Slate "Trump Pushing the Firing of Andrew McCabe Was a Direct Challenge to Our Democracy"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/trump-pushing-the-firing-of-andrew-mccabe-was-a-direct-challenge-to-our-democracy.html

Even the most temperate advocates of law and order should be up in arms over the vindictive firing of the former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe, on Friday. The president’s grotesque touchdown dance tweets over the weekend and his lawyer’s similarly grotesque calls to fire special counsel Robert Mueller only emphasized the ugliness of the act. The far more chilling spectacle, however, was the predictable reaction from the president’s various Republican lapdogs in Congress. With just a handful of notable exceptions—Sens. Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain, and if you closed one eye and squinted super hard, House Speaker Paul Ryan—congressional Republicans faced the news that the president and his lawyer are again directly targeting federal law enforcement with a stretch, a ritual licking of the privates, and a resumption of regularly scheduled napping positions.

It is now clear that Trump is launching these ever-more direct attacks on the legal and intelligence apparatus as trial balloons to get a sense of just how far he can stretch our constitutional democracy before it breaks. Each time Republicans in Congress yawn and scratch, he understands that he can go further. Promises that some committee should probably someday look into some things do not truly register as congressional oversight.

It is also plain that the people who have persuaded themselves that they’re staying on to check the president’s worst impulses and protect what’s left of constitutional democracy are kidding themselves. If the Trump administration exits of the past few weeks have revealed anything, it’s that you can defy President Trump and be fired, or stay and pander to President Trump and also be fired. Who you are and what you do is immaterial. Nobody is really acting as a brake or a check on this president: Everyone’s simply enabling him until they are no longer useful.

This is, of course, the point. Nobody but Trump matters. Nobody’s motive, character, or best instincts are relevant. The entire administration is just a sad heaving mass of interchangeable instrumental parts. Rex Tillerson was eviscerating the foreign service as requested, but he still wasn’t doing what his boss needed. Just as Trump regularly tests the loyalty of his underlings to see who will lie for him, he also tests them by seeing who will fire their own underlings for him.

snip - worth reading it all - see the link

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt