity is the very definition of Dictatorship.
Well, Trump never claimed to have read the Constitution, and he obviously has NO understanding of it. The same is true of most people in this country. The Senators who failed to vote to impeach Trump did so primarily out of fear for their lives, the lives of their families, and their likely loss of power. Mitt Romney verified this abject fear of some of his Republican colleagues in his book. We saw what happened to Republicans in the House who voted to impeach--all lost their Congressional seats, and worst, their lives and those of their families were threatened multiple times. This is the MAGA way.
Regardless of the fact DT has not read the Constitution, he believes it does not apply to him. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, “Mandate for Leadership - The Conservative Promise” is his north star.
Mob tactics. Mob boss. Jail him.
Further to your point about understanding the basic contents of the Constitution, I will assert that a majority of MAGA idiots have not, nor even have read the Constitution. At this point they only recite what Alina Habba has said and they hold that as truth. We're doomed.
We are doomed if we decide we are doomed. In state after state maga has lost key battles. Plus it destroyed some of its own key infrastructure. It ran the MI GOP into the ground where it is in deep debt; gave up its headquarters building & embroiled in internal warfare. In LA the state defied Speaker Johnson, redrew the congressional map to conform with a court order which creates a 2nd majority Black district. (I could go on but I’ll spare ya. 😊)
Do "go on" because these are important happenings. Overall, "MAGA" and Trump have prevailed in both the House and Senate, and now in Davos Jamie Dimon has argued in favor of speaking respectfully about MAGA and seeing how Trump was right about many things including NATO! Money is like life blood to too many of those in power.
For Valerie, and to "go on" from where I think Ann was heading:
A. Read, study, listen, watch to get that there are solid grounds for optimism for Dems and democracy. My highest recommendation is Simon Rosenberg, for example this morning's post: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/republicans-are-taking-an-enormous?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
B. Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking, and other evidence-based actions. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
One-stop source for taking action: Jess Craven's work, for example https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-119-62f?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Simon Rosenberg is also constantly posting actions anyone can take.
I guarantee you will feel at least somewhat better watching this overview of how 2023 was a good year for Dems and how 2024 can be even better: https://youtu.be/Je3RlaLD6Ng (5 min.) (Source: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/as-2024-voting-begins-democrats-should?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web )
(And yes, if you're skeptical, Simon is ALL data-driven and evidence-based. For example, he started predicting ONE YEAR before the November 2022 midterms that there would be no "Red Wave" -- and he was right. I thankfully learned about his work shortly before that election, and he cured me of a bad case of RWF -- Red Wave Fatalism.)
For ‘TV commentators’ I recommend MSNBC. There is a reason Donnie put it on his retribution list. Also, it is the Senate rules that foil some of what the Dems want to do & when they pass legislation the House rebels.
Personally, I believe A. The GOP did not prevail in the Senate as much as they exposed themselves. B. We are reaping the benefits of Biden legislation the Dem House & Senate managed to pass before the House fell into total chaos. C. Most of the GOP knows it. McConnell for one is worried. His playbook is to stop everything an Dem president does & here he is railing on the House for acting crazy. (It has always been considered BAD for the party of one chamber to criticize its members in the other. Something he avoided like the plague - until now.)
Changes of behavior have meaning. For ex: Here in the land of Mitch you could tell the GOPers were concerned a 2 yrs ahead of the governor’s race. Our Dem gov was too popular & they started moving his authority to other offices. Mitch had them change the rules on how he (or any) Senator would be replaced if they left during their term. Things they would never do if they believed they were about to take back the mansion. (They were correct, Beshear won a 2nd term.)
Now we have the Senate GOP clamoring to pass the compromise on immigration. Lindsey Graham says it is the best deal they will ever get while DJT tells his folks to pass nothing. We also hear zip from the House after a group of GOPers voted with Dems to stymie the Mayorkas impeachment process. Makes no sense if they believe they are poised for a big win.
