It probably should have gone first. But patience wore thin, understandably.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House of Representatives would be coordinating an independent inquiry on the events of January 6, when an angry mob invaded and trashed the U.S. Capitol and resulted in the deaths of six people.
Why do this? Why, when the Senate rejected House impeachment charges with a majority but less than a required super-majority vote, and hundreds of rioters have already been arrested with more to come? Haven't we had enough?
I wish it were so. Minority rule has once again reared its ugly head. It got the previous president into office in the first place, carrying the outmoded Electoral College even though he lost the popular vote by more than three million; and it allowed him to escape from the Senate impeachment trial because a 2/3 majority, or 67 Senators, were necessary for conviction.
The verdict of history will be pretty clear. But none of that matters to him. If that were true, he would have tweeted differently, made different rally speeches, played far less golf, tried to insult very few people, goaded no one to commit violence, and above all, governed with some idea of how people felt, besides embracing their victimhood and anger and making sure they continued to feel it.
He has a low-life morality which measures pain and pleasure, which guide him alone. Allowing him to escape from any real punishment, with only a scolding from Mitch McConnell, feeds right into his cellophane wrapping--it reflects, but does not absorb. He feels nothing--no guilt, no responsibility.
But some aspects of the Constitution have been hiding and can be resurrected. Things wear out, true, like the Electoral College and impeachment, which have been shown to be irrelevant and have lost their usefulness, since they were invented before political parties were created. But the 14th Amendment? That has hidden gold, and it has been utilized for the sake of justice before.
The 14th Amendment is one of the so-called Civil War Amendments. It directly addressed the defeated Confederates. It circled back and made sure they would no longer be inclined to threaten and break apart the Union. Grant was good to Lee's army; he merely told them to go home. Not so with the Congress and non-seceding states; they needed further reassurance.
We are in just about the same place. The former president tried, indirectly as is his wont, to overthrow the government, have someone kill his then immediate successors for him, and step into the breach; that now is clear. Let's not fool ourselves. It's exactly what he tried.
The effects are still there. He has not been punished in any way, at least not yet. He has raised enormous sums in perpetuating his Big Lie, the so-called stolen election, upon unsuspecting members of his cult (and yes, it is a cult). They stand ready to lurch again upon his hot-button, obvious orders.
What he needs to do is go to jail. That will take months to determine, if at all; remember, he has dodged lots of court dates and decrees. Every day he remains out there is a day he can build new strength. And, in fact, Republicans coast to coast have rallied to surround him with sycophantic obsequiousness. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, instead of stepping away from him because of an understandably nasty phone call while the Capitol assault continued, went to Mar-A-Lago for a kiss-and-make-up session. South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, one month after saying he was "all done" with the ex-president, is now going to play golf with him and speaks of "[Rhymes With Chump]-plus," as a campaign strategy to regain Republican Senate control in 2022.
They're making the same kind of mistake that the Germans made with Hitler: That they could utilize him for their needs. The big, rich-person tax break of 2017 was just about the only thing they can point to, but it's certainly there and fits their ridiculous notion of trickle-down thickheadedness. About the only thing they can use him for now is to piggyback upon his slavish need for being a lemming for him. The deepening of the cult is not only possible, but now likely.
But Hitler pivoted and, once inside the realm, proceeded to use German democracy against itself--exactly what the ex-president tried to do again and again the past four years. Does he have war and slaughter in mind? We may find out if he's allowed to proceed as if nothing actually happened.
His water needs to be shut off. Losing the election is not enough: If you haven't done so already, try watching "Terminator 2." The best way we can neutralize this menace is to keep him from running for office again. As of now, he still has about 40 percent of the electorate that would vote for him, a good place to start building more lies and more undermining. Actually, being out of office, he can now roam where he wishes, with Secret Service protection to boot, and create havoc in far more places than before.
The 14th Amendment provides a place where Congress can put him aside. Article 3 states that anyone who, "having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies therein," can have eligibility for future public office taken away from them.
Who would declare that an insurrection has taken place? Congress. On what basis can it do so? Majority vote, but some kind of analysis would give it further legitimacy. Hence the independent inquiry: It would be run by Congress but contain no actual members of Congress in its membership. It would have one job: To take whatever information it could gather--no question the House impeachment inquiry could be included, but wouldn't have to be; it could start from scratch to qualm arguments--and conclude, or not, that an actual insurrection had taken place. You and I probably have little doubt, but officially, a relatively unbiased conclusion to the same effect would mute objections from the other side of the aisle.
