More information continues to emerge about the events of Wednesday. They point to a broader conspiracy than it first appeared. Calls for Trump’s removal from office are growing. The Republican Party is tearing apart. Power in the nation is shifting almost by the minute.
Dear Grandson, I just sent you the newsletter. This morning I thought I should include a personal note. The reality of the last 3 days seeps through the cracks in our consciousness with each hour. The newsletter clarifies the known facts as well as possible. Today, it frightened me. And that made me think of you, your sisters, your parents and your friends. I thought of how you must be puzzled by such events at the hands of adults.
I believe in Joseph Biden. I believe in his humanness. I believe in the people he is assembling to help govern the country. I believe in the humanity of the vast, vast majority of Americans.
Lots of troubles exist in America, some since conception. Now Covid, Climate change, and the aftermath of djt . But of all the countries on earth, we are the best equipped to solve our problems and to help the rest of this world to fix what we all face.
So keep the faith. Work hard, play hard, and sleep hard. Be both kind and brave. Don’t hate.
Don’t put up with hate. Dream your dreams and put them into action. It’s going to be ok.
I was here for the Kennedy assassination, Nixon resignation, Reagan attempted assassination (which only angered me that Brady was collateral), but this attempted coup as a finale to a wannabe dictators horrid rule is the most disturbing political event of my life.
And now it is coming out that those sinister things we suspected of this “regime” are true. It was a real coup attempt, run by naive idiots who could not sustain it but now we are finding how high in the government was involvement. The police are suspect, the military is suspect and elected legislators along with oligarchs behind the scene are known accomplices. Conspiracy theories of a right-wing takeover of the U.S. took a turn toward reality this week.
And the madman in the Oval Office is still there. Ppl involved are getting arrested but being charged with misdemeanor “breaking & entering” or “unlawful trespassing.” We need to see real felony charges of INSURRECTION, SEDITION, AGGRAVATED ASSAULT/’BATTERY & FELONY MURDER where the perps sit behind bars until arraigned and then held without bond.
I'm posting this with the following statement: I hate Trump with the energy of 10 billion suns. I want to see him and his three spalpeen in prison forever.
It's also clear that impeachment will not do that, no matter what kind of a satisfying post-coital high it gives for 10-15 minutes. What's going to put him away is the cases from SDNY, the NY State AG and the Manhattan DA. He'll actually be charged, actually be found guilty, and actually be punished. In the meantime, perhaps the rest of us ought to keep our eye on the ball - which I no longer think is impeachment.
This was posted at TPM tonight. It's worthy of serious thought. As much as I wanted to dismiss it out of hand when I first read it, it's so truthful I couldn't.
Some thoughts worth considering from John Judis, who's been involved in politics long enough to "have a clue." It's a question to consider: fix the blame or fix the problem?
DON'T THROW HIM IN THE BRIAR PATCH
By: John Judis
“Of all things, don’t throw me in the briar patch,” Brer Rabbit implores Brer Wolf, but Brer Wolf, wanting to do away with his nemesis, tosses him in the briar patch, from which Brer Rabbit, who was born and bred in the briar patch, emerges, laughing at the fox. The fox is Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats; Trump is the rabbit; and the briar patch is impeachment.
If Democrats vote this week to impeach Trump, the Senate won’t take up the question of conviction until after the inauguration. The Georgia election may not be certified until January 22, so at that point, the new majority leader Chuck Schumer can take up the question. A trial could take weeks, and would consume the news and the attention of Congress. The Democrats may not get the two-thirds vote it needs in the Senate to convict him. And in any case, Trump will be gone. What’s the point? To make it impossible for Trump, then 78, to run for office again? Nothing would benefit the Democrats more than another Trump bid.
Politics is not a simple matter of right and wrong. It is a matter of priorities. Yes, Trump did wrong, he is a bad guy. But the country is in the grips of a pandemic – over 4000 people died on Thursday – and in December, the country lost 140,000 more jobs. The Democrats have to focus on that not on Trump. The country has spent four years focusing on Trump. It’s what he loves. It’s his briar patch. Enough is enough, as Lindsey Graham put it.