Yes, “but” … Davos has a very very bad track record on US political predictions.
Here is a take on the multiple important states and the internal problems in the GOP there: https://michiganadvance.com/2024/01/13/troubled-state-gop-operations-extend-far-beyond-michigan/
Redistricting is still up in the air in NY. The last map for 2022 was enough to give us the GOP the House (and George Santos). Redrawing the map is now the chore of a ‘neutral’ commission & will need to be approved by the Dem controlled legislature. Although the Dems have not won all the redistricting battles from the last election, the big GOP advantage is being whittle down. Important when the House margin is 2-3 votes.
Last but not least, the good news of the economy is breaking through. A ‘soft landing’ is becoming reality. The GOP is working hard to turn attention away from it. Donnie advocates government shutdown and hopes for collapse.
Recent headlines: Wall Street Journal (not a bastion of liberals), “Consumer Sentiment Logs Biggest Jump in Decades”. CNBC reports today: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/no-economic-collapse-top-citi-strategist-says-healthier-economic-growth-is-coming.html — and interest rates are still predicted to be going down in 2024.
On immigration the House wackadoodles are in the position of being unable to take ‘yes’ for an answer again as the Senate GOP blasts them. The Mayorkas impeachment has stalled when a group of GOP members voted with Dems. The WH has what I call the GOP ‘refusal’ list, trying to cut funding for border patrol, refusing a funding supplement for border security & now basically admitting DJT doesn’t want a bill. Then there is Troy Nehls, TX, who spells it out. He’s not voting for anything that will improve Biden’s approval rating.
Thank you for a glimpse of hope.
The headwinds are still there, though: the rise of inequality, instability, violence all over the world. With them, the rise of populism, authoritarianism, far right, fringe politics, discontent, and con men like Trump capitalizing on all that.
Few understood the threat in 2016, and it seems we're still focusing on Trump - and not trumpism or the headwinds. Trump will hopefully end up in jail - yet someone much smarter (and cleaner, and polished - yet with the same talent and penchant to capitalize on the discontent and rile up the "deplorables") will take his place, and then what? Brownshirts marching on Times Square, Kristallnachts in Brooklyn and on La Brea, ethnic cleansings, and most certainly, a world war? Is it as far-fetched as someone like Trump winning in 2016? Germany is protesting the rise of far right, and in the US? "Gas prices out of control!"? Let's take a good look at who we are and what we are in this country. It's not a good look. So maybe focus on getting better, vs. thinking Trump is the sole source of ultimate evil and once he is in jail, all is peachy?
Then there's the whole economic outlook. We're literally painting ourselves in the corner thinking the economy can continue growing unhindered given the climate change when it's the economy that brought us there. We keep thinking we'll come up with a magic bullet when the only viable option is degrowth. I am not even touching on thoroughly and irreversibly trashing (and killing) the planet, and not having the will or the mind to consume less, to trash less.
Can we humans get wise enough in time for the future inhabitants of the planet to look back and say, "at least they made an effort"? We sure aren't making one now, instead galloping towards the abyss and taking the entire planet with us.
Back to rosy outlooks: I am all for optimism when it's paired with a level-headed assessment of where we are and what needs to be done. Is there a party or civic movement focusing on wisdom, humility, and degrowth? I'd like to join one.
I don’t deny the headwinds. There is a lot of room between having headwinds and believing we are doomed. When people believe they are doomed many give up. It is an effective form of suppression where we suppress ourselves. We’ve never had a “good look” unless we close at least one eye to reality. Definitely easier if we wipe transgressions from our memories - and I don’t mean ancient memories. I remember 1967, when a group of us (about 30) commemorated our friend who died in Vietnam with a Christmas Eve totally silent candlelight walk to the cemetery, led by a pastor. The “auxiliary” police patrolled with their shotguns aimed out the car windows at us. (I take some pleasure remembering it was so cold the snow squeaked. The breeze through their car windows made them give up.) Other things like the Weatherman organization of the late 1960s and through the 1970s; the bombing in the city of “love” & home of the Liberty Bell, by the Philadelphia PD to rid themselves of the very annoying “MOVE” members - wiped away even though it happened in 1985. https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name
I live in maga world. I remember before maga the rising christian right & some of their antics. Their allies who began stirring up violence. The day a phone call came in objecting to an endorsement the organization I worked for made. Hearing one of our directors tell a caller when our CEO (also a state legislator) would be in the office. The caller wanted to show our CEO how the 2nd amendment works. I gave him “what for” about that. He waved his hand & said “He’s 70 miles away and isn’t going to bother coming here.” True then, maybe not today.
