The Political Climate in the US reaches New Heights of Toxicity

By The Graze of Gawd

By Anil Madan

On July 1, 2024, three days before America would celebrate the 248th anniversary of its creation as a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, we heard from the Supreme Court that all men are not created equal after all. A President or former President is more equal than any other American.

Supreme Court opinions are preceded by a Syllabus, a summary of the court’s quintessential rulings, prepared by the publisher (known as the Reporter) of the court’s decisions. The decision in the case styled Trump v. United States (the original case was filed as United States v. Trump, but after the appellate court rejected Trump’s claim of immunity, he petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his appeal, and since he was the petitioner, his name went first. In a strange way, this creates the misleading impression that Trump brought the challenge in the first place. Anyhow, the first paragraph of the Syllabus stating the core holding was straightforward:

Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.

This conceals a major sleight of hand by the Supreme Court. The President’s authority stems either from the language of the Constitution, or from Congress when it enacts legislation authorizing the President to act. In the former case, the President’s authority is conclusive and preclusive, ergo this means that Congress cannot criminalize any aspect of presidential authority, and the courts cannot examine it. This grants him Total Immunity.

So far, that does not seem extraordinary. The President does have certain core powers under the Constitution, and when he exercises his discretion, the consequences should be something that we accept. But the Supreme Court could have ruled that in exercising those powers, the President is not authorized to violate criminal law. Indeed, the Constitution states that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The word “shall” is understood, in legal construction, to be a command. It would be extraordinary if the Founding Fathers and drafters of the Constitution intended to convey the notion that the President’s duty in this regard implicitly includes a personal executive right to violate those same laws. The illogic is palpable.

The sleight of hand came regarding the suggestion that the President may not have immunity from prosecution for official acts that are not part of the core authority vested in him. But, at first, the Supreme Court stated, there is a presumption of immunity, and the burden is on the government to rebut that presumption. In short, it must be shown that the prosecution does not pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch. The problem is that the Constitution states: “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States.” Therefore, it can be argued that no matter what the President does, he is exercising that executive authority. Since the executive authority that is vested in the President is exclusive and preclusive, there is absolute immunity. The exception for some “official” acts is a mirage.

The Supreme Court could have ruled that the Constitution does not authorize the President to commit criminal acts in the discharge of his duties and that no indictment may be filed without presentment to and review by a federal judge, subject to appellate rights, showing good cause to believe that a crime was committed. The court did not choose this sensible course.

The irony is that President Biden now enjoys immunity and can do whatever he wishes. He has stated that he will not abuse that authority. But what if Trump wins re-election?

In the wake of this stunning development, approaching that Independence Day anniversary, Americans stewed literally, as temperatures rose to record heights across the nation, and figuratively, over the notion that we had been changed from a Democracy with a President answerable to the people, and to the Law.

*  *  *

A dead man walking

Then came the first “debate” between Biden and Trump. It was not a debate, not by either man. Biden did a fair impression of a man who had just undergone a lobotomy. He managed to squeak out a couple of ripostes about Trump lying and having the morals of an alley cat. Biden seemed to miss what has been obvious for a long time: this nation lost its moral compass when its true North Star swung from money to political power and back. We may well favour the antics of alley cats over the stumbling of the lobotomy section.

Trump, of course, lied his way through the debate. So, what else is new? It has been reported that he told 28 or 38 lies. Trump has for long lied to himself and to America. A people feeling abandoned by their government finds solace in lies and false promises. This is how fascism begins. This is how fascism sets in.

The disturbing and sad aspect of all this was that the two CNN talking heads (I refrain from calling them journalists) who anchor TV shows, couldn’t bring themselves to call Trump out for his lies. Those who speak and believe their own lies the loudest, trump the feckless. So it was, that night.

Biden’s debate performance was so disturbing that calls for him to step down came from his friends within his own party. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi effectively threw him under the bus when, instead of a full-throated endorsement, she stated that Biden has to make the decision whether to stay in the race. Whereas that is stating the obvious, even after Biden had vociferously denied that he is going to step down, she stated: “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short.”