There is a simple political lesson here. By giving all their attention to halting the pandemic and making sure the economy bounces back, Biden and the Democrats will be doing what the nation needs and wants. It is also what the Democrats need to do if they want to retain control of the Congress in 2022. If they allow the budget fight to drag on, and the pandemic and recession to drag on, they could lose control of the Congress in 2022 – recall how narrow the margins are. In that case, whatever good they will be able to do can easily be undone by Republican majorities in the House or Senate. And Democrats might lose the White House in 2024. Think again of Obama’s first year and how by not paying sufficient attention to the politics, the Democrats lost the House in 2010.
Sure, people in Washington and Democratic activists around the country want to punish Trump. In that case, censure him. But don’t allow him to continue to dominate the nation’s political agenda for the rest of the month. Don’t throw him in his briar patch of attention. Believe me, people outside the Beltway who make up the majorities Democrats need to govern are far more worried about the pandemic and recession than they are about impeaching Trump. And the Democrats can’t do an adequate job of both.
Clarence Thomas’s WIFE tweeted support for Trump?!! A Supreme Court justice supports the incitor of lawless events in the Capitol?! He needs to go. I hope the SecDef is charged since he denied assistance to Muriel Bowser, the mayor. Talk about blood on their hands! Oh, and trump didn’t want his rioters to look “low class.” Are you freaking kidding me?
"Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who led the Senate effort to challenge Biden’s election, today tweeted that Biden was not working hard enough to 'bring us together or promote healing' and that 'vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.'”
Hutzpah!
Cruz is neck and neck with McConnell in the competition for the most hypocritical Republican.
I'm rereading Tim Synder's "On Tyranny" book - Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Here are the twenty. Very helpful and valuable to read in the times we are currently experience.
Thank you, HCR. The emerging picture is of an attempted coup. Biden needs to be bold which will be hard for him. There is no reconciliation with the Ted Cruz’s and Mitch McConnell’s and Proud Boys. Prosecute, Vaccinate, and Implement Systemic Change. The Georgia victories enable Change. Jump on it. $2,000 checks. You promised. Now control your party and deliver. Let’s face it: African Americans delivered you the Presidency and Congressional power. Now Use it. Remember FDR’s statement about his enemies: They hate me. And I welcome their hatred. The first two years. The first 100 days: Let’s Go. ❤️🤍💙
I just read the article HCR referenced about the interactions between various authorities before and during the attack, and I wonder about something.
Aside from all the to-ing and fro-ing between D.C. police, Capitol police, DoD, and National Guard commanders, there seems to be one large group left unnamed. I thought the Department of Homeland Security was created for the express purpose after the 9/11 attacks to coordinate security and prevent this kind of paralyzing clusterf**k. Where were they? If the Bureau of Prisons, for cryin' out loud, can be dispatched last summer to protect the Lincoln Memorial, an unoccupied lump of stone no one wanted to seize, where were they, with all their vaunted "intelligence," when an entire branch of our government was invaded by insurrectionists?
"If it has a silver lining, it is that the lines are now clear between our democracy and its enemies."
Thank you ... this is the *one* sentence I have read in the past several days that gives me some solace.
We really should stop saying "this is not who we are" and instead, have the courage and self-awareness to recognize that this is exactly who some of us are.
My fellow readers, Please forgive this overlong post, but I thought you might appreciate this perspective from a legal journalist here in Germany. Max Steinbeis edits the weekly publication Verfassungsblog (Constitutionblog), which deals with Constitutional issues in Europe and the US.
Excerpt from “Verfassungsblog” by Max Steinbeis
January 8, 2021
“Wednesday's riot on Capitol Hill … was not about any matter of democratic politics. It was about the condition of the possibility of democratic politics itself.
The storming of the Capitol was not just a protest rally that got out of hand, not just the voice of some political faction making itself heard. While outside the glass panes were shattering, inside Congress was about to formally certify that Joe Biden's voters had outnumbered those of Donald Trump. To delay, if not to prevent, this resolution, and to force the appointed elected officials into hiding as they were doing that – that was what the rioters actually achieved. Think about that.
These people had penetrated not just symbolically, but literally into the very heart of democracy.
Many of the rioters, on their way to and from the scene, appeared happy to readily oblige anyone who asked them about their motives and intentions, cheerfully revealing in perfect candour that they regarded the Capitol their property. This is our house! Those guys work for us! We just take back what has been stolen from us! They had been outvoted according to the rules of the constitution, they had lost all court cases, there was no longer even the flimsiest semblance of justification for their claim to power. Only violence, of which the violence on Capitol Hill was just the most visible expression.
