Blackmail on a national scale [View all]

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The Constitution doesn’t expressly forbid blackmail. But it is nevertheless against the law in any civilized country. The Constitution does expressly enjoin the President to “take care that the laws be faithful executed."

It is therefore doubly reprehensible that the current president is breaking the laws against blackmail daily, and claiming credit for his “negotiation skills” as he does. There is no negotiation possible with a blackmailer: they hold all the cards, and threaten the victim with public or private punishment if the price demanded is not paid. The victim is under duress, and has almost nothing to bargain with, except for one thing. The victim can say: “Punish and be damned. I’m not paying.” What the president has done to Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and Northwestern, not to mention various law firms notable for their successful practice of the law, is to say: “Throw out your DEI programs or I will withhold your funding for a bunch of programs that have nothing to do with DEI, like cancer research, or I will keep the money and force you to fire all the people who work in those laboratories, or I will make it impossible for you to practice law in any court but the local Justice of the Peace. These are the tactics of a thug, who is using stolen money to starve his victims out.

The money the 47th blunder is withholding is not his. It does not belong to him personally. The country is not a privately held corporation with a CEO. These funds are the tax dollars of Americans who have little choice but to pay their taxes. But the Constitution provides the citizens with some control over how their tax dollars are spent. All funding flows from Congress, which is composed of representatives elected by the citizens. Congress is our protection against theft, waste, and mismanagement. And Congress has not approved the withholding of any funds, or the firing of any government employees, and certainly not approved blackmail in the name of one man’s personal popularity campaign.

It is unfortunate that our current Congress has slim majorities of Republicans in both houses, because over the last thirty years, Republicans have abandoned their responsibilities to the citizens under the Constitution. In fact, they don’t seem to be familiar with that document at all. They feel that their constituents elected them to keep on campaigning long after the election is over. Republicans are campaigning daily to make themselves as popular as possible to their voting base. Actual governing, of course, is hard work, involving the construction of policies and departments and agencies to carry out the policies. You actually have to know what you’re doing to participate in government. But Republicans are too involved in getting themselves reelected to stoop to actual governing.

As long as Republican discipline holds in Congress, there’s nothing that can be done legally and Constitutionally, to stop the blackmail and theft. Unless, of course, enough Republican come to their senses, and pass legislation to stop the bloodletting. Congress could pass laws to forbid unelected, unvetted, and interested parties, like Elon Musk, from meddling with the Congressionally approved operation of any agency or department working under the legal authority of Congress. It could pass legislation to forbid the president from setting any tariffs at all, and confirm that tariffs are the responsibility of the Dept. of Commerce. It could do any number of things, if a few Republicans could see their way clear to doing some work for the people. Remember, it’s Republican Town Halls making life uncomfortable for their elected representatives.