There were many quality cartoons about how Biden exceeded expectations during his State of the Union speech. Despite all of her notoriety, there were surprisingly few about Sen. Katie Brittâs rebuttal performance. On to cartoons.
Our true choice:
Different messages:
Biden drinks a new concoction:
Katieâs being seen, but not quite as the GOP expected:
Womenâs History Month had a big kick off by the elephant:
West Quoddy Head Light, Lubec, ME – February 2024 drone photo by Rick Berk Photography
Wrongo has lots of time for Evan Osnos, a writer for the New Yorker. Osnos wrote a great book âWildland: The Making of America’s Furyâ, a detailed look at Americaâs reactions to 9/11 and to the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol. He follows the lives of a few people that reveal how we lost the ability to see ourselves as part of a cohesive society. Highly recommended.
Apparently, Osnos is one member of the media that Biden is willing to spend time with. In a New Yorker article, Osnos offers a look into Bidenâs state of mind as the 2024 election silly season begins. Osnos writes:
âIf you spend time with Biden these days, the biggest surprise is that he betrays no doubts. The world is riven by the question of whether he is up to a second term, but he projects a defiant belief in himself and his ability to persuade Americans to join him….â
More:
âNow, having reached the apex of power, he gives off a conviction that borders on serenityâa bit too much serenity for Democrats who wonder if he can still beat the man with whom his legacy will be forever entwined. Given the doubts, I asked, wasnât it a risk to say, âIâm the one to do itâ? He shook his head and said, âNo. Iâm the only one who has ever beat him. And Iâll beat him again….â
Osnos thinks that for Biden, going against Trump is personal. After all, Trump tried to steal the presidency from him. Biden knows that Republicans have sold imaginary voter fraud to its voters to undermine the democratic process. Bidenâs certain that heâs the best person to hold them at bay.
Biden knows that what Trump and the GOP are planning this fall is exactly what they did on Jan. 6, but with better planning.
The balance of the Osnos report is about Bidenâs view of the upcoming election, about his view of Trumpâs weaknesses, and about the negative polling on Bidenâs policy stances and economic measures. Osnos asked Biden if it was possible for him to convert Trump supporters and others, given that heâs behind in the polls:
âWell, first of all, remember, in 2020, you guys told me how I wasnât going to win? And then you told me in 2022 how it was going to be this red wave?….And I told you there wasnât going to be any red wave. And in 2023 you told me weâre going to get our ass kicked again? And we won every contested race out there….In 2024, I think youâre going to see the same thing.â
Biden wants to make certain that weâre not going to buy into the 2022 red wave again. The NYT helped to push that narrative back then too just as it is today. Osnos, who wrote a book about Bidenâs 2020 win, reflected on the changes brought about by age:
âFor better and worse, he is a more solemn figure now. His voice is thin and clotted, and his gestures have slowed, but, in our conversation, his mind seemed unchanged. He never bungled a name or a date.â
Please. Will the American media just give Bidenâs age a rest? John Harwood tweeted that the Osnos interview, like Harwoodâs own last fall, âshows talk of his alleged mental decline as utter bullshit.â
No one should be a Pollyanna about Bidenâs reelection chances â 2024âs gonna be a fight. Osnos reminds us:
âBiden should be cruising to reelection. Violent crime has dropped to nearly a fifty-year low, unemployment is below four per cent, and in January the S&P 500 and the Dow hit record highs. More Americans than ever have health insurance, and the country is producing more energy than at any previous moment in its history.â
But today, the two Parties have wildly different intentions for the country and have very similar levels of support. In 2020, seven states hinged on a difference of less than three percentage points. Everything will come down to improving turnout on the margins.
Osnos also talked to a Biden campaign staffer, Mike Donilon, about a âfreedom agendaâ:
âItâs easy to miss how unusual a âfreedom agendaâ is for a Democratic Presidential campaign. Since the nineteen-sixties, Republicans have held fast to the language of freedomâfrom the backlash against civil rights to the Tea Party to the Freedom Caucus. But….he sees an opportunity for Democrats to…lay claim to the freedom to âchoose your own health-care decisions, the freedom to vote, the freedom for your kids to be free of gun violence in school, the freedom for seniors to live in dignity.â
He also interviewed Bruce Reed, a close Biden aide who talks about how to bridge the ideological divide:
âWe live in abnormal political times, but the American people are still normal people. Given a choice between normal and crazy, theyâre going to choose normal.â
This is a distilled message that Biden can use in the election: Trump and his anti-Constitution, anti-rule-of-law, anti-democracy cult will sure as hell try to steal your vote this fall to install Trump. Remind voters that itâs not just an abstract: Democracy is certainly on the line this fall, and if Trump returns to power, he intends to gut your freedoms.