I know what it’s like to have your governor hung in effigy not so long ago (outside the mansion where his children’s bedrooms are); calls for “patriots” with their guns to monitor the polls & way back before the hanging chad election the KY GOP put out a call for volunteers to be challengers at the polls. The challenger thing was a forerunner to what we see now. (It fell apart because of overwhelming bad P/R. The precincts they chose were black &/or low income places where the GOP was failing to provide poll workers as required by state law. Only poll workers have authority at the polls.) The Brooks Brothers Riot was more successful and also resurfaced in a more menacing form in 2020.
I remember a lot of other things too. Like when Reagan took Carter’s solar panels off the WH and Obama put them back. Obviously, narcissists and others who live for power in the moment are not going to go away or care about the planet when trump is not on the scene. All these things & many more, tell me the headwinds are always here to be capitalized on for dark desires of bad people. Periodically we must to beat them back so we can move forward. To succeed we need the ability to see what holds hope to avoid getting lost.
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
Thank you. (Yes, I believe self fulfilling prophecy works both ways. Especially online where whatever you “engage with” is reinforced by more appearing in your ‘feed’ or recommendations (algorithms).)
And we need optimism to counter the doomsayers. I believe that optimism can be a self fulfilling prophecy, and that it is necessary to keep us moving forward. Beautiful post, Ann.
That was a clear, concise statement of Trump and his political philosophy. We must defeat him at the polls!
From your fingers to the body politics eyes such that they vote in ways that say nay to another term of Trump.
Call it out, Judd! You are the best in the business!
I don't believe for one hot second that Shoen's argument that Trump could be criminally prosecuted after leaving office persuaded one single Republican to vote to acquit. I firmly believe that as been proven throughout history, Republicans put party over country every single day with every single vote. Even when Nixon was persuaded to resign by Howard Baker it was not to save the country, it was to save the Republican Party from having to vote in the Senate to convict an obviously corrupt crook. Of course 50 years on Republicans lost any scruples and any conscience and found it easy to vote to acquit an obviously corrupt thug. Once again, to save the party - they knew that if they dumped Trump the MAGA horde would turn on them and every single one of them would lose a primary. And that was, to Republican office holders, unthinkable.
Why is there even a MAGA horde? I clicked on the link to the trump rally and began to read the transcript. The guy cannot verbalize one coherent thought. I get the fact that people like the idea of a strongman who can just get things done. There were once virtues that guided the citizenry of this country: Character. Values. Truth. Right vs Wrong. Reliance on facts and evidence. Logic. The ability to think independently. Fully one third of this country has simply tossed those virtues aside for a quick, shallow feel-good.
I don't get it either. But when I drive around rural Upstate New York I get a sense of the appeal. I see Trump flags and banners outside more than a few homes that should be condemned, or in towns with shuttered factories. He hates the people they hate. And he is willing to give them scapegoats for their hate and grievance, even if those scapegoats have nothing to do with their problems. It wasn't gays, trans kids, people of color or women who closed their factory and sent the jobs to China. It wasn't any of those groups that brought about the climate change that caused their crops to fail. It wasn't any of those groups that drove down the fam price of milk so that the middlemen made all the profits. It was rich assholes like Trump. And billionaire robber barons like Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, Jack Welch and David Solomon. But Trump speaks in monosyllables that they can understand. And because they all watched "The Apprentice", they think he's a genius.