The legal title they invoked for their claim was not a constitutional one, not even in disguise. The supposed ownership of the center of power that these people claim for themselves is not based on the constitution, but in sharpest opposition to it. Its basis is the notion that an electoral outcome in which "folks like us" (male, white, Christian) end up in the position of the minority cannot inherently be a legitimate one. This notion is categorically incompatible with democratic politics. No president, however benevolent, will be able to reconcile and achieve unity with this as a matter of democratic politics.
Of course, Biden's task will ultimately have to be to try to return to a state where it will be possible again to engage in democratic politics with 74 million Trump voters and nearly 50% of them readily supporting the insurrection. But right now, the conflict at hand is constitutional, not political. That task is not to compromise and "heal" and "unite" but to find and open a way to return to constitutionally ordered politics, in order to fight one another for what each, as opposed to the other, finds right as fiercely as they can.
The way to reach that goal, and I admit that this might be a very European or even German way of looking at things, leads across a field that will take much longer to traverse than Biden's time in office: re-establishing a distinction between what is political and what is constitutional. That electoral districting, judicial elections, and parliamentary procedural rules are constitutional, not political. That gun control and campaign contribution caps are political, not constitutional. That the constitution is not a scripture revealing the will of some semi-mythical 18th-century founder figures to be revered on one's knees, but has a very much this-worldly function under which it can be interpreted, namely to make democratic politics possible by means of procedures, institutions and fundamental rights. And not only interpreted, but also criticized and corrected. Among the greatest faults of the U.S. Constitution is that it is virtually unamendable, just as one of the greatest faults of the British Constitution is that it is too easily amended. Both faults have the same effect of fatally blurring the distinction between the political and the constitutional.
For the time being, this may be the one glimmer of hope that broke through the inky January sky over Washington on this dark Wednesday afternoon: Those GOP functionaries who now, at the very last moment under the pressure of the unfolding events, seem to have finally deserted the sinking Trumpist ship can now to some extent be expected to paddle away from it as fast as they can. To restore confidence, they will have to make clear that they respect the conditions of the possibility of democratic politics and are willing to let go of the racist and anti-constitutional notion that anyone can have a qua natura claim to power over others at all.
Finally. And why shouldn't that be politically attractive after all, especially when measured against the alternatives? They could leave it to the Trumpists to appeal to bigots, alt-rights and white supremacists and pick up those who find that company despicable despite being white, not in possession of a college degree and living in a rural area, and the votes of socially conservative African and Latinx Americans on top of it. They could leave it to the Democrats to keep the metropolitan tech and hedge-fund billionaires on both coasts rich and happy, and start addressing the concerns of those who have not profited from their prosperity.
In a European context, this agenda would be called christian-social, I guess. Not something I would ever vote for, to be sure, but undoubtedly a legitimate and overdue politicization of a dramatically underpoliticized conflict. A conflict of the sort democratic politics under a functional constitution should be perfectly able to process.
Some things don't change.....lynching in the Wild West when the sherrif couldn't or wouldn't control the crowd.....lynching in the South when Coloured people dared to raise their heads.....lynching in front of the Capitol when people want their votes counted. And it's always the same people building and using the gibbet!
Fools and liers incite the crowds to mayhem at their peril if they have not the wherewithal to control how and where it will end. Madmen don't care as destruction is their only objective. Incompetents overestimate their own importance and organizational skills thinking somehow they are in control.....but someone else will of course fill in the gaps they have left and make it happen.
The people cannot allow fools, liers, madmen and incompetents anywhere near power again! It's down to the people and their educated choices.......and their ability to tell right from wrong, fact from fiction and truth from lies. The first place to start is at home. The Democratic party must now at least show the example that they want imposed as the norm and thus impose both moral and electoral superiority on the Republican Orcs. Then we can go forward with a little more certainty as the people will be listened to, informed frankly, treated fairly and loyally served.
Incitement to violence, insurrection and attempted overthrow of the legitimate government are criminal offences. We have often talked of Trump's treasonous acquiescence in Putin's games, now the Courts can hoist him on his own Petard, so to speak, hang out to dry metaphorically and flush him down the drain of history. Treason is not a pardonable offense it would seem to me and Impeachment after the Inauguration is not going to achieve much. If it can't be done this coming week with the Senate called into special session then another way has to be found. How about going against the DOJ's policy of not charging a sitting President. Trump should now be arrested by Rob Rosenstein, charged with treason, arraigned and incarcerated awaiting trial. Then the next time the crowds try to amass in Washington then you treat them like they treated BLM demos.
