The latest unsurprising revelations and our utterly flawed Constitution

[Picaro]

Last edited Sat Jan 6, 2024, 11:43 AM - Edit history (2)

I'm more than happy with what the Jan. 6 Committee has done and what they might do in the future. We all know that the clock may be running out on this committee.

But I won't even address that. This is going to be short. Because the new revelations--if you deem them revelations--just reinforce what I'd already inferred.

Everything is now public. If you don't know what happened you are among the millions that are not paying attention. If you know what happened and either don't believe it or don't care then you are both deplorable, but also irredeemable.

So, let's review.

The January 14th hearing pounded home that the Jan 6 insurrection was not a spontaneous event.

Planning for the insurrection started before the election even occurred

While Trump never wanted to do the job (you could make a good argument for Trump not understanding what a President is supposed to do to this day) he warmed up to the power and prestige very quickly. He went from thinking the White House was a dump to never wanting to leave before 2017 was out.

He started dropping those horrifying hints about wanting to become President-For-Life early on. The media was resolute in laughing it off, but I took him seriously from the first cutesy little hint. He really intended to remain forever. That is utterly nauseating, but it stopped being some sort of revelation a long, long time ago.

He deliberately corrupted everything he touched

He didn't just fail to hire "the best people", but they were selected for servility, obsequiousness, amorality...But the top trait he was looking for was blind loyalty to Trump.

At first, it looked like he was at least trying to put a couple of people in place that might be able to grow into the cabinet positions they occupied, but that phase passed pretty quickly.

We are lucky that at least of few of his inner circle balked at the end and kept us from immediately becoming a classic autocratic banana republic.

But he successfully corrupted organizations that were once thought to be incorruptible. The list is long: The State Department, EPA, DOJ, The Interior Department, the SEC, the IRS...and, of course, the Presidency itself.

The Constitution has been laid bare as a poorly written document filled with now obvious loopholes

The media does group think very, very well even when they aren't literally working off the same script. One of the great fictions they were pushing a few years ago was that the Constitution was a work of almost supernatural brilliance. Before all this got started.

I'm in the process of writing a piece with a working title of "The Constitution Will End America as we have Known It".

The Constitution is the best we've got.

But it is so absurdly deficient in so many areas that I never, ever bought off on the dewy eyed claims of the perfection and genius of the Constitution. The Founding Fathers were praised as stalwart pillars of political virtue imbued with such moral rectitude that they were never to be questioned, but only abjectly worshiped.

Yeah, well no.

This ranks up with our becoming a "post racial society" upon the election of Obama. Now, that was a thigh slapper.

But seriously, Trump took one look at the Constitution and saw one shining, enormous flaw. There was no enforcement mechanism.

While all sorts of things were written in the Constitution about holding those in power accountable there's not any sort of enforcement mechanism. The few there are were made deliberately so hard to use that they're well...unusable and impractical.

Congress can hold all hearings they want, but they don't have power to compel attendance. In other words, they can call witnesses but the witnesses don't have to show up. If they lie to Congress perjury can be asserted, but Congress cannot prosecute anyone.

Contempt of Congress? Pah! Who cares?

But, the largest flaw is the astounding naivete of the document. There is a very fundamental assumption that the men (no women remember) involved in governance are men of good faith and good morals. That they are not corrupt.

This illusion was dispelled in the early days of the republic, but almost everyone President, Senators, and Congressmen gave it lip service. Historically, the Constitution was honored--often in the breach--but honored performatively.

When Trump ascended to the Presidency the lip service ended. The quiet part was often said out loud. Constitution? We don't need no stinking Constitution...

When the corruption just exploded in plain view the constitutional penalties and solutions were simply not there--because they don't exist. The constitution drops any issue of corruption into the hands of two of the most political bodies currently on earth--the House and the Senate.

But, again, there is that assumption that everyone is of sound morals and imbued with limitless good faith. The whole notion of everyone will do the right thing has now gone the way of the vaunted American social contract that briefly existed after WWII.

Trump and his acolytes have repeatedly defied and ignored all written and unwritten rules.

What is the penalty for violating your oath of office? Might as well ask what is the sound of one hand clapping. There is no penalty.

Now back to the list.

The DOJ and the Treasury Department have been substantially corrupted

The FBI is DOJ and the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department. While the FBI is supposed to be non-partisan it never has been. Until recently I believed the Secret Service to non-partisan and incorruptible. Oops.

Yesterday's publication of an internal email claiming that a large majority of the rank and file FBI were in sympathy with the insurrectionist was not a huge shock. The Secret Service's obvious complicity is still a little shocking to me. But only a little.

There are large parts of our law enforcement that have been revealed to be fascist authoritarians in outlook. ACAB people ACAB. The call, so to speak, was coming from inside the White House (some of the calls actually did come from the White House).

There's not much we can do about it

This is so not over. The traitors among us are working feverishly to degrade our democracy to the point that there will be minority rule for the foreseeable future.

