With all the drama among the chattering classes, the punditocracy, the Very Serious People, who are all dithering about the Constitutional Crisis if Biden acts to preclude a debt ceiling default because Republicans refuse to raise it without massive concessions that would hurt millions of Americans, crash the economy, and America’s standing in the world, a few things should be kept in mind.
- If a constitutional crisis is at hand, it’s because we failed to resolve earlier ones. The criminal defendant pictured above was impeached twice — but was not removed from office because of a deliberate choice by members of a certain party to put partisanship above the good of the country and the rule of law.
- The same person incited an insurrection in which people died and the Capitol was vandalized. Members of Congress attempting to fulfill their constitutional duties were put in danger of their lives. The will of the people to freely elect the president of their choice was nearly violated.
- Members of that certain party, including some sitting in Congress at the time, were active participants in the events leading up to the insurrection, including public expressions of support for fraudulent claims that the election of 2020 had been rigged, and participated in other schemes to overturn the election.
- Despite some initial protests and expressions of outrage, members of that party quickly regrouped around that criminal defendant, including the current Speaker of the House. They have purged from their ranks anyone who attempted to hold their leader to account. They are likely to nominate him to run in 2024.
- The current Speaker of the House only gained the position after repeated concessions to the most extreme members of that certain party. He retains his position only at their pleasure. He cannot be trusted to put the good of the country ahead of his own ambitions — or theirs.
- The current Senate leader of that certain party has stolen Supreme Court seats and blocked legislation at every turn. He has worked to pack the judiciary with partisan moles, and subverted both impeachment trials in the Senate.
- That certain party has never disavowed that criminal defendant pictured above. They have attempted to white-wash the insurrection of January 6, embrace numerous conspiracy theories, promote policies that are disastrous for the country, and deny the legitimacy of the current administration.
- They are engaged in a systematic campaign across the country at all levels to make elections irrelevant and impose their minority views on a majority of the citizens.
- In short, they have demonstrated they are engaged in a long-running campaign to undermine democracy in America to establish permanent minority rule by any means possible. That is the long-running constitutional crisis that we are really facing — not just the one about paying the bills for spending that was already voted on and approved by Congress.
With all the pronouncements about the debt ceiling and what it’s about, this is the larger context that needs to be kept in mind. Too many people are willing to ignore it; denial is not a plan.
UPDATE: Jack Holmes writing at Esquire has a message for the press:
The entire piece is worth a read, but his conclusion is relevant to this diary:
...As a body politic, we should take this opportunity—having passed on all the previous—to expel him. The political press plays a crucial role in how that body functions, and it is failing. Any news report on Trump's candidacy that fails to mention his attack on the American republic a couple of years ago is failing the American voter. If it doesn't always seem relevant, I invite you to imagine what would have happened if the scheme cooked up amongst Trump's aforementioned aides and allies had succeeded, and he'd stayed in power for another term despite losing the election. How do you think someone who's taken power in these circumstances would respond to the inevitable protests? Do you think that a man who seized power in extralegal fashion would serve out his second term and then leave? Where, in short, does the political press think all this was going? What do they think their lives and jobs might have looked like if he was successful? This is not a game.
emphasis added