This train wreck we are watching is beyond disturbing. The changing patterns of what is actually happening may be something we will never know, or atleast in our lifetime. What we do know is that insurrection weighs heavier than Trumps garden variety daily lies.
I had posted on Facebook a simple question, why weren't the doors of the Capital barricaded from the outside to hold the terrorists inside until each one of them could be arrested instead of escorting them out? Why? What was Homeland Security's involvement in this, yes it is a double meaning question. Why was security for an event that was to be attended by the President so grossly "unprepared ". How were the terrorists able to have a hangmans noose and platform erected near the Capital?
4 years ago, I was the coordinator for a 2 city event that Bill Clinton spoke at. Anyone working the event had to have rather high Secret Service clearance, which I had. The details were precise at every turn. As it should be. One of the images I keep seeing from the riots this week are the barricades. Why would they use easily movable, lightweight , non crowd controlling barricades at an event that had a permit for 30,000 people to attend and they knew the audience? Nothing makes sense, but yet maybe it actually does.
Insurrection in the year 2021 is a far cry from civil unrest.
Heather mentions chatter about more attacks. Can someone explain to me, please, why it is sensible to inaugurate Biden and Harris on the steps of the Capitol. Isn't that too exposed, a security nightmare? Taking the oath there makes a statement, but how can we even trust security after what happened on Wednesday?
Ted Cruz is an angry, contemptible, useless man - just another rabble rouser. He is another one who just spews out angry, vile statements. To put any of this, in any capacity, is absurd and insane. Biden is not The President. It is the President's job to promote unity and healing. I hope to God that He is censured.
Dear Grandson, I just sent you the newsletter. This morning I thought I should include a personal note. The reality of the last 3 days seeps through the cracks in our consciousness with each hour. The newsletter clarifies the known facts as well as possible. Today, it frightened me. And that made me think of you, your sisters, your parents and your friends. I thought of how you must be puzzled by such events at the hands of adults.
I believe in Joseph Biden. I believe in his humanness. I believe in the people he is assembling to help govern the country. I believe in the humanity of the vast, vast majority of Americans.
Lots of troubles exist in America, some since conception. Now Covid, Climate change, and the aftermath of djt . But of all the countries on earth, we are the best equipped to solve our problems and to help the rest of this world to fix what we all face.
So keep the faith. Work hard, play hard, and sleep hard. Be both kind and brave. Don’t hate.
Don’t put up with hate. Dream your dreams and put them into action. It’s going to be ok.
Love from GP
I was here for the Kennedy assassination, Nixon resignation, Reagan attempted assassination (which only angered me that Brady was collateral), but this attempted coup as a finale to a wannabe dictators horrid rule is the most disturbing political event of my life.
And now it is coming out that those sinister things we suspected of this “regime” are true. It was a real coup attempt, run by naive idiots who could not sustain it but now we are finding how high in the government was involvement. The police are suspect, the military is suspect and elected legislators along with oligarchs behind the scene are known accomplices. Conspiracy theories of a right-wing takeover of the U.S. took a turn toward reality this week.
And the madman in the Oval Office is still there. Ppl involved are getting arrested but being charged with misdemeanor “breaking & entering” or “unlawful trespassing.” We need to see real felony charges of INSURRECTION, SEDITION, AGGRAVATED ASSAULT/’BATTERY & FELONY MURDER where the perps sit behind bars until arraigned and then held without bond.
I'm posting this with the following statement: I hate Trump with the energy of 10 billion suns. I want to see him and his three spalpeen in prison forever.
It's also clear that impeachment will not do that, no matter what kind of a satisfying post-coital high it gives for 10-15 minutes. What's going to put him away is the cases from SDNY, the NY State AG and the Manhattan DA. He'll actually be charged, actually be found guilty, and actually be punished. In the meantime, perhaps the rest of us ought to keep our eye on the ball - which I no longer think is impeachment.
This was posted at TPM tonight. It's worthy of serious thought. As much as I wanted to dismiss it out of hand when I first read it, it's so truthful I couldn't.
Some thoughts worth considering from John Judis, who's been involved in politics long enough to "have a clue." It's a question to consider: fix the blame or fix the problem?