Rally goers go there to hear him "Riff" all the old grievance points. Brown people bad, taking all yer jobs, poisoning the country are all dog whistles of hate. If they had brain cells that would fire correctly they would realize that we are a maturing industrialized nation, aging quickly and without a backdrop of available workers. Families are at best have 1-2 kids and not nearly enough to make up workforce voids. Republican most often have voted against family paid leave and other bills meant to soften the blow of raising children while taking time off from work. The Koch Brothers, Dick Uline and a list of "entitlement deniers" work feverishly to extract entitlements from the citizenry. We need a pathway for immigrants to take and do jobs that Americans are UNWILLING TO DO! It's that simple. Add more judges to the asylum process, and have these people pay taxes as quickly as possible. After all when out parents age and need care, who are the ones to change their Poopy diapers?
What the MAGAs fail to understand is that immigration has always provided the workforce to fill the jobs that "Americans" wouldn't do. Whether the Germans, the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the whatever, they always took the jobs that earlier waves had moved on from. And we still desperately need those workers. I know a guy who runs a painting company. He brings workers in from Central America because when he tries to hire "Americans" they either don't show up after the first day, or show up drunk or stoned.
Ask farmers, orchard owners, contractors, etc. what happens when they hire "Americans", they will all tell you the same story.
He creates an emotional connection & scapegoats for their fears, anxiety and anger. This makes them believe he is genuine. Emotion literally trumps reason.
That DT fascists are arguing that a president is above the law and cannot be held accountable reveals how far off the rails these traitors have gone. Another DT presidency and this nation, and the world, would crash and burn.
Americans must vote in order to preserve our freedoms. We cannot allow our destiny to be determined by people who do not vote.
Doubtful more than a few of those Republican Senators who voted against finding Trump guilty, either time he was impeached, were really listening to any legal arguments. Certainly not McConnell. And now we have to hope this Supreme Court does?
It was their fig leaf. Being the weasel that his is, McConnell was reported to say behind the scenes that Dems were going to take care of their DJT problem. He saw too much division in his conference and went with weak legal arguments bolstered by the DOJ can handle it later routine to appease everyone.
Y'all may want yo read the NY Times interview with the Director of Project 2025, which will organize and jumpstart Trump's Day 1 take-over of our Federal Government. He is with the Heritage Foundation. This Day 1 project is more serious than just a Trump whim. It is chilling.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html?smid=nytcore-android-share&fbclid=IwAR1ruUV67EriFdlKlnQlMi8xkbndTL7b0nYrHJ0YxH-DyrPKxAuxNOilbAw
How few people, ie voters, know of Project 2025 is most alarming. The NY Times and other mainstream media haven't been exactly been ringing the firebell on it. We are in the election year and finally there's coverage? Guess better late than never. But this is a serious threat to our form of government and really how we live in the future.
The NY Times and other mainstream newspapers have so far not covered the stakes in this election at all well. They are largely still stuck in an old tired rut of covering Trump like he's a "normal" candidate. I'm at least finally seeing signs that their editors are rising from their comfortable torpor. But they'd better ramp it up. While most people don't read the Times, Times editors can influence election coverage in other cities across the nation.
Totally agree. Now the big money is getting behind Haley that might make a difference, but she isn't much of a choice as she is just another wolf in Sheep's clothing.
A quick search shows this has been reported for months in a variety of sources. Personally, I believe it doesn’t break through as much as war, the economy and other news because people think it is boring. It is administrative and detail oriented. The same reason they don’t know how government actually works and think the president does everything / can solve everything on his own.
Washington Post
Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term
Advisers have also discussed deploying the military to quell potential unrest on Inauguration Day. Critics have called the ideas under...
.Nov 5, 2023
The New York Times
How Trump Plans to Wield Power in 2025: What We Know
Donald J. Trump and his allies are already laying the groundwork for a possible second Trump presidency, forging plans for an even more...
