The fateful Republican Party gamble

[babylonsister]

The fateful Republican Party gamble
By Edward Purcell, opinion contributor — 02/24/20 11:00 AM EST


One question hangs over American constitutional government. What are Republicans planning? In immediate terms, it is obvious they are planning to support Donald Trump and ride his base to victory. In broader future terms, however, their planning is not so obvious. What are they actually hoping to achieve for the future of American constitutional government?

To begin to answer that question, it is essential to recognize that in the past three years, Republicans have embraced six principles destructive of constitutional government. First, the president has the right to negate separation of powers supervision by preventing Congress from obtaining relevant evidence of executive misconduct. Second, he has the right to use the powers of office to pressure foreign governments to intervene in American elections to serve his personal purposes. Third, the president has the right to utilize federal agencies to serve his personal purposes.

Next, he has the right to compel the Justice Department to protect his friends while investigating and prosecuting his enemies. Fifth, he has the right to use legislative appropriations for his own purposes rather than those of Congress. Finally, he cannot be impeached because removal from office would then illegitimately overturn a presidential election.

All those principles are not only unfounded and antithetical to American constitutional government, but they are also lethal to any party that does not control the presidency. That undeniable consequence of their actions suggests that Republicans have, like King Richard III, bet their future on a cast of dice and is prepared to gamble that in 2020, they can maintain control of the presidency and then cement their control as permanent.

more...

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/484331-the-fateful-republican-party-gamble?fbclid=IwAR3Pua7Btb2z17SmnnPL0zLx9FobEQwMsg_XsH03Taw_F81u54t_AVwLSSs#.XlQAt5m0WHk.facebook

Edward Purcell Jr. is a distinguished professor with New York Law School and is the author of “Antonin Scalia and American Constitutionalism: The Historical Significance of a Judicial Icon” set to be published this winter.

[jimfields33]

1. Once trump leaves, they'll pretend none of that happened

Seriously they will say, that never occurred. Democratic Party will want to go forward. So trump presidency will be ignored like it never happened.

[ancianita]

4. Then we seriously write history books of this period. As Holocaust descedents say: Never forget.

[mwb970]

7. "We barely knew the guy. I think he brought us coffee once."

[jimfields33]

10. So true.

[Pepsidog]

20. Great point. Back to "oh the deficit"

[Hermit-The-Prog]

32. You miss the point: They intend to have a dynasty, beginning with trump.

[Volaris]

36. Not if we put some of them in prison, they wont.

[hedda_foil]

39. Who's saying he leaves?

[ffr]

2. And I want all 6 of those to apply to the next several generation of democratic presidents

I'm going all in on being a hypocrite, just like our Kremlin supporting rePuticans. The next several democratic presidents can declare marshal law and continue the suspension of the constitution if they have to and I'll support it. Stack the courts with ultra liberal judges, qualified or not and pull the voter registrations of all government workers to send anyone not registered as a democrat packing, just like what is happening now. Except, I'm fully supporting this hypocritical oath for double the length rePuticans have openly embraced it.

We need to be made whole again and we need to send a message to rePuticans like Moscow Mitch McConnell that two can play at that game. Except when we do it, we're going to make it hurt.

[NoMoreRepugs]

3. ffr - we may be in the minority but I totally agree. Bring

an automatic weapon to the knife fight - crush the dirtbags and let them morph into something else at some point in the future at their own peril. I am so over the Deplorable base.

[lagomorph777]

5. They are leaving a big mess to clean up, and powerful tools to clean it up with.

Absolutely when our President takes over (and we oust McConnell) we need to purge the traitors and get to work.

[NoMoreRepugs]

6. I want the next Democratic Administration to take a

microscopic look BACK at everything that may have been illegal.

[lagomorph777]

9. Hell, YEAH!

A real investigation will result in mass incarceration of Russiapublicans.

[machoneman]

17. Hear, hear! I agree.

Pack the courts, suppress all red state voters, purge the SC and add 3-5 more liberals. Send say 25-30 major Trump WH staffers to jail. Arrest the big R donors and charge them with treason.

Oh, boy, time to get even!

[Pepsidog]

24. There better be a reckoning. No more moving forward BS.

[rwsanders]

25. With a reasonable council to rework things so that this doesn't happen again, that would be great...

force some reforms to the constitution through the states: voting rights, deny corporate personhood, define speech as things other than money (erase Scalia's stain on the nation).

Otherwise we are facing a long slow climb just to get back to "normal". A former EPA employee told me 2 years ago (so I suspect there has been more damage) that it would take 50 years to return to where we were due to the cumbersome nature of the rule making process and working things through the courts.

We don't have 50 years to wait.

[shanti]

41. They don't plan to

give power up after having it. They are heady with it.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. When we defeat Putin and the minority of American filthy rich, in the next election.

We must clean up this mess. Yes, we must look backwards at ALL the illegal activity like torture and spying on the American people without warrants.

FISA courts and the Supremes have to be carefully examined and purged of criminals. Clear and specific anti-corruption and conflict of interest laws must be established for the courts.

[lagomorph777]

11. And round up all those responsible for jailing children,

and throw them in the child jails. Make them sleep on concrete and drink from toilets while they await a trial that never comes.

[totodeinhere]

13. No, I understand your anger.

But if we do that then we are no better than them. We need to stand for the humane treatment of anyone accused of a crime. Investigate their crimes, indict them, then allow them a fair trial and if convicted punish them according to the law and standards of decency. That is the difference between us and them.

[Farmer-Rick]

14. I like the sentiment

But to get fair trials we have to clean up the Judiciary first. They have totally fallen down on the job....Starting with the W bush ruling.

[totodeinhere]

16. If we can elect a Democratic president then she or he will probably get two

or three Supreme Court picks. That would be a start but yes, we will be forced to live with Trump's right wing ideologues on the federal bench for the foreseeable future.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. Or will we really have to live with criminals on the courts?

Many of those judges have taken kickbacks and bribes. I think if we had a group in the Attorney General's office dedicated to investigating the judiciary it would slow down some of these bias judges.

We need to impeach many of the immoral and law breaking judges currently on the courts.

Thomas is guilty of taking bribes and what about those foreign investments that Roberts keeps cashing in? This from 2009 "Federal judges say they are underpaid. The problem, in Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s words, “has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis.”" https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/washington/20bar.html

And yet he suddenly stopped complaining that he wasn't getting a kingly salary. Why??????

[lagomorph777]

22. Exactly. Start holding judges criminally liable for their actions.

We already got Trump's own sister (a judge) to step down when threatened with criminal investigation.

[totodeinhere]

26. It would take 67 votes in the Senate and I don't see us getting anywhere near that.

n/t

[PatrickforO]

12. Another good post. This has been their plan all along.

Kill the Democratic party.

Undermine, weaken and pull down our democratic institutions.

Giant tax cut for the oligarchs.

Take more and more power into the executive branch at the expense of Congress.

Pack the federal appellate and Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues.

Weaken this country abroad and undermine relations with allies.

Install a dictator.

Institute another Holocaust and begin the war the bible thumpers believe will usher in the apocalypse.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Yup, America's filthy rich allowed shorty Putin in to manipulate

and destroy our democracy.

They want a dictator because One person is easier to control then voters, legislators and unbiased judges.

With a stupid dictator, they can finish chopping up America into little kingdoms for them to control.

[certainot]

19. all their plans depend on democrats/left never realizing it was the radio, stupid, and nothing more

their only unique advantage haas always been their monopoly radio propaganda messaging with limbaugh as kingpin, the first guy to feed the propaganda to. russia moved in on it at least a decade ago to use the dittoheads to take over the GOP establishment. they will always depend on and can only win anything if democrats continue the biggest political mistake in history - ignoring talk radio.

[calimary]

21. So maybe the first thing a new Democratic president should do

is sign an executive order reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine, the Equal Time provisions, and the limitations on ownership. Break up the broadcasting monopolies.

Doing away with ownership restrictions is what started the rollercoaster speeding downhill in the first place.

[certainot]

30. can't wait for new pres. with limbaugh croaking and AI allowing us to digitize and expose

talk radio it wouldn't take much activism to force the ad industry to finally apply market demand for hate radio and break up the monopoly.

limbaugh's 600 stations have to be nervous cause they can't replace him and when the ad industry has to start asking their clients if they really like global warming and trump and racism to protect them from being associated with that crap - a lot easier to do with AI now - stoprush x 100.

all it would take is for warren or sanders to show up at one of the 87 unis that support 260 limbaugh stations

[calimary]

42. A good link to keep, and keep an eye on.

Thanks, certainot!

[llmart]

35. Great post.

Those should be the first orders of business. Our new Dem President should do whatever he/she can to reverse all of this guy's executive orders. Two can play that game.

[BadGimp]

23. Conservatives will abandon Democracy

[Hermit-The-Prog]

33. We are witnessing that rejection. Saving that for later use, thanks.

[calimary]

43. In other words, They'll CHEAT.

And that should be Said, Read, and SPREAD!

[democrank]

27. A most important post.

Thank you so much.

[Kablooie]

28. This election will establish one party rule permanently.

If Trump wins and keep the senate.
It will be the end of our Democracy for the rest of our lives.

[moondust]

29. Kleptocracy, Putin style.

Get rid of "big gubment" and privatize everything for their personal profit. Maintain just enough gubment to keep the little people in their place--desperate and happy to work for crumbs. Modern slavery from the "Party of Lincoln."

[maxrandb]

31. I've said it before

They saw the Obama coalition of voters and knew the only way they could survive was full on authoritarianism.

They stold a supreme court seat, arranged for a fucking young Rush Limbaugh clone to replace a slightly less rabid conservative wingnut, ensured we'd have unchecked dark money and purged Democratic voters with precision.

They welcomed Russian help and money, and have done such illegal and treasonous shit, that they know if the papertrail of their crimes ever sees the light of day, some of them are going to have to flee the country to escape justice.

They have gone all in. For them, it's either stay in power by any means necessary, or die in Federal prison

We are in for some heavy seas. We will soon learn what desperate men are capable of.

I'm not hopeful.

[lame54]

34. Dr. Strangelove's bunker

[pecosbob]

37. Duh

[lastlib]

38. There is a seventh principle that he neglected to include:

VOTING by those outside their constituencies must be CONTROLLED and Minimized!

Thus: Voter ID laws, gerrymandering, vote-suppression tactics in hostile areas/precincts (e.g., too few machines in minority precincts, shorter polling-place times)--all these and other disfranchisement strategies are part of their long-term plans.

[dustyscamp]

40. As usual Conjob trolls are flinging bullshit in that comment section