We could all help Biden by asking our friends what are they prepared to do?
Bee in a Fishhook Cactus bloom, Anza Borrego SP, CA – February 2024 photo by Paulette Donnellon
âI worry that no matter how cynical I get, itâs never enough…â â Lily Tomlin
There are abundant reasons for cynicism today. First, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Â will step down as Senate minority leader, three years ahead of his retirement from the Senate. McConnell said the recent death of his wifeâs sister reminded him of his mortality, which encouraged him to step down and take a seat in the back. But for an 82 year-old man who is in iffy health, McConnell may not want to keep sweeping up after the growing number of rogue elephants in the Senate any more.
Wrongo is glad heâs finally going because heâs an awful human being. However, after the Republicans in the Senate replace him, Wrongo is certain to miss the good old days when McConnell was in charge, because whoever follows him will be much worse.
A short look back on Mitchâs tenure: He made it his mission to ensure that nothing would get done under Obama, even if it meant the country went into a default. McConnell denied Obama the chance to fill a Supreme Court seat, holding it open for Trump. If it wasnât for Mitch’s partisan warfare, Trump wouldnât have appointed three right wingers to the current Supreme Court; Roe v. Wade would still be the law of the land.
McConnell fundamentally changed the way the Senate works. Now we all know that if something passes the Senate it needs 60 votes. Mitch McConnell made votes for Cloture (the procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion) a huge thing. Under McConnellâs leadership, cloture votes went from a handful each term to hundreds.
McConnell will be remembered for his cowardly votes in two Trump impeachment trials. His failure to lead the Senate to a Trump conviction for the Jan. 6 insurrection may well have doomed our democracy. We remember him for his brazen/unprofessional treatment of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (“…nevertheless, she persisted…”). If it hadn’t been for John McCain, Mitch would have dismantled the ACA, leaving millions of Americans without health insurance today.
His legacy will be his success in his decades-long work of damaging America:
Todayâs second reason for cynicism is the Supreme Courtâs decision to take up the question of whether Trump enjoys total Presidential immunity for his actions in the January 6th case. Their decision sent a shockwave through the nation, dismaying Democrats and any American who understands the implications of the delay. Thanks to a corrupt Supreme Court, the most important of Trumpâs four (four!) criminal trials may not be finished before Americans cast their ballots in November.
âThe Court handed…Trump two gifts last night: time and comfort….The gift of time was so deliberate that it can only serve as one more blow to the Supreme Courtâs battered reputation. The Court…should move with dispatch in vital cases….If the immunity case isnât of the most critical urgency and consequence, what is? Take it as given that the Supreme Court of 2024 is the most intensely political of our lifetimes….â
The Courtâs surprise grant of review was a gut punch for many Democrats. They set the oral argument for April 22, 2024. It is doubtful that an opinion will be issued before June 2024. So, there is little chance that Trump will be on trial in the federal election interference or defense secrets cases before the November election.
There is no doubt that the Court was aware that theyâve delayed the Jan. 6 trial at least four months, past the point at which Trump will be the Republican Partyâs nominee. That time frame is traditionally when the Department of Justice (DOJ) refuses to pursue cases against presidential candidates. Will Attorney General Garland have the cojones to let the case proceed, or will he tell Special Counsel Smith to pause it?
In some ways, this changes nothing. Wrongo has said that the courts were never going to derail Trumpâs candidacy before November. We, the American people, remain in charge of our destiny, and thereby, Trump’s eventual accountability. Our remedy lies in defeating Trump in November. If that happens, Trump will be convicted. There is no cavalry coming. There is no miracle solution.
If we fail to do so, when Trump is again president, he will use the DOJ to end his federal criminal prosecutions.
It was clear that no conviction of Trump (including appeals) for Jan. 6 or the secret documents cases could possibly be final before the November election. A final verdict wouldnât be achieved before the election, so obsessing over when any Trump trial begins is pointless.
