Thursday, February 09, 2017
Political Mayhem Thursday: The Judicial Branch
Donald Trump is doing a lot of (mostly dumb) things that no president has done before, but being angry at the judiciary for halting his plans is not one of them. Sure, his language ("so-called judge") was unusually dopey, but his tweeting out dumb things is not the same as undermining the judicial branch. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch was right in describing Trump's comments as "disheartening" and "demoralizing," but we must distinguish between that and gutting the power of the judiciary.
The danger of exaggerating and saying that his ignorant comments equate to undermining the judiciary is this: Trump is fully capable of actually undermining the judiciary, and it will be important to mark that moment when it occurs, to spur a full-fledged counter-movement. Here is what can happen: If a court, even the Supreme Court, orders that the President cannot do something (like bar Syrians from entering the country as refugees under any circumstances) Trump has the ability-- not the right, but the ability-- to ignore that order and just direct his administrators to go ahead with the policy deemed unconstitutional. The courts don't have an army or police force. The executive branch controls both.
THAT's when we will have a real constitutional crisis, and this administration seems fully capable of that terrible mistake.
Comments:
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DJT cannot control himself. And his staff continues to push ideas that cannot be considered truthful or anywhere approaching truth. Long held values that are necessary to a true democracy are being undercut. It is sedition in the worst form it can take.
# posted by 
: 6:05 AM
: 6:05 AM
It feels like the new version of Chinese water torture is upon us and whatever it is that made America Great is being chipped away one degenerate tweet at a time…disheartening and demoralizing indeed.
You hit the nail on the head. Both Roosevelts made threats and attempts to curb the Judiciary, but neither ignored the co-equal branch. We shall see what happens if Trump tries. He's a frightening man.
I agree with you--and with Sen. Blumenthal of CT, who said that Gorsuch has an obligation to condemn Trump's attacks on the judiciary publicly, clearly and unequivocally.
# posted by : 3:02 PM
: 3:02 PM
Apparently the best way to Make America Great Again is to get into Twitter feuds with a department store chain and the National Parks. Do most Trump voters realized they've been swindled yet, or is that realization yet to come?
# posted by : 4:53 PM
: 4:53 PM
Our President is an attention sponge. He requires constant adoration. He has surrounded himself with enablers, dangerous amateurs, cable news and his phone.. He has spoken to the fact that he has no friends outside his family. He relies on his own counsel to decide what he will do next.
I think we all agree that he is dangerous. The Republicon party, however, thinks that he is useful. They keep saying that the country voted for him because he is different. They say "we got it." They have united behind his cabinet choices including Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. They have signed up for the ride with Donald at the wheel. They won't mind having their autocrat in power. This is a dangerous path.
HE IS DANGEROUS! He is a thin skinned sick narcissistic man who seeks constant adulation and attention. He doesn't require us to like him or love him as long as the spotlight is on him.
I think that he has already given us a diet of outrageous moments, but what scares me most is the day when he runs out of things he deems newsworthy to say or do. I fear he will feel the need to escalate his comments and then his actions as he sees that we have become numb. He also has no fear of failure as he never has had serious consequences for his actions. Because of his arrogance a constitutional crisis, I think, will be inevitable.
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I think we all agree that he is dangerous. The Republicon party, however, thinks that he is useful. They keep saying that the country voted for him because he is different. They say "we got it." They have united behind his cabinet choices including Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. They have signed up for the ride with Donald at the wheel. They won't mind having their autocrat in power. This is a dangerous path.
HE IS DANGEROUS! He is a thin skinned sick narcissistic man who seeks constant adulation and attention. He doesn't require us to like him or love him as long as the spotlight is on him.
I think that he has already given us a diet of outrageous moments, but what scares me most is the day when he runs out of things he deems newsworthy to say or do. I fear he will feel the need to escalate his comments and then his actions as he sees that we have become numb. He also has no fear of failure as he never has had serious consequences for his actions. Because of his arrogance a constitutional crisis, I think, will be inevitable.
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