DON'T THROW HIM IN THE BRIAR PATCH
By: John Judis
“Of all things, don’t throw me in the briar patch,” Brer Rabbit implores Brer Wolf, but Brer Wolf, wanting to do away with his nemesis, tosses him in the briar patch, from which Brer Rabbit, who was born and bred in the briar patch, emerges, laughing at the fox. The fox is Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats; Trump is the rabbit; and the briar patch is impeachment.
If Democrats vote this week to impeach Trump, the Senate won’t take up the question of conviction until after the inauguration. The Georgia election may not be certified until January 22, so at that point, the new majority leader Chuck Schumer can take up the question. A trial could take weeks, and would consume the news and the attention of Congress. The Democrats may not get the two-thirds vote it needs in the Senate to convict him. And in any case, Trump will be gone. What’s the point? To make it impossible for Trump, then 78, to run for office again? Nothing would benefit the Democrats more than another Trump bid.
Politics is not a simple matter of right and wrong. It is a matter of priorities. Yes, Trump did wrong, he is a bad guy. But the country is in the grips of a pandemic – over 4000 people died on Thursday – and in December, the country lost 140,000 more jobs. The Democrats have to focus on that not on Trump. The country has spent four years focusing on Trump. It’s what he loves. It’s his briar patch. Enough is enough, as Lindsey Graham put it.
There is a simple political lesson here. By giving all their attention to halting the pandemic and making sure the economy bounces back, Biden and the Democrats will be doing what the nation needs and wants. It is also what the Democrats need to do if they want to retain control of the Congress in 2022. If they allow the budget fight to drag on, and the pandemic and recession to drag on, they could lose control of the Congress in 2022 – recall how narrow the margins are. In that case, whatever good they will be able to do can easily be undone by Republican majorities in the House or Senate. And Democrats might lose the White House in 2024. Think again of Obama’s first year and how by not paying sufficient attention to the politics, the Democrats lost the House in 2010.
Sure, people in Washington and Democratic activists around the country want to punish Trump. In that case, censure him. But don’t allow him to continue to dominate the nation’s political agenda for the rest of the month. Don’t throw him in his briar patch of attention. Believe me, people outside the Beltway who make up the majorities Democrats need to govern are far more worried about the pandemic and recession than they are about impeaching Trump. And the Democrats can’t do an adequate job of both.
Clarence Thomas’s WIFE tweeted support for Trump?!! A Supreme Court justice supports the incitor of lawless events in the Capitol?! He needs to go. I hope the SecDef is charged since he denied assistance to Muriel Bowser, the mayor. Talk about blood on their hands! Oh, and trump didn’t want his rioters to look “low class.” Are you freaking kidding me?
"Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who led the Senate effort to challenge Biden’s election, today tweeted that Biden was not working hard enough to 'bring us together or promote healing' and that 'vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.'”
Hutzpah!
Cruz is neck and neck with McConnell in the competition for the most hypocritical Republican.
I'm rereading Tim Synder's "On Tyranny" book - Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Here are the twenty. Very helpful and valuable to read in the times we are currently experience.
1. Do not obey in advance
2. Defend institutions
3. Beware of the one-party state
4. Take responsibility for the face of the world
5. Remember professional ethics
6. Be wary of paramilitaries
7. Be reflective if you must be armed
8. Stand out
9. Be kind to our language
10. Believe in truth
11. Investigate
12. Make eye contact and email talk
13. Practice corporeal politics
14. Establish a private life
15. Contribute to good causes
16. Learn from peers in other countries
17. Listen for dangerous words
18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives
19. Be a patriot
20. Be as courageous as you can
The Cruz tweet explains why conservative columnist Bret Stephens describes him as a “serpent covered in Vaseline.”
But the bilious guile of this hypocritical “call for unity״ suggests that such a characterization is disparaging to both snakes and petroleum jelly.
I’ll quote Genesis to convey my warmest wishes to this cold-blooded, spineless and venomous conniver:
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.”
Thank you, HCR. The emerging picture is of an attempted coup. Biden needs to be bold which will be hard for him. There is no reconciliation with the Ted Cruz’s and Mitch McConnell’s and Proud Boys. Prosecute, Vaccinate, and Implement Systemic Change. The Georgia victories enable Change. Jump on it. $2,000 checks. You promised. Now control your party and deliver. Let’s face it: African Americans delivered you the Presidency and Congressional power. Now Use it. Remember FDR’s statement about his enemies: They hate me. And I welcome their hatred. The first two years. The first 100 days: Let’s Go. ❤️🤍💙
I just read the article HCR referenced about the interactions between various authorities before and during the attack, and I wonder about something.
