One of the beautiful things about America is that we have something no other country has….The Constitution of the United States. It has been the magnet that draws so many people to want to live in our country is the confidence that we are a land of laws. So, what happened to that great idea that our forefathers came up with when writing the ultimate law of the land?
We have always lived by the idea that “no one is above the law.” Over the past few years, we have seen that go into the wind. Crooked politicians have always been around. Paid off cops are nothing new. Deal-making judges are almost a normal part of our judicial system. We have had presidents in the past who pushed the limit, but nothing like Donald Trump. He has made this a country of “it’s who you are,” more so now than ever before. We have a Congress that has become blind and deaf to the rules of law. These are representatives that “we the people” elect to represent us and depend on them to be fair and at least halfway honest in doing their jobs. That has become a joke!
The intellectual exercise of how the present conservative majority of our Congress bends and breaks legal principles to achieve the Republican agenda feels unimportant when plotted against the Court’s refusal to apply any legal standards whatsoever to Donald Trump. It is apparent that the Supreme Court has decided that rules and laws do not apply to Trump, nor do they protect anyone from Trump. This means that the rule of law is functionally dead in this country. This is not entirely surprising given that this country almost never respects the rule of law in other countries. No one knows anymore of the rights we have today will be the rights we have tomorrow. No one can tell if a law that is illegal for the government to do to them will be illegal for the government to do to them tomorrow.
We have seen the Supreme Court make whatever thing Trump wants legal, whether it is or not. What would happen if our Court told Trump “no”? Would it really stop him? There is not a lot of evidence that Trump would be stopped by an adverse Supreme Court ruling. There is a lot of evidence that Trump would ignore a court decision that he doesn’t like. There could be an argument that just because Trump has defied the Courts does not mean that the rule of law is dead. This may be wrong. The rule of law exists in opposition to the rule of one man. If Trump can change the rules at will and is also not subject to consequences for breaking the law, then the rule of law does not function.
It’s not anything new that the rich and powerful generally operate outside the rules and laws as they are applied to most regular people, especially the poor. What makes Trump lawless doesn’t just apply to him personally but to any person, official, or institution he bestows his favor on. Elon Musk operated outside the rule of law until he made Trump mad. ICE seemingly has the power to abduct people and brutalize American citizens or anyone who gets in their way.
Trump has granted his cronies and cult followers who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, and the thug in a MAGA hat, a pardon as long as they were doing what Trump wanted them to do. This is not a democracy. It’s a dictatorship. The only constraint is that what Trump does today is what he wants to do tomorrow. The only people allowed to function are the ones Trump needs to help him accomplish his future agenda. The rules and laws do not exist to limit Trump. The easy answer is No. There is nothing that really separates America right now, with Trump in charge, from many nations around the world that routinely stomp all over a person’s basic rights.
Unfortunately, Trump’s success in causing a breakdown in the constitutional order is not exclusively of his own making. He has a lot of help in the Republican controlled Congress. He has been successful with the help of thousands of attorneys and Federal agents in the Justice and Homeland Security departments who carry out his unconstitutional acts.
The Democrats are not powerless to stop Trump. The House Democrats could introduce impeachment resolutions against Trump and every other person in the Federal government responsible for the acts deemed unconstitutional or illegal by the Federal Courts. This could tie the House of Representatives up in knots by forcing a vote on impeachment resolutions. Senate Democrats could bring the Senate to a halt by refusing unanimous consent on any legislation or Trump nominees until he ceases his illegal acts. One thing that could be done is to pass a Constitutional amendment that would move all the domestic law enforcement functions and power from the executive branch to the judicial branch and make it clear that any elected official, especially the President, is subject to the law as anyone else. This would create a massive change that could eliminate the constitutional infirmity that has made Donald Trump’s reign of terror possible.
Do we have Democrats who are willing to do it? It only takes one to get the process started and ignite a national conversation about the imperative need for such a change before it’s too late.
Lynda Kirkpatrick