The Only Thing That Will Put a Check on Trump's Autocratic Tendencies

[orangecrush]

During the campaign and the early days of the Trump administration, there was a lot of talk about the institutional constraints that would come to bear as a check on this president’s autocratic tendencies. But it has become clear that congressional Republicans have no intention of holding Trump or his administration accountable. While lower courts have caused delays in some of the president’s more egregious executive actions, it is clear that the Supreme Court will not provide much by way of a check or balance, especially when/if Kavanaugh is confirmed. Finally, the president has a megaphone in right wing media to shout down any challenges to his authority.

George Packer documents how all of that is different from the days of Richard Nixon and Watergate.

The institutional clout that ended the Presidency of Richard Nixon no longer exists. The honest press, for all its success in exposing daily scandals, won’t persuade the unpersuadable or shame the shameless, while the dishonest press is Trump’s personal amplifier. The federal courts, including the Supreme Court, are rapidly becoming instruments of partisan advocacy, as reliably conservative as elected legislatures. It’s impossible to imagine the Roberts Court voting unanimously against the President, as the Burger Court, including five Republican appointees, did in forcing Nixon to turn over his tapes. (Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee to succeed Anthony Kennedy, has even suggested that the decision was wrong.) Congress has readily submitted to the President’s will, as if legislation and oversight were burdens to be relinquished. And, when the independent counsel finally releases his report, it will have only the potency that the guardians of the law and the Constitution give it.

That is why the title of Packard’s article is “All That’s Left is the Vote.” He opens by making a deeply disturbing, but perhaps accurate, prediction.

…three months from now, American democracy will be on the line. The midterm elections in November are the last remaining obstacle to President Trump’s consolidation of power.

We have grown immune to politicians telling us that this election is the most monumental of our lifetimes. And yet that has never been more true than it is in 2018. That’s why I have a hard time focusing on all the chatter about which Democrats will be running in 2020. While I agree completely with what Paul Glastris wrote about how winning is not enough, I’m not sure what comes next if Democrats don’t win a sizable victory this November.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/07/31/the-only-thing-that-will-put-a-check-on-trumps-autocratic-tendencies/


YOU/WE ARE THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE.

[dalton99a]

2. Democrats MUST win in November.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. it's been clear since 2016

Democracy is facing an existential threat worldwide.

November is our last chance to avoid a catastrophe that could take generations to climb out of.

[BigmanPigman]

4. I am hoping that the moron does another incredibly stupid thing that

reflect poorly on his party. After kidnapping immigrant children his numbers went down. After meeting with Parkland students his numbers went down. There could be another natural disaster that he screws up, who knows what could play his way into the midterms.

Dems need to focus on healthcare, the tax scam for the rich, jobs, infrastructure and sanctions. They will have to decide if mentioning Russia and Kavanaugh is good or bad in their particular district.

We are in a constitutional crisis and have been for about a year due to Russia and the GOP complicity. Our country is more divided that even during the Vietnam War. The economy is heading for a BIG crash and that will hurt the GOP, but it won't happen in the next 4 weeks. We MUST win because the GOP only knows how to make bad economies worse.