Those who hoped the legal system would stop Trump are disappointed. As is anyone who hoped McConnellâs Senate would stop Trump in February 2021. As are those who hoped Garlandâs DOJ would move (quickly) to hold him accountable in 2021 and 2022.
Once again the US Supreme Court has put its thumb on the scales of justice to preserve Republican political dominance. We all recall Bush vs. Gore where an earlier version of a Right-wing Supreme Court gave the 2000 presidential election to GW Bush. Back then, everyone said it was a âone-offâ intervention in the democratic process. But here we are, 24 years later with another one-off.
To pull together these two stories, Mitch McConnell didn’t steal the Supreme Court for nothing,
Wrongo thinks that the many elite lawyer pundits are starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court are robe-wearing political hacks doing whatever they can to perpetuate Republican Party policy.
There remains only one guardrail left to check the Conservative goal of restoring rich, white-Christian hegemony: Voters.
New Preston, CT â February 2024 photo by Dave King
This week, the full extent of the MAGA plan to convert America into a theocracy run by religious fundamentalists came into view. Charles Blow. writing in the NYT said:
âIf you donât think this country is sliding toward theocracy, youâre not paying attention….on Tuesday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, and that destruction of those embryos, even by accident, is subject to the stateâs Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.â
The Alabama courtâs Chief Justice Colonel Tom Parker, wrote:
âEven before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.â
For some background on Justice Parker, Media Matters writes: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âDuring a recent interview on the program of self-proclaimed âprophetâ and QAnon conspiracy theorist Johnny Enlow, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker indicated that he is a proponent of the âSeven Mountain Mandate,â a theological approach that calls on Christians to impose fundamentalist values on all aspects of American life.â
Weâre watching a slow motion Christian takeover of our Constitutional democracy happen right before our eyes. From the US Supreme Courtâs overturning of Roe to plans by Trump-aligned think tanks to restructure the US government to suit Christian nationalists to the Alabama ruling, Christian Nationalism is on the march.
âAn influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power…â
More:
âSpearheading the effort is Russell Vought, who served as Trumpâs director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.â
â…based on the public statements of those advisors, Trumpâs Christian Nationalist Agenda will include:
A national abortion ban.
Using FDA authority to ban or greatly restrict access to abortion medication (a defacto abortion ban).
Undermining marriage equality.
Attacking the rights and freedoms of trans people.
Ending no-fault divorce.
Invoking the Insurrection Act to stop protests.
Making it harder to access contraception.
Ending surrogacy; and
Getting rid of sex education in schools.
This is not theoretical. All across the country, Republican extremists are implementing policies to further involve the government in peopleâs private decisions. Republicans want to regulate what you read, who you marry, how you procreate, and your medical decisions.â
More from Pfeiffer: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âSome of you might be surprised to learn that very few voters know about the major stories that have dominated cable news and your social media feeds. The chasm between political junkies in both parties and everyone else has never been greater. You either consume a ton of political news or no news. And the no-news people will decide the election â and the fate of democracy.â
But thatâs not all. The Heritage Foundation is the think tank developing Project 2025, the playbook for staffing the next Trump administration. If you havenât heard of Project 2025, you can read up on it here.
Project 2025 is an action plan for how to use the most extreme versions of the unitary executive theory to weaponize the federal government to be an instrument of authoritarian theocratic ethno-nationalism. Itâs difficult to overstate the extent to which a key element in this all-out culture war is the re-subjugation of women. Hereâs a quote from a Heritage Foundation video: (emphasis by Wrongo)
“It seems to me that a good place to start would be a feminist movement against the pill, & for… returning the consequentiality to sex….Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose & ending recreational sex & senseless use of birth control pills. â
You can watch the video here. Do Conservatives ever have sex to just enjoy it?
The handwriting has been on the wall for years, but few voters seem able to read these signs of growing authoritarianism and fascism. There are only a few months for Democrats to keep enough attention on this so that voters are fully aware of Novemberâs political stakes.
Our politics are broken. The political system no longer works â what with gerrymandered House districts, the anti-democratic rules in the Senate, the wildly corrupt Supreme Court, and the Electoral College bias in favor of small states.
This partially explains why Americans born post Bush v. Gore have a disdain for both Parties, even though they disagree much more with the Republicans than with the Dems. Telling the Gen Z kids to get out there and fix our democracy doesnât match reality â that our system is well and truly fucked.