The red states have already done it. I live in Texas and this state is purple at most and the Republican autocracy knows it. The margin of victory was so narrow in 2020 that our Republican overlords freaked out and sprang into action with a raft of voter suppression bills. One drop box per county (I welcome anyone that cares to look at the sheer size of some Texas counties), mail-in ballot procedures that make the chance of a mail-on ballot being rejected somewhere between 12.5% and 25%. Making some sort of mistake on a mail-in ballot can now be a felony. Essential elimination of allowable mail-in ballot assistance unless the help comes from a close family member.

The hard truth is we're probably screwed

Unless the midterms are a Republican bloodbath the termites in our system will chew away. Ultimately, the whole edifice will come crashing down. It's like a building that's unstable. Knock out one more support joist and it's a pile of concrete and broken lumber.

I desperately want to be wrong. But I don't think I am. The Republicans are often individually stupid, but collectively all that money has bought them some great help. They've checked all the boxes.

Takeover of state governments? Check. Capture of the judicial branch (both federal, state, and local)? Check. Co-opting law enforcement? Check. School boards and education departments? Check. Extreme gerrymandering? Check. Weaponizing the 1st Amendment? Check.

I won't go on, but there's more.

We got issues folks… There's too little time and only a little hope. I'm hoping on a Dobbs decision snap back. But my hope is thin and weak now. I’ve lived too long and have seen how these things play out. Even if we win it will be a narrow win.

I continue to give my money and my time. But it's a hard road here in Texas.

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Sir

"But, the single and largest flaw is the astounding naivete of the document. There is a very fundamental assumption that the men (no women remember) involved in governance are men of good faith and good morals. That they are not corrupt."

[doc03]

2. The founders of the country never foresaw a DJT. They

never thought that an entire political party could become
totally carrupt. If just a handful of Republicans stood up to Trump he would never have been elected in the first place.
Who could ever imagined someone like Jordan, Hawley, Gomert, MTG could be elected. Hershal Walker actually could be elected Senator, you can't get any crazier than that.
.

[yobrault1]

15. Actually, they never anticipated a

Newt Gingrich and/or a Mictch McConnell populists who fanned the winds of hate of the other. That corporations would gain personhood, the Supreme Court would be radicalized and that the Senators and Congresspersons would enrich their lives through service to said coporations. They couldn't have dreamed that the winds of fascism would ensnare the GQP and that elected officials would hold steady to their dilusions as long as billionaires filled their coffers. Could the writers of the consititution and it's ammendments have even considered that billionnaires with wonk ideology would rule the land and the working class would be left adrift. NO document could have foreseen what we see today, but generations of the last fascist wave have been sounding alarms for decades, now, now, we are finally listening. Let's hope it is not too late.

[DAngelo136]

16. Actually they did

Madison wrote about the influence of "factions" and how corrosive they would be. Unfortunately, HE was naive in that belief that those same people who authored the Constitution wouldn't become factions within themselves. Well, they did.

But even more distressing is that since the installment of the Slave Codes of 1705, the political elites persuaded the White population of indentured and other non elites that they were part of their class. And ever since then, they've cast their lot with them based on their skin color and social status, such as it is. They chose to be paid with the "psychological wage of whiteness" and so long as that check clears, they will continue to side with them.

Of course, this does come with a price:

"Who voted, over and over again, to have worse lives? No healthcare, retirement, affordable education, childcare — no public goods of any kind whatsoever? White Americans did. What the? The question baffles the world. Why would anyone choose a worse life? The answer is that white Americans would not accept a society of true equals. “I won’t pay for those dirty, filthy peoples’ educations, healthcare, retirements! Why, their grandparents were my grandpappy’s slaves!” White Americans chose to retain power, supremacy, superiority, even in a failing society. They chose staying on top of decline and ruin, rather than prospering as equals."

Umair Haque "America's Problem Is That White People Want It To Be A Failed State" 11/1/20

The truth, hard to face though it may be, is rather simple:

White Americans really are different. From their peers — or at least the people they believe are their peers. But the truth that their political choices over decades reveals is this. White Americans have almost nothing in common with White Europeans or Canadians — who back the expansive social contracts of social democracies reliably. White Americans reliably reject such choices, which is how they made their society collapse. instead, they have more in common with the ethnic-religious-fundamentalist majorities of nations like Iran, or the authoritarian-nationalist majorities of nations like Russia. They are regressive, sectarian, fundamentalist, unable to change, trapped by their own ideologies.

That is how and why America collapsed. Black People didn’t make it so. Brown People didn’t. Native Americans didn’t. America is still about 80% white, and white Americans make a certain choice reliably and consistently and predictably as a group — they vote “conservative,” but conservative in America doesn’t mean what it does in the rest of the rich world — it means something much more like Iran or Russia. Bang."

