The Constitution is not infallible.

The framers were in the midst of a war with England and created a document that

a) assumed no free man (i.e., a man free from the divine right of kings) would favor a tyrant;
b) only men of "honor" would be elected to Congress by a free electorate;
c) all the MEN making these decisions were white landowners who created a document that both protected their wealth/power/status/privilege and was flexible enough for evolving interpretation and revision.

IOW, there is no fail-safe for the majority under the Constitution when foxes are in the hen house. Literally, we are held hostage by voting cycles and we have to change procedural rules (which again, assumes only honorable people are elected to Congress).

There is also no professional penalty for lying to the detriment of the nation. Censure is toothless. It is an imperfect system created by imperfect men and it can be changed. Abolish the electoral college, and go with straight majority rule. The judicial system is designed to protect minority rights under majority rule. (In theory, though that, too, is made ineffective by racist authoritarian abusers. But that's a rant for another thread.)

So it wasn't individuals that failed us here, it's the systems we have in place. That's not to say that the 43 aren't responsible for their actions, but that their actions only succeeded because of the system.

My submission for the Tweet du jour:

Republicans gonna Republican.

The Lincoln Project is the "leftist" arm of the GOP (Generators of Propaganda). Advertising is their thing, they've just evolved since Gingrich's direct mail campaigns. This shocks so many on the left because when it came to Trump (and Trumpers), they were actually telling the truth. But I'm sure it's a one-off because these guys are the party of Reagan and the Bushes.* And that party is toxic and conservative AF.








*Reagan and the Bushes would be my punk band name, if I were ever to start one.

This line of reporting makes me very uneasy.

I know SO MANY people who grew up impoverished and/or have financial problems now who have never been driven to National insurrection. Considering how badly we treat poor people - especially BIPOC, who traditionally have the highest rates of debt/financial trauma - blaming the "poor whites" who defaulted on business loans or taxes feels like a microaggression that excuses white insurrectionists because of their financial background but may end up creating policies or practices that will be harmfully and/or unfairly directed at other protests/protestors, including peaceful ones. Remember, Hoover kept files on MLK and John Lennon. That's the norm of our history and "reporting" like this only serves to justify continuing the war against poor people in the US.