Aside from all the to-ing and fro-ing between D.C. police, Capitol police, DoD, and National Guard commanders, there seems to be one large group left unnamed. I thought the Department of Homeland Security was created for the express purpose after the 9/11 attacks to coordinate security and prevent this kind of paralyzing clusterf**k. Where were they? If the Bureau of Prisons, for cryin' out loud, can be dispatched last summer to protect the Lincoln Memorial, an unoccupied lump of stone no one wanted to seize, where were they, with all their vaunted "intelligence," when an entire branch of our government was invaded by insurrectionists?
"If it has a silver lining, it is that the lines are now clear between our democracy and its enemies."
Thank you ... this is the *one* sentence I have read in the past several days that gives me some solace.
We really should stop saying "this is not who we are" and instead, have the courage and self-awareness to recognize that this is exactly who some of us are.
My fellow readers, Please forgive this overlong post, but I thought you might appreciate this perspective from a legal journalist here in Germany. Max Steinbeis edits the weekly publication Verfassungsblog (Constitutionblog), which deals with Constitutional issues in Europe and the US.
Excerpt from “Verfassungsblog” by Max Steinbeis
January 8, 2021
“Wednesday's riot on Capitol Hill … was not about any matter of democratic politics. It was about the condition of the possibility of democratic politics itself.
The storming of the Capitol was not just a protest rally that got out of hand, not just the voice of some political faction making itself heard. While outside the glass panes were shattering, inside Congress was about to formally certify that Joe Biden's voters had outnumbered those of Donald Trump. To delay, if not to prevent, this resolution, and to force the appointed elected officials into hiding as they were doing that – that was what the rioters actually achieved. Think about that.
These people had penetrated not just symbolically, but literally into the very heart of democracy.
Many of the rioters, on their way to and from the scene, appeared happy to readily oblige anyone who asked them about their motives and intentions, cheerfully revealing in perfect candour that they regarded the Capitol their property. This is our house! Those guys work for us! We just take back what has been stolen from us! They had been outvoted according to the rules of the constitution, they had lost all court cases, there was no longer even the flimsiest semblance of justification for their claim to power. Only violence, of which the violence on Capitol Hill was just the most visible expression.
The legal title they invoked for their claim was not a constitutional one, not even in disguise. The supposed ownership of the center of power that these people claim for themselves is not based on the constitution, but in sharpest opposition to it. Its basis is the notion that an electoral outcome in which "folks like us" (male, white, Christian) end up in the position of the minority cannot inherently be a legitimate one. This notion is categorically incompatible with democratic politics. No president, however benevolent, will be able to reconcile and achieve unity with this as a matter of democratic politics.
Of course, Biden's task will ultimately have to be to try to return to a state where it will be possible again to engage in democratic politics with 74 million Trump voters and nearly 50% of them readily supporting the insurrection. But right now, the conflict at hand is constitutional, not political. That task is not to compromise and "heal" and "unite" but to find and open a way to return to constitutionally ordered politics, in order to fight one another for what each, as opposed to the other, finds right as fiercely as they can.
The way to reach that goal, and I admit that this might be a very European or even German way of looking at things, leads across a field that will take much longer to traverse than Biden's time in office: re-establishing a distinction between what is political and what is constitutional. That electoral districting, judicial elections, and parliamentary procedural rules are constitutional, not political. That gun control and campaign contribution caps are political, not constitutional. That the constitution is not a scripture revealing the will of some semi-mythical 18th-century founder figures to be revered on one's knees, but has a very much this-worldly function under which it can be interpreted, namely to make democratic politics possible by means of procedures, institutions and fundamental rights. And not only interpreted, but also criticized and corrected. Among the greatest faults of the U.S. Constitution is that it is virtually unamendable, just as one of the greatest faults of the British Constitution is that it is too easily amended. Both faults have the same effect of fatally blurring the distinction between the political and the constitutional.
For the time being, this may be the one glimmer of hope that broke through the inky January sky over Washington on this dark Wednesday afternoon: Those GOP functionaries who now, at the very last moment under the pressure of the unfolding events, seem to have finally deserted the sinking Trumpist ship can now to some extent be expected to paddle away from it as fast as they can. To restore confidence, they will have to make clear that they respect the conditions of the possibility of democratic politics and are willing to let go of the racist and anti-constitutional notion that anyone can have a qua natura claim to power over others at all.