(ibid)

This is fundamentally who these Trump supporters are. They can't be reasoned with nor bargained with. Donald Trump and they are one and the same; they see any advance by people who don't look like them as an encroachment on their privilege. Trump takes it one step (or more) and just believes that the law simply does not apply to "superior people" such as himself:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-president-superior-genes-pbs-documentary-eugenics-a7338821.html

My greatest fear is that should the Democratic voters fail and thus the Democratic Party fails to retain the House and gain a majority in the Senate, this will signal the slow and inevitable slide into fascism and one party rule. The Republicans believe deeply and completely that they and ONLY THEY have the right to rule (not govern) and that anyone else is illegitimate and a threat to their dominance. That is at the heart of Conservative ideology. I am convinced that they will abuse the power of the state to arrest and jail anyone who dare stand up to them.

Before that dystopian future comes about, decide now what you will be: a "Good German" or ANTIFA.

[brer cat]

3. Very good post, Picaro.

Termites in our building is the best explanation I have read about our current condition.

[BComplex]

4. Really good treatise on the subject of the constitution and our present predicament(s).

Thank you, Picaro! Well done!

[Hortensis]

5. It's not our constitution that's awful, but those who set out to smash it.

Agree that after over 200 years they've proved need to strengthen it against them.

[malaise]

6. Great OP

Rec

[brush]

7. Thanks for posting, Picaro. DUers, this is a must read.

The obvious flaws like the 2nd Amendment and the Electoral College aren't even mentioned because they are so well known, but so many other are. And there are many general obsevations like below.

"...The Republicans are often individually stupid, but collectively all that money has bought them some great help. They've checked all the boxes.

Takeover of state governments? Check. Capture of the judicial branch (both federal, state, and local)? Check. Co opting law enforcement? Check. School boards and education departments? Check. Extreme gerrymandering? Check. Weaponizing the 1st Amendment? Check."

[Tommymac]

8. Your reasoning is mostly sound, but I disagree with your pessimistic outlook.

I believe The US Constitution has spawned other types of Representative Republics/Democracies, some much more robust then ours, some not so robust, i.e. with the flavor of Banana.

Without writing a book with my reasoning, I have to be optimistic about the future of our species.

I do believe that we are in for some very very rough times in the next 50 years, but in the end Human Rights for ALL, not just the rulers, will prevail.

70% of The American people are normal, everyday folk with normal everyday dreams and desires.

99% of the World's population just wants to live a safe, secure life without hurt, hunger or war.

We (collectively) are going to BURY (shoe pounding) the Christo-fascist's and their 1% supporters/financiers

BURY them so deep they will be lower then whale shit.

We The People of the Earth will eventually come up with a document and set of rules that will work better then the ones we use today.

Maybe I'm wearing rose-colored glasses, but if so, that's the only way I can survive this horrible shit we are wading through in the present times.

Leave me my dreams.

[Beetwasher.]

10. The Moral Arc of the Universe is Long but it Bends Towards Justice

That’s not just some fancy words, humans have always progressed, with set backs, but all of history shows steady progress forward. That’s just fact, backed with data. So your hope is empirical.

[Tommymac]

11. Thank You. I needed that. nt

[Beetwasher.]

12. Cool!

Don’t ever let the pessimists get to you, MLK will always have the wisdom you need. Obama too!

[Karadeniz]

9. A must read !!!

[wnylib]

13. The problem as I see it is the passage of time.

The founders lived in a different world, with different technologies. They could not possibly have foreseen the speed of modern communications and the ability to falsify information as quickly and widespread as happens now.

One thing is certain about the constitution. This is NOT the time for a constitutional convention to rewrite it. We do NOT need to have RW extremists Involved in a rewrite in the current political climate.

A complete rewrite is not necessary. The 3 major flaws can be dealt with through amendments. All would be hard to pass, but might be done with strong public campaigns supporting the changes.

First flaw: The 2nd amendment. Not a flaw when written, but definitely is outdated today. Guns are intended to provide for a militia. That is now handled by the National Guard. But repealing the 2nd amendment has the least to zero chance of passing because of American attachment to guns. However, a substantial number of Americans do favor sensible gun laws.

Second, the electoral college. Totally outdated. The RW extremist majority gains power through manipulation of the EC that the founders did not anticipate. Eliminate the EC. Doing that would make everyone's vote count. It would be difficult to eliminate it, but might be possible, with a strong public campaign to sell the idea.

A third change would be a uniform amendnent, with enforcement teeth, on Congressional districting to eliminate gerrymandering.

Those are necessary amendments IMO. But attacking the entire constitution and calling for a rewrite plays into the hands of people who would destroy democracy and feeds discouragement.

[canetoad]

14. Kick and thank you

For a wonderful, succinct post on the state of US politics.

I joined DU way back, partly to learn more about your political system. Australia and the US are, as nations, roughly the same age but that's where the similarity ends. Over the years I have come to many of the same conclusions that you very clearly set out in your post.