It canât easily be fixed until the MAGA movement is killed, root and branch.
Grand Canyon, South Kabab Trail, AZ – February 2024 photo by Lynsey Schroeder
Weâve made it to Super Bowl weekend, but not without bumps and a few bruises caused by this weekâs edition of Americaâs dysfunctional politics. Today, letâs do a lightning round of mostly bad and a few good stories from the past week.
First up, Special counsel Robert Hur has released his report declining charges against Biden in his classified documents case but finding he did willfully retain information. In the report, Hur goes out of his way to paint a damning portrait of the President. He cites several examples of memory lapses and describes Biden as a âwell-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.â
Hurâs message boils down to this: a well-intentioned, forgetful old man took the wrong stuff home from work. He âwillfully retainedâ it, but weâre gonna let him go. Not because heâs president, but because weâre nice guys. Sotto voce: (because we probably couldnât prove criminal intent). Maybe the DOJ felt Trump needed a win after 91 felonies.
Thereâs a pattern to the DOJâs appointments of special counsels:
Whatâs amazing is that Biden now faces more heat from the media for being found innocent than Trump will if heâs found guilty. The multiple questions by reporters at Thursday nightâs Biden press conference showed just how difficult it is for Americaâs media to focus on whatâs important. The White House Press Corps should collectively be ashamed of its behavior during the press conference. They behaved like a pack of rabid hyenas.
Why the horrible behavior toward Biden, and the deference to Trump? Mainstream media outlets have long been obsessed with Bidenâs age. They have not, however, given the same attention to Trumpâs age or to his gaffes and incoherent comments. Itâs sad that we’re in a situation where Trump’s multiple indictments seemingly are politically advantageous to him, and Bidenâs exoneration is politically terrible for him.
Given the mediaâs obsession, it wonât matter how well Biden does in public. If he makes one mental slip it becomes confirmation that the biggest concern about him is true. He canât be perfect every day for the next nine months. Nobody can.
Next, Reuters reported that the Hawaii Supreme Court has upheld the state’s laws that generally prohibit carrying a firearm in public without a license. In the process, they criticized the US Supreme Court’s rulings that have expanded gun rights:
âThe history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.â
This is a direct attack on the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in âNew York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruenâ which recognized for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. More:
âThe Governmentâs interest in reducing firearms violence through reasonable weapons regulations has preserved peace and tranquility in Hawaiâi. A free-wheeling right to carry guns in public degrades other constitutional rights….The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness encompasses a right to freely and safely move in peace and tranquility. Laws regulating firearms in public preserve…liberty and advance these rights….There is no individual right to keep and bear arms under Article I, Section 17. So there is no constitutional right to carry a firearm in public for possible self-defense.â
Hawaii for the win!
Third, on February 9, 1964, 60 years ago, Ed Sullivan hosted the Beatles on his show. If you’re a member of the baby boomer generation, chances are you were sitting in front of a television that night. Seventy-three million Americans joined in to watch something they had never seen before. You can wake up old memories by watching âI Wanna Hold Your Handâ here.
Fourth, after blocking the border bill on Wednesday, Senate Republicans allowed a clean funding bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to advance toward a vote. In the meantime, Ukraine is close to losing Avdeevka, a major eastern city to the Russians.
âThe disinformation campaign…expanded after Russian politicians spoke out when the US Supreme Court lifted an order by a lower court and sided with….Bidenâs administration to rule that US Border Patrol officers were allowed to take down razor-wire fencing erected by the Texas National Guard…..There also appear to be a number of Russian accounts on X posing as pro-Texas groups, in another echo of 2016 when an account that claimed to be run by Tennessee Republicans was outed as Russian-run.
One of the suspect accounts is the Texan Independence Supporters, which has already been called out for spelling errors and constantly referencing Ukraine and Russia. On Sunday, the account claimed âwe are a Texan organization, not Russian. We can definitely assure yaâll [sic] that weâre not Russian.â
Another reminder that the internet is a cesspool.
Enough! Itâs time for our Saturday Soother, where we stop obsessively scrolling through our news feeds and take a few moments to chillax and gather ourselves for another week hearing all the reasons why itâs necessary to continue bombing Palestinians.
Here at the Mansion of Wrong weâre preparing to host a small Super Bowl viewing party with as many high-calorie, high-fat appetizers as we can eat.
To help you relax, find a spot near a south-facing window and watch and listen to George Gershwinâs âRhapsody in Blueâ. Â February 12th is the 100th anniversary of this work that combines jazz and classical origins into an iconic American work. Here it is performed by Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic while playing solo piano in 1976 in Frankfurt, Germany:
(hat tip to Marguerite S.)
Wrongo was struck by how Bernstein was able to conduct and play. Maybe multi-tasking IS possible.
Does the law matter anymore to Trump and his MAGA followers? As Heather Digby said, the MAGAs:
â…now believe that the law is what Trump says it is.â
That seems patently true if you read anything on Xitter by Right-wing Trump apologists, since they throw all sorts of pasta at the wall hoping some will stick. The latest is about the judge in the E. Jean Carroll case Lewis Kaplan and Carrollâs lawyer Roberta Kaplan (no relation) having worked together in the early 1990s. Somehow that constitutes a conflict of interest in the minds of the MAGATs.
Roberta Kaplan joined the firm in 1992 and left in 2016. Judge Kaplan was a partner there until 1994, so there was a two year overlap that occurred 30 years ago. Theyâll try to make chicken salad out of this chicken shit.
A more serious attack on the law is occurring in Texas. Vice News is reporting that:
âA trucker convoy of âpatriotsâ is heading to the US border with Mexico next week, as the standoff between Texas and the federal government intensifies. The organizers of the âTake Our Border Backâ convoy have called themselves âGodâs armyâ and say theyâre on a mission to stand up against the âglobalistsâ who they claim are conspiring to keep US borders open and destroy the country.â
Godâs Army. Vice quotes Ruth Braunstein, professor at the University of Connecticut:
âWhen people believe that they are working on behalf of God, they might be willing to resort to relatively extreme measures….And so you have a politically volatile situation that could become much more so, in part because of this rhetoric.â
The Godâs Army website is âSecure Our Borders.â It is calling on:
â…all active & retired law enforcement and military, veterans, mama bears, elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, bikers, media and LAW ABIDING, freedom-loving Americans…â
To join in the march on Texas. This has stoked civil war fantasies on fringe forums, as well as favorable comments on the social media accounts of GOP lawmakers and right-wing political commentators. And no surprise, this has bled into politics. The Daily Beast reported that on a news show, Oklahomaâs Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and Newsmax host Carl Rigbie mused about the possibility of a âforce-on-force conflictâ erupting between the federal government and the Texas National Guard.
They should be careful what they wish for. Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-TX), was quoted in the Dallas Morning News saying he expects to see continuing escalation in the legal battles between the state and the Biden administration:
âItâs striking that Texas Democrats are willing to side with Mexican drug cartels invading the state of Texas over their own governor and over the people of Texas…â
âWe stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border….We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.â
Wrongo has written many times about the faction of MAGATs who sport flag lapel pins and show you copies of their pocket Constitutions. The irony is that these (mostly) dudes havenât really accepted the words of the Constitution and its Amendments. They want to interpret the law based on referendums orchestrated by Trump and Fox News.
What Abbott, Trump, and the MAGAs are attempting with the âsouthern border resistanceâ is testing to see how much buy in they can get from red state governors, truck drivers, law enforcement, and âpatriotsâ. Can they sow enough chaos that the presidential election is difficult to conduct?
Hereâs a theory: Trump doesnât expect to win in November. In fact, he may not even care about the November election. Why wait until November 2024 and/or January, 2025 to make his move? What if he can mobilize his followers to strike now? How would Biden and the federal government respond to multiple domestic attacks occurring simultaneously within our borders?
If the GOP and Trump canât beat Biden one-on-one, why wait? Waiting means that Trump will likely be incarcerated. Both Trump and the GOP certainly know that time isnât on their side.
It’s time for the federal government to step in and knock this shit off before somebody gets killed. All Guardsmen at the border should be federalized immediately and then ordered to assist other federal officials in enforcing the Court’s decision.
Thatâs the only legitimate authority in play here. The GOP Constitutional reading favoring the states against the federal government is laughable. What would the fallout be if the National Guard, federalized by Biden attacks Texas law enforcement along with guys who drove their pickups to the border?
