Over the Brink

It has been four and a half years since I’ve posted any writings to this website.

That’s not entirely unexpected. A line at the top of each page says, “WARNING! This WordPress site is being used by Peter to test how to use this system. It is a jumble of stuff at the moment.” I had not intended Peter.RevSawtell.org to be a place where I published extensive commentaries.

But still … four and a half years?

My previous commentary (the other two posts about learning WordPress really don’t count) was sent out in the closing days of the first Trump administration, halfway between the insurrection at the US Capitol and the Biden inauguration. I wondered how we, as a nation, could heal from the hurt that we’d just experienced. Not heal emotionally, but heal politically. I played with the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the clear offenses against the body politic. The goal of such a commission would not be to punish wrong-doers, but to reverse the offenses, and to keep them from continuing.

We’re now six months into the Trump II regime. (I refuse to call it an administration.) An armed insurrection in the halls of Congress, which was frightening, but relatively disorganized, now seems somewhat benign. This regime came into power with a well-developed handbook for how to destroy democracy – Project 2025. During his campaign, Trump disavowed any knowledge of the document, of course. But as he entered office, his executive orders often were clear statements of the Project 2025 agenda. Many of his high-level appointments were authors of the document.

There was a while, in the opening months of the regime, when commentators spoke of “being on the brink of a constitutional crisis.” I don’t hear that language anymore, not because we’ve backed off from the brink, but because we’ve gone over the edge.

In prior years, the brink of a constitutional crisis was an occasion for broad political and judicial alarm. The perpetrators were warned by their peers and by respected authorities. We pulled back (as when Nixon resigned), we sighed with relief, and we tried to set up some guardrails to keep it from happening again.

But this time, the commentators spoke of being on the brink, and Trump just kept violating all the norms. He defied all the courts, including the Supreme Court, and stopped just shy of blatantly ignoring clear judicial orders. Trump & Co. have repeatedly and consistently exceeded their legitimate powers. They have violated due process in the detaining and deporting of non-citizens. They have threatened to deport citizens, and to strip them of citizenship – actions for which there is no constitutional provision or authorization. The list of offenses goes on and on.

We have crossed the brink, and we are in a constitutional crisis. And the Republicans in the House and Senate are enthusiastically complicit in what is going on. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court, time after time, has given Trump a green light to continue with these perversions. In practice, the US Constitution is being shredded, but is it a “crisis” when the other branches of government refuse to treat it as such?

This afternoon, I heard part of an interview of Stacey Abrams on Public Radio (which may be about to loose federal funding for daring to tell the truth). Ms. Abrams spoke of a document which outlines “Ten Steps to Autocracy.” It was a frightening list, because virtually all of the steps are being accomplished, in dramatic ways, right now.

The Trump Regime is enacting a carefully plotted and very intentional assault on democracy and the rule of law in the United States. In the face of that assault, it is encouraging to see many examples of well-organized resistance and protest. Many courts (shy of the Supreme Court) are doing their best to block the clearly unconstitutional acts. Harvard is fighting back, and so are many states. People are taking to the streets, and they’re calling on their senators and representatives to stand up to the autocrats.

But the assault goes on. The constitutional crisis is now the “new normal.”

I am angry. I am afraid. And I confess that I don’t know what to do as this illegitimate regime continues to destroy our democracy.

What about you?

Peter