There is no two-thirds bar required, either. A mere majority of both houses of Congress are required. The Democrats control both houses, of course, and no Republicans need to vote in favor. But if it were another purely politically charged document, it would lose legitimacy. And, recognized as such, a court challenge might beat it. That, as well as threats of primary challenges now less than two years away, might persuade all Republicans to vote against it. But they don't have the numbers.
Here's the only hurdle, and it might be major: the Senate filibuster rule. Seven Senators crossed over and voted to, in fact, remove the ex-president's ability to run for future office. Two, in Louisiana and North Carolina, already face censure by their own party (which is no more and no less a declaration of earning a primary challenge). Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, doesn't face the voters again until 2026, so memories will probably fade, especially if the menace isn't returned to the White House. But Richard Burr of North Carolina is next up to bat in 2022. His is a more courageous stand.
Thing is, can all those Senators be willing to, once again, condemn the ex-president in an official way and rid ourselves of this pestilence once and for all? And can we find three more willing to do so?
That's where our ex- is working, you can be sure. He has already figured out which Republican Senators might be inclined to cross over, with 60 as the bar instead of 67, and get rid of him at least operationally. Trust this: He's contacted the heads of the Republican Party in those states and told them what he wants. We will hear it in the news. You won't need Twitter to figure it out.
The only other way out, and this must now be a temptation, is to be done with the filibuster rule so only a majority is needed to end debate. Democratic Senators Manchin of West Virginia and Sinema of Arizona have indicated that they won't vote to dispense with the filibuster, so Mitch McConnell backed away from further delays on things like Cabinet votes and consideration of coronavirus relief. Those two Senators may need a revisiting.
So pressure from within would surely be ratcheted up. Is the ex-president worth it? Is he worth changing the whole nature of Senate consideration and debate just to block him?
Pretending he's not a future threat is simply wrong and fantasy-ridden. He may become the Republican capo anyhow, dispensing his approval upon most, if not all, Republican movements and candidates with implicit comments in code. McCarthy's, Graham's, and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson's obsessive fawning practically guarantees that, at least for now. Pretending that the Republican Party will grab hold of itself and right the listing ship defies what has already happened.
It may become practically the ex-president's party whether he holds office or not, because his status within the cult he has created has remained, and will remain, largely unchallenged. Every day he escapes actual punishment, his outsized influence grows.
Many have given up their political independence and any kind of clear thinking in favor of this maddening lockstep. The Big Lie may expand into many lies and an entire alternative reality created out of thin air, out of nothing, responsible to nothing. But let the Republicans figure that out. They created the problem. Now the addiction to nothingness has grabbed them, and on the ground, it won't let go.
Some people believe, and have already been quoted as saying, that support for him will gradually fade. I would debate that. It's not a mere matter of support anymore; it's now graduated to fanaticism beyond any entreaties to reason. If he were to be criminally charged and brought to trial, there may be more confrontations with right-wing militias. If so, the relatively small number of deaths may potentially be increased. Both sides would bring more weapons, to be sure.
That would be its own problem, but reflective of the radicalism that ex- has created and consecrated. But it's now up to the Republicans to turn him away. Allowing him to function within the governmental realm might easily be the end of America and the establishment of racist fascism writ large.
It's scary, I know. Being scared is not weakness. Running away from fear or pretending it doesn't matter is. Promising a new car, or some other gift, for students to do better in their studies solves the problem only temporarily; it doesn't make studying itself desirable. It doesn't grow on the child; they know the game by now--act humble and plan ahead.
Likewise, letting ex- off the hook by a technicality but then condemning him in speech, like McConnell, solves nothing. It certainly won't change his outlook. Unofficial rebuke does him no damage. Playing Pontius Pilate and kicking that can down the road to the courts guarantees nothing. Labor leader and socialist Eugene Debs ran for president from prison in 1920 and won more than 900,000 votes.
It's sad to project that he's worth all this trouble. But he is. He'll keep coming on until turned away. To paraphrase Churchill: We have the tools. Now let's finish the job.
Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, and the end of the filibuster which would clear the way for it, are what I believe to be our only hopes. If I'm wrong I'll certainly be happy, but it doesn't look like it. Without a legal blockage, it's entirely possible that we may be subjected to a kind of plague that will very definitely eclipse the one we now have, one we might have thought we ended but will only grow with time. It's much tougher to kill a state of mind than a mere virus.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. One more vaccine shot to go. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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