Time to wake up America! The Gospel According To CB Radio isn’t an authority on anything! Ask Trump and Abbott how many federal law enforcement officers enforcing a Supreme Court ruling are you willing to kill for your political stunt?
To help you wake up, we recognize the passing of the 1970s singer Melanie Safka who died this week at 76. Melanie was one of the surprise stars at Woodstock in 1969. To Wrongo, her best tune was âLay Down (Candles in the Rain)â. She would later say that the sight of people in the Woodstock crowd lighting candles in the rain inspired her to write the song which she recorded with gospel-style backing from the Edwin Hawkins Singers. It was released in 1970 and became her first hit.
Here she performs it live with the Edwin Hawkins Singers in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1970:
The song was anthemic, in the same way the Edwin Hawkins Singersâ âOh Happy Dayâ had been the summer before. And the Edwin Hawkins Singers are also the chorus on âLay Down (Candles in the Rain).â The song is alternately hugely upbeat and dark.
Sample Lyric:
We were so close there was no room
We bled inside each otherâs wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace
Lay down, lay down, let it all down
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown
Lay down, lay down, let it all down
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown
From Paul Thornton of the LA Times: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âI know the story of Trumpâs march to a third GOP nomination barely registered among those whoâve closely followed political news since 2015 â but still, please let it surprise you. Please let the fact that a man who tried to topple American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021, is now the second-most likely person to lead it after noon on Jan. 20, 2025, shake you to your core. German democracy held out for nine years after Hitlerâs Beer Hall Putsch in 1923; Trumpâs likely nomination puts us on course to halve the time it took Germany to empower (or in our case, re-empower) its fascist leader of a failed coup.â
It was a bad week for Trump and a good week for Biden. Trumpâs week was bad enough that he may soon be renting Mar-a-Lago from E. Jean Carroll. Also, it shows us that Trump can lose to an 80-year-old. On to cartoons.
Bidenâs âbadâ economy continues to set records:
Elephant reacts badly to Decemberâs GDP numbers:
When it comes to Trump, the Elephant is all talk and no tusk:
House Republicans say immigration deal is dead on arrival:
Why isnât the media covering Abbottâs insurrection?
(We will not publish a Saturday Soother this week, but there will be a Sunday cartoons column)
In doing research for this weekâs Fascism in America column, Wrongo came across this from Rick Perlstein:
âAnd I think…what…we have in the United States: a very weak political establishment, but a civil society underneath it thatâs looking for a kind of expression. And the expression that itâs taking is pathological….Because the party system is unable to answer the demands they have.â
A weak political establishment means that Congress can barely get out of its own way. Our political institutions have become ineffectual. The current Congress is setting records for inaction:
âThe 118th Congress is on track to be one of the most unproductive in modern history, with just a couple dozen laws on the books at the close of 2023…â
This void is being filled by judicial or political opportunists. This is even true when the US Supreme Court hands down a decision that Republicans donât like. From the Texas Tribune:
âThe US Supreme Court…ordered Texas to allow federal border agents access to the stateâs border with Mexico, where Texas officials have deployed miles of concertina wire…..For now, it effectively upholds longstanding court rulings that the Constitution gives the federal government sole responsibility for border security.â
Last October, Texas sued the federal government after Border Patrol agents cut some of the wire strung along the Rio Grande, arguing the Department of Homeland Security destroyed the stateâs property and interfered in Texasâ border security efforts. But in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court vacated a previous injunction from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that prevented Border Patrol agents from cutting the wire.
So what does a sovereign state like Texas do in response? Itâs governor Greg Abbott, issued a âStatement on Texasâ Constitutional Right to Self-Defense,â following calls by numerous Texas Republicans to resist the high courtâs order. Abbottâs statement says that he had invoked his state’s “constitutional authority to defend and protect itself” which “is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.”
OK, is it secession time anybody?
Houston Public Media quotes Charles âRockyâ Rhodes, teacher of constitutional law at South Texas College of Law in Houston:
“That’s a real blow to our separation of powers and the way that this country has governed itself….There have been situations in the past where governors and state officials have defied the Supreme Court, but that has led to constitutional crises.”
Teddy Rave, at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, another constitutional law expert, described the calls to defy the high court’s order as unconstitutional and dangerous:
“The last time that I’m aware of that this kind of defiance actually happened was resistance to desegregation orders after Brown v. Board of Education….The Supreme Court didn’t take it kindly and issued a unanimous decision in Cooper v. Aaron explaining that states need to follow its constitutional rulings.”
