Democracy In Dysfunction – “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”
When it comes to dysfunction in our democracy, we are off the charts these days – from the House’s faux Biden impeachment inquiry, to the looming government shutdown, to the latest barrage of dangerous verbal attacks from former President Trump, to the gold bar influence-buying scandal engulfing Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
The House Oversight Committee opened an impeachment inquiry Thursday into President Biden.
The House has the constitutional authority to conduct an impeachment inquiry into any federal official. But after eight months of investigating President Biden and finding no evidence of any impeachable offense, it is an abuse of the impeachment powers to conduct this inquiry.
House Republicans are apparently trying to even the score with Trump’s two impeachments and distract the American people from Trump’s four criminal indictments pending in New York, Washington, DC, Georgia, and Florida.
They also are apparently trying to distract the public from the recent conclusions by one judge that Trump assaulted a woman and by another judge that Trump and the Trump Organization fraudulently inflated his net worth by more than $2 billion.
Meanwhile, a government shutdown looms.
The House and Senate have taken polar opposite approaches so far. In the Democratic-controlled Senate, Democratic and Republican leaders have developed a bipartisan approach to keep the government open. The proposed legislation passed by a 77-to-19 test vote this week and is expected to be sent to the House shortly.
But, the Republican-controlled House, and in particular the extremist GOP Freedom Caucus, has not shown any interest in a bipartisan solution.
In fact, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been threatened with losing his Speakership if he deals with House Democrats.
While bipartisan legislation to avert a shutdown likely would easily pass in the House if it could get to the floor, the small but hostage-taking Freedom Caucus says “no way,” and the House Republicans, to date, have fallen in line.
Freedom Caucus members have been demanding extreme legislation as their price for having a functioning government, demands they know will never be accepted by the Senate or President Biden.
Meanwhile, former President Trump, with a commanding lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been on a rampage recently. Trump’s social media post last week, that General Mark Milley, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs, deserves “DEATH” for a “treasonous act,” is an unprecedented, extremely dangerous attack.
General Milley has an exceptional record of service in defense of our nation. Trump’s attacks have reportedly forced Milley to provide safeguards to protect his family, which is often needed when Trump attacks his perceived enemies.
Trump has threatened judges and prosecutors and has sent veiled threats to potential witnesses. Trump’s “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” social media post last month sent a clear message to everyone involved in the judicial process.
His threat has real-world precedent. Trump was perfectly willing to endanger his own Vice President as well as Members of Congress with the vicious attack he unleashed on the Capitol on January 6.
When Trump called for the termination of the Constitution, it further established his firm belief that the rules of our democracy do not apply to him. He continues to reveal himself to be a dangerous person with no ground rules or guard rails.
And, in the Senate, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been indicted for what appears to be one of the biggest influence-money scandals in Senate history.
The gold bars found in his home added a quaint touch to what is charged as a major effort by foreign interests to buy government influence and favors from Menendez with gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of the cash literally sewn into his clothes.
Sen. Menendez’s trial will go forward, but the Senate has its own responsibility to address this alleged corruption and to reach a conclusion about whether he should be expelled if he does not resign.
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Congress is a dysfunctional institution, with the irresponsible Freedom Caucus leading the way in tying-up Congress in knots. Trump faces a perilous trip as he faces 91 criminal charges in his four indictments. Menendez also faces peril both in his trial and in the Senate, where more than half of Senate Democrats are calling on him to resign.
The Grateful Dead summed up our current circumstances pretty well: What a long, strange trip it’s been.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