Finally. And why shouldn't that be politically attractive after all, especially when measured against the alternatives? They could leave it to the Trumpists to appeal to bigots, alt-rights and white supremacists and pick up those who find that company despicable despite being white, not in possession of a college degree and living in a rural area, and the votes of socially conservative African and Latinx Americans on top of it. They could leave it to the Democrats to keep the metropolitan tech and hedge-fund billionaires on both coasts rich and happy, and start addressing the concerns of those who have not profited from their prosperity.
In a European context, this agenda would be called christian-social, I guess. Not something I would ever vote for, to be sure, but undoubtedly a legitimate and overdue politicization of a dramatically underpoliticized conflict. A conflict of the sort democratic politics under a functional constitution should be perfectly able to process.
The full essay can be found here: https://verfassungsblog.de/?na=v&nk=5663-9dc391ae31&id=400
Some things don't change.....lynching in the Wild West when the sherrif couldn't or wouldn't control the crowd.....lynching in the South when Coloured people dared to raise their heads.....lynching in front of the Capitol when people want their votes counted. And it's always the same people building and using the gibbet!
Fools and liers incite the crowds to mayhem at their peril if they have not the wherewithal to control how and where it will end. Madmen don't care as destruction is their only objective. Incompetents overestimate their own importance and organizational skills thinking somehow they are in control.....but someone else will of course fill in the gaps they have left and make it happen.
The people cannot allow fools, liers, madmen and incompetents anywhere near power again! It's down to the people and their educated choices.......and their ability to tell right from wrong, fact from fiction and truth from lies. The first place to start is at home. The Democratic party must now at least show the example that they want imposed as the norm and thus impose both moral and electoral superiority on the Republican Orcs. Then we can go forward with a little more certainty as the people will be listened to, informed frankly, treated fairly and loyally served.
Incitement to violence, insurrection and attempted overthrow of the legitimate government are criminal offences. We have often talked of Trump's treasonous acquiescence in Putin's games, now the Courts can hoist him on his own Petard, so to speak, hang out to dry metaphorically and flush him down the drain of history. Treason is not a pardonable offense it would seem to me and Impeachment after the Inauguration is not going to achieve much. If it can't be done this coming week with the Senate called into special session then another way has to be found. How about going against the DOJ's policy of not charging a sitting President. Trump should now be arrested by Rob Rosenstein, charged with treason, arraigned and incarcerated awaiting trial. Then the next time the crowds try to amass in Washington then you treat them like they treated BLM demos.
Thank you Heather.
This train wreck we are watching is beyond disturbing. The changing patterns of what is actually happening may be something we will never know, or atleast in our lifetime. What we do know is that insurrection weighs heavier than Trumps garden variety daily lies.
I had posted on Facebook a simple question, why weren't the doors of the Capital barricaded from the outside to hold the terrorists inside until each one of them could be arrested instead of escorting them out? Why? What was Homeland Security's involvement in this, yes it is a double meaning question. Why was security for an event that was to be attended by the President so grossly "unprepared ". How were the terrorists able to have a hangmans noose and platform erected near the Capital?
4 years ago, I was the coordinator for a 2 city event that Bill Clinton spoke at. Anyone working the event had to have rather high Secret Service clearance, which I had. The details were precise at every turn. As it should be. One of the images I keep seeing from the riots this week are the barricades. Why would they use easily movable, lightweight , non crowd controlling barricades at an event that had a permit for 30,000 people to attend and they knew the audience? Nothing makes sense, but yet maybe it actually does.
Insurrection in the year 2021 is a far cry from civil unrest.
Be safe, be well.
Heather mentions chatter about more attacks. Can someone explain to me, please, why it is sensible to inaugurate Biden and Harris on the steps of the Capitol. Isn't that too exposed, a security nightmare? Taking the oath there makes a statement, but how can we even trust security after what happened on Wednesday?
The response, or lack thereof, has made me wonder if some of the law enforcement was supportive of the attack on the Capitol Building.
Ted Cruz is an angry, contemptible, useless man - just another rabble rouser. He is another one who just spews out angry, vile statements. To put any of this, in any capacity, is absurd and insane. Biden is not The President. It is the President's job to promote unity and healing. I hope to God that He is censured.