The executive branch will devour us all: Today’s cartoon & column
The United States is celebrating our 250th anniversary this year. We’re still relatively young for a nation, there are park benches in Vienna older than the Stars and Stripes, but on the occasion of our Semiquincentennial, it’s a good time to remember that for a global superpower who had to forcibly throw off the yoke of an empire, there are surprisingly few concrete checks and balances to keep our government from being swallowed by an autocrat.
Too many of our historically independent institutions depend on adherence to norms to maintain that independence. We have an ersatz honor system that requires all the participants to have actual honor. The lack of constitutional protections and sanctions for most of our government institutions leaves them vulnerable to a power hungry buffoon and his cronies. You can’t really blame the founders for failing to lay out the ground rules, they were busy guys. They had crops to plant and humans to own, they never expected anyone but the white, landed gentry to vote, so why bother?
There are no laws protecting the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from politically motivated criminal probes on behalf of the president because up until recently nobody thought we would elect a president who would do such a thing. There are no sanctions for Supreme Court justices who take luxury RVs and free trips because we naively expected Supreme Court justices to be better than that. Norms only work when it’s normal. Unwritten rules don’t apply in a kleptocracy.
What was an honor system now is a horror system.
Well, at least it's not a "sky is falling" article. More like a "the sky may be falling." I know these are prepared days in advance, so it misses the SCOTUS comments during the fed board member firing oral arguments. Even the Dreaded Kavanaugh, he of the 30-year-old Metoo accusation, harshly criticized the attempted removal. As for the investigation by the fed, that should be taken as confirmation of the checks and balances system that progressives are wringing their hands over the lack thereof. I doubt that the chairman intentionally said anything to intentionally mislead during his testimony, and this will most likely end with a "well, better watch out next time!" statement. But at least it affirms what progressives have been bleating, that "Nobody is above the law!" Congress must be able to "investigate" the fed, even if it is blatantly political, as long as the results reflect the testimony.
Speaking of congressional investigations, I'm surprised that we haven't begun to hear "Lock them up!" chants from the MAGAtroids. Will they put Billary in a conjugial cell?