To me, the message being telegraphed is unmistakable. She wouldn’t be concerned that time is running short if she were encouraging him to stay the course. Some news reports suggest that Pelosi is privately urging other Democrats to pressure Biden because she does not believe he can win. The latest news is the Congressman Adam Schiff has now called on Biden to step down.

Biden himself, was adamant. He is not quitting. He allowed as he is the best person to run the country and beat Donald Trump. Some have suggested that Biden prides himself for fighting off those who bullied him as an eleven-year-old who had a stutter. Now, he feels that he is being bullied again and he won’t stand for it.

The result is that as he reprises his 11-year-old self, he is locked in a battle with a 4-year-old.

The despair of many Democrats at Biden’s intransigence in the face of their calls for him to set aside is matched only by the glee of the Trumpers who want to see Biden stay in the race, because they now treat him like a dead man walking.

*  *  *

Another ugly day for America

As if that were not enough drama, last Saturday was another of those ugly days for America. A bullet from a would-be assassin’s rifle missed Donald Trump’s temple and grazed his ear. The shooter apparently discarding his ballot in favour of a bullet, missed Trump but struck and killed another American and seriously wounded at least two others. The shooter was taken down by a Secret Service sniper.

Trump was quick to invoke the Divinity as his savior. So were fellow Republicans who arrived in Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention at which Trump will be anointed and declared the party’s nominee for the presidential election.

But it would be a mistake to think that God had anything to do with this. There is no verifying the claim some make that God whispered in his ear: “Donald Duck!!” just in time and this was the graze of Gawd.

An almost instant caravan, a stream of pastors and politicians, flocking to the asylum, started to thank God for saving Trump. Senator Marco Rubio, whom Trump once derided as “Little Marco” chimed in: “God protected President Trump.” Franklin Graham echoed that sentiment. No surprise there. After all, it’s another opportunity to raise money from those feeling abandoned by their God and finding solace in salving their consciences by donating money for a different kind of false promise.

The political overtones followed. Ronald Jeffress, a pastor who has shown almost as much dedication to Trump as to God, posited: “I believe God spared Donald Trump’s life for a purpose … for the purpose of calling our nation back to its Judeo-Christian foundation.”

Did God really save Trump? Was this a case of being saved by the grace of God, or is it more appropriate to say “Gawd, Trump is lucky that the bullet just grazed him?” By the graze of gawd, for Chrissake.

A piece by Shaine Claiborne writing in Religious News Service caught my eye. “Theology — the attempt by our finite minds to try to make sense of a God who is infinitely bigger than our imaginations — can be tricky. But in this case it’s not that hard to see that there is something wrong with a theology that says God intervened to save Donald Trump, which implies in an awful way that God redirected the bullet into the person who was killed at his rally, or the two people who were grievously injured.

“If our theology lands us with a version of God that hates all the same people we hate, excludes all the same people we exclude, kills all the people we want killed and saves all the people we want saved, there is something wrong with our theology. That kind of thinking recalls the old saying, ‘God created us in his image, and we decided to return the favor.’

“Any theology that puts God, rather than sinful human beings, behind a gun or a bomb is bad theology.”

Claiborne has put his finger on a problem he did not describe fully. American politics has become about hate and hatred. We view our common problems, and Gawd we have enough of them, not as American problems looking for solutions, but as occasions to accuse our opponents as being the cause of our ills. In the process, although we likely would agree on the desired outcome if we were to address the problem, we lose sight of the solution.

*  *  *

Each came to praise Caesar

Against this backdrop, Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Vance is a very smart guy, a graduate of Yale Law School. But what is it about these Yale Law School chaps? Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, all Supreme Court justices graduated from Yale. And Sonia Sotomayor too, but let’s lie to ourselves a bit and let that one lie.

Back in 2016, Vance said to a television interviewer: “I’m a Never Trump guy, I never liked him.”