.4 weeks ago
NBC News
Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025
Project 2025's board of more than 80 conservative organizations includes nearly 40 that have received funding from dark-money groups linked to...
.Nov 17, 2023
AP News
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump's vision
With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White...
.Aug 29, 2023
The Guardian
‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president
Rightwing groups penned a conservative wish list of proposals for the next conservative president to gut environmental protections.
.Jul 27, 2023
Axios
Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab
Former President Trump's allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented...
.Nov 13, 2023
Most of these since November. Unfortunately people don't read like they did and circulation is way down. Project 2025 has been around for sometime and yet something this important should be an expose' in Mainstream Media and that includes video and social media. It's the ownership imho
That was a 0.25 second search. A search (for New York Times “project 2025”) brings up tons of articles dating back to at least April of last year - something on tiktok and then other outlets show up. I didn’t search for videos but they are out there. That kind of TV reporting is posted by CNN and MSNBC etc. I would hope there would be impactful pieces closer to the election.
The public has a short attention span (8.25 seconds on average) & a short memory. This is the kind of thing that needs to be a docudrama or set out in a series of focused smaller components to break through the noise.
We’ve had years and years of denigrating public employees & “the government”. Now people need to understand one of the most dangerous pieces is the wholesale replacement of federal employees.
Thank you. I'm saving it, and now printing it up to read later.
Great article. Thanks.
When I read "91 felony counts," I honestly thought, "That seems kind of low for Trump."
Well I predict Trump would get a low score on the Achievement Drive Test, so he only reaches for the low hanging felony fruit or phones in a felony. If he does win another term I expect him to, like last time, mostly work on his golf game and let his nationalist regime run amok.
Gotta cure that syphilis on his right hand first.
I thought he got it stuck in the George Foreman grill?
Punish the fat bastard to the full extent of the law...after a fair trial before a jury of his peers. Hamilton knows what we have on our hands: a malicious tub of goo named Trump.
The DOJ has been too slow to act on the major crimes, and seems to have let slide the emoluments clause and the Hatch act. Why isn't continuing to tell the big lie, and manipulate citizens, a continuation of the insurrection and also a criminal act?
They are slow to act for several reasons...most of which are a lack of resources and archaic laws regarding protections of rights, which did not take into account controls for communication of misinformation and AI reaching millions of citizens worldwide in nanoseconds. Among many other things.
I always appreciate background as to why we are a nation of laws. We are living in a time where the vast majority of lawmakers are answering, “ no we’re not.” “ we’ve decided to be a nation of power by any means.”
Like everyone else, I’ve been listening to, “the rule of law,” screamed far and wide . I get that the law is slow, I get democracy is messy, I’m very concerned at how worn down people seem to be giving into the strong man mindset. Specifically the number of elected officials, state, and federal coalesced around power, and it is too soon to tell if Democrats are answering adequately. There are some bright spots in issues and elections but the drumbeat of, “Power, power power, I’m here for my own power,” is still deafening
This might be too much to hope for, but if a far ranging cross-section of individuals who are shining the spot light on the rule of law versus authoritarianism, would get together on a regular basis, discuss the recent news, and what we can do about it as a citizen is pretty much essential at this time. I think people need help to hope and if we lose hope we lose everything.
That's exactly what FDR did, and exactly why a new FDR will appear. (Biden certainly fits the bill, but this situation has to get even worse! before such a stellar leader bursts on the scene to properly shame the criminals who would be dictators).
I believe that were in this situation in part because millions of Americans lack basic background knowledge about the history of the founding of our country. They don't understand our identity as a democracy as opposed to a dictatorship. Because of this ignorance, not stupidity, they are prey to conman Trump's (and his team's) lies.
Statistically, stupidity is just as much at fault as lack of knowledge, if not more. Half the voters are yet to change their minds after eight years of lies, impeachments, and over 90 criminal charges, not counting the civil ones.
That’s more closely related to a lack of “emotional intelligence”.
