It’s the end of the Constitutional concept of separation of powers for sure. To deny congress the power of oversight is to act in complete contravention of the Constitution’s core principles.
Democracy will probably continue to exist in one form or another, and for white Americans who have job security, things might seem almost…“normal.” It’s just that people will be suspicious of election results and doubt the legitimacy of the government, which isn’t a problem for a party that seeks power for the sake of having it, but more problematic for political parties that seek legitimacy and consent to govern.
According to the recent Wolff book (which he discusses on YouTube), Kellyanne agrees with her husband about Trump!! Supposedly this is well known to friends of the couple.
(If true, how do we explain her continued employment? She’s a mole, trying to track or reduce the damage?)
This is pretty much what my concern has been with impeachment, and why I think Pelosi’s approach is the right one. The politics and the agenda are what matter more than impeaching Trump. Absent of any evidence showing widespread support for impeachment, it’s really up to voters to impeach Trump now. Democrats have to make the case that their ideas are better for ordinary people, and that they are better at actually governing the country than Republicans. Jumping right into impeachment blows it all up.
Even if Chump cannot be successfully impeached, highlighting his unethical and criminal activity could spur a heavier Democratic turnout in 2020. I just hope the Dem candidates don’t waste all their time shouting what everyone already knows, that Chump is bad.
Here’s an official Fox News source for the polls. Instead of using a headline along the lines of “More Americans believe Trump should be impeached than believe he shouldn’t be” or “Half of Americans think Trump should be impeached”, Fox have highlighted a different poll question, “Voters doubt impeachment will happen”, which is not a very meaningful or significant poll question, since it’s dependent on the whim of one person - Pelosi - who could change her mind at any time.
If the polls are accurate and reflect a shift, then I think this is proof that Pelosi’s slow-cook impeachment approach is actually working. Everyone knows that the threat of impeachment is on the table. And one by one, committees are conducting their work methodically. They’re calling witnesses, they’re getting subpoenas for evidence, and they’re threatening contempt when they don’t comply. And when they still don’t comply, they sue in court. It takes energy to defend against the relentless onslaught of the oversight and judicial process. It takes energy that, I think, team Trump will eventually start to run out of, if Democrats can play this the right way.
But the real reason is because Trump is screwing up and Pelosi is not going to let House Democrats take the blame for derailing Trump’s agenda just because they’re out for revenge. Impeachment is still very much an option, but she’s going to wait until it’s clear that the voters have started to abandon him FIRST. She wants to give voters more time to watch Trump fuck up with what he says and what he does. She wants voters to see more unhinged threats of trade wars with Mexico - all the better knowing that Republicans in the Senate and the US Chamber of Commerce will be the one to slap his ass back down. She wants voters to watch more absolutely unhinged, off-the-chain interviews in which he actually admits on a live mic that he’s fine with foreign interference…it kinda proves what Mueller and the 18 Angry Democrats have been saying, right?
No offense to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who is obviously a brilliant woman and future star in Democratic politics, but Nancy Pelosi knows that this isn’t some boycott; this is a political war. War is complex. War requires all the calculation and strategy of a military general. I won’t say that Pelosi won’t occasionally miscalculate, but I think she knows what she’s doing and she knows how to defeat Trump.
This is how you build the case for impeaching Trump. You don’t build that case by barging in and boasting that we’re going to impeach the motherfucker; you approach it relentlessly, methodically, strategically. This is war. Only a fool rushes into battle. Study the opponent. Find the weakness. Find his enemies. Set up a battle plan. Wait until the enemy’s energy is low. Wait until he’s least prepared for the attack. And then, attack with fire and fury.
To use a boxing analogy, what Pelosi and her allies are doing is going to the body. It looks like they’re not landing punches, but they’re working the body in rounds 1 through 8; the uppercuts and knockout punches will come later.
Wasn’t it just a couple of weeks ago that he was talking trash about how Nancy is losing her mind or is a drunk?..
Yeah, Trump doesn’t have a long strategy or a healthy fear/respect for Nancy. He simply says whatever comes to whatever is left of his diminished mental faculties.
It’s brilliant the way that she has handled him. She knows that Trump’s true power is in his ability to connect with people - even if they’re not all necessarily nice people, she knows that he can put on a show and amuse a crowd. She also knows that he doesn’t always understand the consequences of his decisions and that he’s rash and impulsive. There’s nothing amusing or entertaining about telling 800,000 people they’re not going to get a paycheck for a month. It was brilliant how she let him have and own his very own government shutdown. He kept looking for a face-saving way out and she didn’t give it to him, which also earned her some street cred with the party’s hardcore leftists who didn’t want her to give in on wall funding - she didn’t. That’s why when I hear freshmen representatives like AOC and Talib publicly air their frustrations with her I wanna just tell them to shut the hell up. They just got there and she’s been doing this since they were in daycare.
Pretty much this. ^ He doesn’t know how to fight her - like at all. He was lashing out at her because he was humiliated. The sting of the comments has worn off, I guess.