That same year, he told NPR: “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” He also wrote an op-ed for The New York Times titled: “MrTrump Is Unfit For Our Nation’s Highest Office.”

Later, after Trump supported Vance’s bid for the Senate, Vance said: “I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,” he said. “He was a great president. And it’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.”

Vance also wrote to one of his college roommates that Trump is an American Hitler.

It’s not just Trump. At the Republican convention, a procession of politicos showed up and praised Trump. These included people he had derided, Senator Ted Cruz, Rubio mentioned above, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, to name a few. Each of them in the past has expressed the view at some level that Trump is unfit to be President of the United States.

Yet, each came to praise Caesar, not to bury him. The evil that Trump has done and promises to do, is interred with the bones of the nation.

The pressure on Biden to quit the race reportedly continues. His stubbornness continues. Is Biden lying to himself? Perhaps.

But perhaps not. The polls are going every which way. By some measures, Trump is on to a runaway victory. Here’s one report on July 17 going the other way: “FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, which was originally published on July 8 and updated on July 16, shows Joe Biden with a 53 percent chance of winning the election, while Trump has a 46 percent chance.

“According to the tracker, Biden is favored to win in 534 out of 1,000 of FiveThirtyEight’s simulations of how the election could go, while Trump wins in 462. The poll also shows that the simulations indicate that Biden is on track for a three-point win.”

Go figure.

The remarkable thing about the Republican Convention is that the speakers are lying to their fellow Republicans and to anyone watching on TV. At some point, when Americans witness the dissonance between these speakers’ previous condemnations of Trump and their seeming new-found love, will that spark a wave of cognitive dissonance. A nation that lies to itself is no longer a great nation.

Does invoking God help? Our most recent analogue is Indian Prime Minister Modi. Before the recent national election, Modi reportedly said: “Until my mother was alive, I had believed that perhaps my birth was a biological one. But after her death, when I look at my life experiences, I’m convinced that God has sent me here.” Well, the results of the Indian election didn’t quite pan out for Modi. Maybe he saw a cow graze and mistook it for the graze of Gawd.

November 5, 2024, will be the 399th anniversary of the day that Guy Fawkes a/k/a Guido Fawkes was arrested. After his father died, Guido converted to Catholicism and as converts are wont to be, was a rabid one. His plan was to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. That day, a plot to blow up Parliament was thwarted. The name Guy Fawkes lives in infamy.

We have seen Trump try to overturn the result of the 2020 election by hook or by crook, mostly by crook. His agenda includes the implementation of the right-wing screed known as Project 2025. From denying women their rights, to decimating the federal civil service, to destroying clean air and clean water laws and strides made against pollution, to destroying our relationship with Europe and NATO, to ceding Ukraine to Putin and allowing the tyranny of the Russian genocide of Ukraine’s people to succeed, this comes on the heels of Trump’s own Guy Fawkes moment when he tried to get a mob of MAGA Maggots to invade the American equivalent of Parliament on January 6, 2021. The rabid converts did their part, injuring hundreds, destroying property, but in the end failed.

Trump has now disclaimed any intention to come to the defense of Taiwan if China invades. “Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” he explained. “It’s 68 miles away from China.” As he rambled on, he said: “Taiwan took our chip business from us. I mean, how stupid are we? They took all of our chip business. They’re immensely wealthy … I don’t think we’re any different from an insurance policy. Why? Why are we doing this?”

It has never occurred to Trump that the insurance policy here is one to protect America as much as Taiwan, as is the NATO “insurance policy.”

Trump remains a rabid convert to MAGA theology. He has found a willing Deacon of the Church of MAGA in J.D. Vance who sees in the former American Hitler he called out, a modern-day savior.

Let us hope that on November 5th America dodges a bullet. America cannot afford a Guido Trump day. Let us hope that America is not even grazed by that bullet on November 5, 2024, but that America finds grace. The future of America depends on it. The future of Europe and the future of civilization may depend on it.

Gawd give us graze.

Cheerz…
Bwana

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 19 July 2024