Our political and governmental system works because of a built-in supply of safeguards so that no one gets too much power. Collectively, it's called checks and balances.
Today, it's under threat because of 45. He doesn't care about that, doesn't care about respecting that or anything or anyone else. He wants what he wants and doesn't see why he shouldn't get it.
Exactly the wrong person to have power. Or, the right one, if the republic survives him, for that way, we know how far it can be stretched before it breaks. That's an important if, and we have November to find out whether we can. Four more years of that may be too much.
In the meantime, how are we doing amidst the angst? How is the system hanging in there?
45 has proven, as I have said, that the system is a continuum. Power tries, and tries again, to get its way, and he is the embodiment of raw, naked power, power for its own sake. It doesn't have to quit the first time around. It can keep finding a weak spot and intrude there.
An important, penetrating article by George Packer in the Atlantic magazine a couple of months ago showed what can happen when a person seeking absolute power attacks a stolid, governmentally-established group of agencies. 45's trashing of the State Department's career people, not the least of which are ambassadors not there for purely political reasons--often, gifts for large campaign contributions, and both political parties are at fault there--in the wake of his impeachment investigations is an excellent example. His abuse of Andrew McCabe, the Deputy Director of the FBI, by using his wife as a cat's paw, is another.
By doing so, Packer points out, 45 sent a message to career governmental employees: You may be next. Get with the program. Which is: serve 45 primarily and only. Don't concern yourselves with ethics and rules. Many are still there, trying to keep their heads down until Biden is elected. But if they're wrong, expect many, many resignations in 2021. Expect that the 'deep state' will turn in 45's favor, and anyone seeking services will have to prove loyalty--only to him, not the country. That is scary stuff.
The Attorney General, Bill Barr, is 45's right-hand man. His "unitary presidency" philosophy fits right into 45's plan: As long as I'm president, I can do whatever I want. I may pay for it later, but I can always use the convenient excuse that I was the president, I had to do extraordinary things, so I'll probably skate. Tough job, you know?
So last Friday night (done at the end of the work week so the headlines wouldn't be as noticeable), Barr tried, with 45's blessing, to fire Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, known for its fierce independence and respect for the rule of law, and replace him with a golfing buddy. This ham-handed, corrupted act was badly botched. Barr still figured he could get away with it.
He figured that because he's the Attorney General, the president can do whatever he wants, see above. If it happens to be bad timing, so be it. There's no power that can supersede him, anyhow. Which is the point, and obviously, Berman would see that. He would go quietly.
But that thinking, in some circles, is still lazy and bullying--note that a New York Times Magazine article said that Barr was a high school bully--so far outside of protocol that under different circumstances, it would be astonishing to see if anybody would try it. Berman didn't get a letter, didn't get a phone call, didn't get even a text message. He learned about it through the press, which wasn't sleeping all that much.
Berman responded by saying that he'd received no such notice and wasn't going anywhere. He would be staying at his desk, thank you very much, until replaced by proper process, which would be nomination and approval by the Senate.
That, on the surface, couldn't have sounded all that horrible to Barr and 45. The Senate is controlled by Republicans, the same set of cowards nearly all of whom refused to see enough wrong with what 45 had already done in Ukraine to ignore the substantial impeachment accusation that the House Democrats had brought to them. This would be a rubber stamp, just a matter of time, and a few well-placed tweets would hurry it along. They'd be rolling their eyes, but they could get it done.
Consider also that the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, has become supposedly as malleable a toady as could be. Never mind that five years ago, he was as trashing of 45 as he was respectful of Joe Biden. That, apparently, must have been a lie, or pair of lies. He must not have meant either. Thus, without principles, he can be manipulated easily. In other words, that check and balance no longer exists.
Oh, but it does. What Laurence Tribe calls "the invisible Constitution" has ground its wheels, however rusty they may be. You see, Graham is in hot water back home. He's in a tight race for re-election, against a black guy, no less. Has South Carolina had a black Senator since Reconstruction? I haven't looked that up. I don't need to. If there is a list, it's awfully short.
So a rubber stamp upon a violation of protocol this blatant would be pretty tough to gloss over, pretty tough to spin. Graham does have a principle, just one, but that's all he needs: Survival. Graham refused to consider 45's replacement. He'd have to get another one. That would take time. That would be messy.
That left Berman with an opening. He said he'd step down immediately if his replacement were his deputy, Audrey Strauss. Why was that important? Because another check and balance, the independence of the judiciary, could be preserved, at least for the moment. And an investigation could go on unimpeded.
That investigation included one of Rudy Giuliani, the henchman of the Ukraine matter, the silent, slippery, completely unethical operator who's getting ready with some kind of smear against Joe Biden (which I have no knowledge about, but you can count on it). 45 is, if nothing else, shamelessly transparent. He wanted Berman out of the way to keep the investigation of Giuliani, and others, from gaining too much public notice in the same way that he wanted a Ukrainian investigation of Joe Biden, however ridiculous, to gain public notice--to deflect attention from himself so he could go on committing egregious violations of public trust, and smear a prospective, now nearly nominated, opponent.
Now he can't do that, at least at the moment, by using that as an excuse. Berman got his deal. Now Giuliani might be hung out to dry. If that's likely, 45 will absolve himself of Giuliani fairly soon with a I-have-no-idea-where-he-is kind of comment, designed to convince us that he has nothing do with him, when in fact he has everything to do with him. That's why you can't see him right now.
The "invisible Constitution" of political survival wins, therefore, for now. You can bet that 45 will try again, once he sees an opening. He probes endlessly. He tried with the Supreme Court, too, but he has a problem: He doesn't control that. He can't fire the members and he's only been able to appoint two of them. They serve for life, and sometimes they don't vote the way he wants them to. Granted, Ruth Bader Ginsberg is 86 and looks as if she could wither away at any minute. But she hasn't, her mind works just fine, and the center holds.
The Court proved that twice last week. First, in a 'stunning' decision which shouldn't be all that stunning, it decided that gays couldn't be fired simply for being gay, which makes perfect sense to those doing some genuine thinking. Not only that, but the vote was 6-3, with a 45 appointee, Neil Gorsuch, actually crossing over and reading the plain language, as textualists insist upon doing, of the law being challenged. He didn't legislate by judicial fiat, as conservatives disingenuously accuse liberals of doing, and in fact deflect attention so they can do it themselves. Instead, Gorsuch utilized consistency and principle. Good for him. Good for our system.
Then it ruled, 5-4, that the 700,000 DREAMers could remain in the U.S. because of what Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, said was an "arbitrary and capricious" attempt to get rid of them. "Arbitrary and capricious" means with no legal reason, which means that 45 can't do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it just because he wants to do it: an imperial reasoning. Roberts left 45 with an opening to try again, when he can come back with a reason grounded in the law, not in racist whim. In doing so, he stuck a finger in the eye of the unitary presidency: Another check and balance. In the meantime, if any of those DREAMers happen to be 18 and citizens, they'd be wise to vote for Joe Biden.
So how are we doing? Well, things are holding up, barely. But we can't take it for granted. 45 will wear down any borders or guardrails that are left with another four years to do so. It's all that more incumbent that he be thrown out, decency be restored, and straining of the system reduced. The "invisible Constitution" works, and so does the one we actually utilize, but they aren't fool-proof. Respect can be restored to its former level, but only by us. Let's hope we do so in November.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment