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Pierce: Americans Have the Power to Push Back
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53546/trump-white-house-corruption/It's not like we haven't been through something like this before: A dubious presidency, shot through with actual corruption corruptly concealed, begins to unravel because, sooner or later, the old republic begins to kick back, hard, with whatever happens to be handy. Ambition counters ambition, was the way Mr. Madison put it, and while he thought of this tug-of-war as taking place in the polite precincts of a legislative chamber, he also knew that ambition could counter ambition in a number of ways.
For example, ambition could counter ambition through a free and vigorous press, which is why he included that in the very first amendment to his masterpiece. Or, ambition could counter ambition through an aroused and boisterous populace, which is why freedom of association and the right to petition got hung onto the end of that same amendment. Or ambition could counter ambition through the many ways these fundamental rights could be put to use. Leaks, say, are an enabling device for a free press. Sooner or later, if we stay as lucky as we have been, the old republic kicks back with whatever is at hand. Which is pretty much what happened last night, when even more of all hell broke loose again.
First, The New York Times dropped a story that officials of the Obama administration were so alarmed by what they'd discovered about the contacts between the Trump campaign and various plutocratic Russian ratfckers that the Obama folks dispersed the evidence as widely as they could so it wouldn't all end up in the same burn bag as soon as the new guy's hand came off the Bible....
That story hung in the air for approximately 15 minutes before The Washington Post called it and raised, and newly confirmed Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III found himself treed like an ol' possum in the piney woods. Or something....
But ultimately, the judgment lies with the country, which is how it should be, because the entire Constitution is arranged so that the ultimate vehicle through which the old republic can defend itself is its people. We can go along and pretend that this administration isn't the carnival of grift and incompetence that it plainly is. We can accept the platitudes and the anesthetic banality of the people who will tell us that this is politics as usual, and that both sides do it, and that righteous democratic anger is somehow impolite and inappropriate to the august task of determining on exactly what percentage of the American government the Russians currently hold paper.
Or, we can decide not to do that. We can push back with the rusty tools that are never far from our hands. Ultimately, that's what happened in 1974. After two years, the accumulated crimes and lies and contempt for democratic norms hauled the country out of its customary torpor and the old republic stirred to life again. That's the choice before us.
For example, ambition could counter ambition through a free and vigorous press, which is why he included that in the very first amendment to his masterpiece. Or, ambition could counter ambition through an aroused and boisterous populace, which is why freedom of association and the right to petition got hung onto the end of that same amendment. Or ambition could counter ambition through the many ways these fundamental rights could be put to use. Leaks, say, are an enabling device for a free press. Sooner or later, if we stay as lucky as we have been, the old republic kicks back with whatever is at hand. Which is pretty much what happened last night, when even more of all hell broke loose again.
First, The New York Times dropped a story that officials of the Obama administration were so alarmed by what they'd discovered about the contacts between the Trump campaign and various plutocratic Russian ratfckers that the Obama folks dispersed the evidence as widely as they could so it wouldn't all end up in the same burn bag as soon as the new guy's hand came off the Bible....
That story hung in the air for approximately 15 minutes before The Washington Post called it and raised, and newly confirmed Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III found himself treed like an ol' possum in the piney woods. Or something....
But ultimately, the judgment lies with the country, which is how it should be, because the entire Constitution is arranged so that the ultimate vehicle through which the old republic can defend itself is its people. We can go along and pretend that this administration isn't the carnival of grift and incompetence that it plainly is. We can accept the platitudes and the anesthetic banality of the people who will tell us that this is politics as usual, and that both sides do it, and that righteous democratic anger is somehow impolite and inappropriate to the august task of determining on exactly what percentage of the American government the Russians currently hold paper.
Or, we can decide not to do that. We can push back with the rusty tools that are never far from our hands. Ultimately, that's what happened in 1974. After two years, the accumulated crimes and lies and contempt for democratic norms hauled the country out of its customary torpor and the old republic stirred to life again. That's the choice before us.
3 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
I like "carnival of grift and incompetence." I plan to use that. And thank you Mr Pierce for a wonderful essay.
