July 1, 2024 Is Worse than January 6, 2021
The attack on the Capitol on January 6th was the result of an angry mob being eincouraged by a petulant aspiring dictator.This Supreme Court decision was premeditated.
On January 6, 2021 a violent mob, encouraged by a petulant aspiring dictator, stormed the Capitol, threatened the lives of, among others, the vice-president of the United States, and demanded that the outcome of a free and fair election be overturned. That day represented an extraordinary attack on American democracy, but the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week represents a greater danger.
As terrible as January 6th was, it could have been addressed and rectified quickly. A responsible and patriotic Republican Party-a term that by now is plainly an oxymoron-would have joined the Democrats in Congress and moved quickly to impeach and convict Donald Trump, recognize the legitimacy of the election and do a thorough investigation of what led up to the riot at the Capitol.
The willingness the Republican Party, with painfully few exceptions, to refuse to hold Trump accountable for January 6th, and instead to see the events of January 6, 2021 as nothing very significant or simply as some tourists being a little too enthusiastic, was more damaging to democracy than the events themselves.
The Supreme Court decision that grants former and future presidents immunity from prosecution for anything they do while carrying out the duties and office of the presidency is something very different. This amounts to a very broad immunity and a de facto incentive for the President to break the law. It also strips congress of virtually any oversight and renders remedies like impeachment completely ineffective as the decision implies presidents can never be found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.
This is an extraordinary and deliberate misreading of both the spirit and the letter of the US Constitution. It was not done in the name of abstract legal principles, but to ensure that Donald Trump will never be held accountable for any of the crimes he committed as president, including encouraging the violent storming of the Capitol and his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.
It is perhaps more concerning that this decision was made knowing that Trump has a very good chance of being the next president and has already articulated his plans to further undermine American democracy and use the power of the presidency to go after his critics and personal enemies.
In other words, the Supreme Court has told one of the leading candidates for President that he has carte blanche to follow through on his criminal plans. Knowing that Trump has stated that he will use the powers of the presidency to imprison and prosecute people who have broken no laws, but who have been critical of him, the Supreme Court made it clear to Trump that he would face no consequences if he did that. In fact, they encouraged him to go even further.
The vote on the Supreme Court was on strict partisan-and yes we must use that term-lines with all three Trump appointed justice siding with the Republican majority and all three justices appointed by Democratic presidents in the minority. Moreover, the Supreme Court decision was not the action of angry mob or an unhinged President but was the product of deliberation by a highly educated cohort of conservative judges.
In other words, these right-wing judges thought about it for some time and then decided that on balance the Constitution, democracy, rule of law any sense of fairness or accountability was less important than protecting Donald Trump.
Broad presidential immunity is an enormous blow to democracy and the product not of an angry mob or violent extremists, but has been granted by six graduates of top law schools, all of whom have sterling resumes, who we have been told for far too long have spent their lives in deep reflection on the Constitution and its meaning. Those six justices are no less extreme, although far more dangerous, than the people who stormed the Capitol.
To say that Roberts Court has destroyed any standing or credibility once enjoyed by the Supreme Court is a substantial understatement. The craven corruption of Clarence Thomas, the winking to the MAGA cult from Justice Alito, the more refined and well-spoken partisan complicity of Justices Gorsuch and Comey Barrett and Chief Justice Roberts or the partisan hack that is Brett Kavanaugh have collectively laid bare the status of the Supreme Court as nothing more than another undemocratic legislature.
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Supreme Court Justices are are selected by two institutions, the President and the Senate that because of our electoral system favor white rural conservatives. Once appointed, these justices enjoy lifetime tenure and no accountability to anybody, or even to the law.
As we observe July 4th and look towards an election that is only four months away, American democracy is in shambles.
One of our major parties has been captured by a fascist movement. The other major party has become a gerontocracy. President Biden, his first term accomplishment notwithstanding, increasingly is to American democracy what Leonid Brezhnev was to Soviet Communism-a relic from another era who is too old to be able to preserve the system. The institutions, despite the earnest reassurances from pollyannish elites, have consistently failed us. Society is deeply divided with some fully embracing the MAGA fascist movement and an opposition that, at least for now, has been unable to mobilize in the face of these assaults on our democracy.
In politics, as in life, the distance between the unimaginable and the inevitable is sometimes, from an historical perspective, the blink of an eye. A decade ago, the collapse of American democracy or the American state seemed like something from a bad adventure movie, today it, if not quite inevitable, is a concern that can no longer be sloughed off as overheated rhetoric. Happy July 4th. I hope it’s not our last one.
The SCOTUS decision on Presidential immunity has no effect on the Senate’s power to convict and remove a President from office for high crimes and misdemeanors. Am I wrong?