Emotion trumps reason - especially when people are fearful, stressed &/or angry. But they believe they are using reason as shown in some of the most bizarre things they say in interviews.
And nearly all of them suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. Which is stupidity, no matter how you slice it.
I don’t think that is how it works. I live in maga world and if you notice they are big on ‘common sense’ and following their ‘gut’. Conflicting methods but neither are related to claims of knowledge or expertise.
If you look at the job situation in areas and how they vote a pattern emerges. In fact one said areas where Biden made headway over HRC and flipped states were where jobs/GDP improved - theoretically should have helped DJT. People reason better when not under duress but emotion wins out more than we admit. That is why marketers & politicians aim for emotion with hyperbole and ‘stories.’
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201911/are-humans-rational
I totally agree about emotion and stress. And about lack of knowl edge. But I also believe very intelligent people believe very stupid things. I know of a very intelligent, highly educated professional whose Limbaugh-loving racist views were surely affected by emotional factors, no question. But it is also true that irrationality, especially among people who should know better, is a form of stupidity. When the person comes to his senses, the person then says: "I can't believe how stupid I was to believe that!" I suppose irrationality has more to do with emotion than reasoning. But after eight years of Trump and there is no rejection of him? I can't tell if that's psychopathy or stupidity. In any case it's dumb as hell!
Okay. I see. You are focused on “stupidity” as in believing and doing things contrary to reason & good sense as opposed to “being stupid” which is more about lack of intelligence.
(As for myself, sometimes I am just dense.)
EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN, including liar Donald Trump, knows that, under our Constitution, “No One Is Above The Law.”
The BIG QUESTION is, WHAT DO American Citizens DO, WHAT ACTIONS DO WE TAKE, if a majority-corrupt Supreme Court, one laden with at least two Justices (Thomas and Alito) who are on the take and at least two Justices (Kavanaugh and Barrett) who are blatant liars, rule, purely for political purposes and to protect disgrace Donald Trump, that “No One Is Above The Law” does not apply to the President of The United States?
What do we DO, Joel? For one, we keep winning elections despite SCOTUS corruption and the GOP having become the Party of Lawless Disorder. Also: Dems keep winning largely BECAUSE of such corruption and awfulness, because large majorities do not like the values or want the policies of MAGA.
What each of us can DO, today, right now, and tomorrow, and onward:
(A) Learn and spread the word that there are solid grounds for optimism for Dems and democracy. My highest recommendation is Simon Rosenberg, for example this morning's post: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/republicans-are-taking-an-enormous?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
(B) Take action! Join the hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens who have been catalyzed to civic engagement since 2016. Get out the vote by writing postcards, letters, phone banking. These actions work: Dems have overperformed in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. "Action is the antidote to anxiety"!
One-stop source for taking action: Jess Craven's work, for example https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-119-62f?r=ktt63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Simon Rosenberg is also constantly posting actions anyone can take. I love the phrase he recently started using: "Do more, worry less."
Also: "Action is the antidote to anxiety" is a good thing to remember every time we read distressing news and analysis.
JOEL, we truly are running out of time due to the outrageous delay of Garland
I agree -- alarming and confounding. Therefore: Do more, worry less. See my reply to Joel, just above, and to Valerie, a ways up.
Thank you, Judd, for this column. Your clarity rings through so that even the non-lawyers among your readers can understand that Trump is way out of bounds and must be held accountable for his crimes.
If that is true, President Biden has the authority to do whatever he wants such as disposing of problematic individuals, laws, property, industries...
According to Trumpsters…maybe it’s a good idea for Dems to take advantage of it! 😉
Enough. The Constitution and the Law are very clear. A president is not above the law. Full stop. It seems that our judges, especially the Supreme Court, are trying to twist themselves in knots to come up with some strange argument to abrogate what is the foundation of our Democracy. This entire controversy can and should be put to rest immediately. For the love of god, there is only one right answer here. To find that a president has absolute immunity is the very definition of Dictatorship.