But since itâs Texas, wonât the Supremes give the Republican governor a hall pass to run amuck over the Constitution? Maybe so, maybe no. The decision was 5-4, meaning that two of the six conservative Supreme Court justices said Abbott had to comply. Could one switch sides? Certainly.
What can Biden do if Abbott refuses to comply with SCOTUSâs decision? He could federalize the Texas National Guard, which is what happened in Arkansas in 1957, when the then-governor Faubus tried to defy court orders allowing Black students to attend white schools in Little Rock.
Much like Abbott, Faubusâs fight was politically motivated. Faubus used the Arkansas Guard to keep blacks out of Central High School largely because he was frustrated by his political opponentsâ success in using segregationist rhetoric to whip up support with white voters.
That eventually led President Eisenhower to federalize the Arkansas National Guard to effectively remove them from Faubus’s control. Eisenhower then sent the 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to protect the black students and enforce the federal court order. The Arkansas National Guard later took over those protection duties, and the 101st Airborne returned to their base.
There seems to be a growing movement in Texas to fight the SCOTUS decision. A Texas nationalist urged Abbott to militarize the Texas State Guard if Biden federalizes the Texas National Guard. The Texas State Guard cannot be federalized. It has about 1,900 personnel, substantially smaller than the roughly 23,000 members of the Texas National Guard, but Abbott could attempt to beef up its headcount.
The Hill is reporting that Trump has urged states to deploy National Guard troops to Texas in support of Abbott. Various Right-wing twitter accounts are reporting that 25 Republican states have signed a statement supporting Texas against the Supreme Court. It’s not certain as Wrongo writes this is if these reports are true, but a presidential candidate and the governors of several states challenging the federal government seems an awful lot like the beginning of an insurrection.
Their joint statement isn’t in support of Texas, it’s in support of treason. This is what America has come to. Itâs also symptomatic of the Supreme Courtâs inability to check radical Trump-placed judges in lower courts who issue rulings with devastating consequences for democracy and human rights. States have no constitutional prerogative to nullify federal law. This principle was established during the nullification crisis of the 1830s and the Southern resistance to desegregation during the Civil Rights era. Nor, under the Constitutionâs supremacy clause, can states interfere with the lawful exercise of federal authority. This rule is one of the oldest and most entrenched in all of our Constitutional law.
We often talk about Constitutional crises, and this could easily become one if Abbott and his enablers try to limit by force the US Border Patrol’s access in the upcoming days.
Itâs also a test for Biden in an election year. Will he have to put down another insurrection by Republicans? If he does, what will be the political fallout?
âIf you aren’t paying attention to the courts, you aren’t paying attention to democracyâ. – Mark E. Elias
The Colorado Supreme Courtâs ruling that Trump is disqualified from appearing on the stateâs presidential primary ballot because he engaged in insurrection was a bombshell. The plaintiffs included four Republican voters and officials, and two Independents. The organization bringing and managing the lawsuit was CREW and its chief attorney, Marc Elias, quoted above.
Some people are saying that it doesnât seem right to toss him off of the ballot without a conviction. At issue is whether Trump is such a danger to the country that heâs ineligible to be a candidate at all, and the Colorado Courtâs reasoning for this seems very tight. Itâs not an interpretation about his rhetoric or an evaluation of his political extremism. Itâs solely a determination of whether he took an oath to protect the Constitution, and then fomented an insurrection against the government. And although the verdict was 4-3, all seven judges agreed that Trump had fomented insurrection.
The Court found that heâs ineligible. Regarding the âhe must be convicted to be ineligibleâ argument: The criminal cases against Trump that are wending their way through the courts are varied in their accusations. None of them were brought solely or even primarily to prevent Trump from being elected president, although the Colorado case was. The others charge real crimes. The importance of those cases transcends the individual who committed them. A failure to bring them would set a precedent that we as a country think these behaviors permissible by a future president.
As for letting the people decide about Trump, we did that already. Biden got seven million more votes than Trump. Yet Trumpâs still spouting the Big Lie that the election was stolen. Even after 60 court cases, Trump couldnât prove there was any election fraud. Conservative Judge Luttig says that the 14th Amendment isn’t about removing someone from qualifying for office. Rather it’s about meeting a baseline qualification in order to be considered a QUALIFIED candidate.
Thereâs also an argument on the Right that Trump shouldnât be in court at all. But we have a Justice system and in the Colorado case, the legal process was followed. The Court didnât take any shortcuts; no extraordinary maneuvers were made.
Jon V Last asks why Republicans were on one side of the law in 2020 and on a different side today: (brackets by Wrongo)
âSo ask yourself this: All throughout December 2020, everyone insisted that, no matter how foolish or baseless President Trumpâs claims might seem, he was entitled to pursue the legal process vigorously to its end.
Why is that not true in this case? Why is it that Trump…[in 2020 was] entitled to have his day in court, but the forces [today] looking to apply different laws to a different end are not?â
Last reminds us that many of the same people who insisted that Trump could pursue all available legal remedies in 2020 wanted a result that would keep him in power. Now, theyâre outraged that the people in state of Colorado also pursued legal remedies and won a result that might keep him from returning to power. Thereâs more from Jon Last. Those who are complaining about the result in Colorado are complaining not about the legal process, but the legal result:
âHave you ever noticed how, whenever Trump does something terrible, there is always an argument that holding him accountable can only help him?
You canât impeach him in 2020, because itâll just make him stronger.
You canât impeach him in 2021, because youâll turn him into a martyr.
You canât raid Mar-a-Lago to take back classified documents because youâll rile up his base.
/snip/
There is a…..helplessness to that thinking: A wicked man does immoral and illegal thingsâand societyâs reaction is to say that we must indulge his depredations, because if we tried to hold him accountable then he would become even worse.
Is there any other aspect of life in which Americans take that view?
Thatâs not how parents deal with children.
Itâs not how regulatory agencies deal with corporations.
And itâs not how the justice system deals with criminals.â
âEvery hesitation, reservation, and exhortation to âmake an exceptionâ because of potential violence or political chaos is an invitation to abandon the Constitution. We do so at our grave peril and possibly for the first, last, and only timeâbecause if we set our great charter aside once, there is no logical stopping point for setting it aside again when it serves the pleasure of a president who views the Constitution as an obstacle rather than a safeguard.â
The Colorado Supreme Courtâs decision to ban Donald Trump from the stateâs primary ballot for engaging in insurrection is probably on its way to the US Supreme Court. Wrongo isnât a lawyer, so you should look elsewhere for a discussion of the finer points of the law in this case, and he has no confidence that the Supremes will decide against Trump.
But Wrongo wants to address one item, the question of whether a candidate should be tried while running for office. Just the Mar-a-Lago charges of mishandling highly classified information and then obstructing their return makes it clear that he should be tried regardless of his candidacy. The government needed to secure the secret documents Trump had stashed all over his club. Trump thwarted those efforts. And the case was developed before Trump declared himself as a candidate for 2024.
A thought experiment: Letâs imagine that Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis had run for US president in 1868. Either of them could probably win a solid South and be competitive in several border states. Making sure that they didnât win at the ballot box what they couldnât on the battlefield is why Clause 3 was included in the 14th Amendment in July, 1868.
Would supporters of Lee or Davis have complained that they were ineligible for public office? Certainly! But, too bad. Insurrection and rebellion (still) have consequences. And nobody said that they had to be convicted before being ineligible.
When a president of the US loses an election and attempts to stay in power through violence, there really is no way to deal with it that doesnât have a political component. But that means nothing to the merits of the case. Should we prosecute it only to the point that the ex-president decides to run again, and then drop it?
The whole Republican “let the voters decide” talking point was trotted out after the Colorado decision. Itâs hilarious. We did that. We did let the voters decide. Biden won. And Trump refused to accept the results and sent a violent mob to overturn it. That’s the whole point of this case. We must apply the Constitution and the rule of law to Trump in the same way it would be applied to any other citizen.
Whatever lies ahead, letâs not underestimate the significance of the Colorado Court findings. They will figure prominently in the outcome in 2024. Our job is to fight for the soul of democracy and for a free and responsible government by popular consent.
Letâs close with a Christmas tune that is new to Wrongo: The Tractors perform their 2009 hit âThe Santa Claus Boogieâ, from their second album, âHave Yourself a Tractors Christmasâ. The band no longer exists, as several of the members have died:
