Why I’m Tired Of Hearing The Words ‘Constitutional Crisis'
Meanwhile, back in Gangland USA
Donald Trump’s personal kaiju Elon Musk is stomping his way through the federal government like some Nazi Godzilla, and Democrats warn that his lawless actions are nothing less than a “constitutional crisis.”
Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz, “I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate. The president is attempting to seize control of power, and for corrupt purposes ... he’s trying to crush his opposition ... this is a red alert moment ... our democracy is at risk.”
It’s weird that Murphy would mention Watergate, considering that Richard Nixon eventually resigned because Republicans were actually willing to remove him from office. Trump and Musk are acting above the law because Republicans are lifting them up like they’ve just won the Super Bowl.
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki asked Sen. Cory Booker what happens if Musk told the judiciary to pound sand and ignored any court orders (she put it more delicately).
“Well, then we really do have a constitutional crisis,” Booker said.
Vice President J.D. Vance, working hard to avoid a makeshift gallows, declared in a lie-filled social media post that it was “illegal” for a “judge to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Journalist Jordan Weissmann responded on Musk’s own propaganda site, “We appear to be speed running toward a constitutional crisis.”
Enough already. Despite the jump scare camera work whenever a Democrat or political pundit says “constitutional crisis,” it’s time we all agree that the term is meaningless.
The party that cried ‘constitutional crisis’
Trump’s previous professional blonde liar Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News that “constitutional crisis” was the Democrats’ “new buzz word.” However, it’s not that new.
Back in July 2017, Democrats worried that Donald Trump might can Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the Senate recess and replace him with someone who’d fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller and end the Russia investigation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, “I cannot imagine my friends on the Republican side, and particularly in the Republican leadership … would be complicit in creating a constitutional crisis. They must work with us and not open the door to a constitutional crisis during the August recess.”
You’ll observe that he said “constitutional crisis” twice so you knew it was serious.
The next year, when Trump finally torched that living Confederate monument, Nancy Pelosi told Chris Cuomo, then still employed at CNN, “This is a perilously constitutional moment; I don’t say it’s a constitutional crisis quite yet, but it’s a perilous time.”
When Democrats assumed control of the House in 2019, Trump consistently ignored their attempts at oversight. That May, Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, “The phrase ‘constitutional crisis’ has been overused, but … certainly it’s a constitutional crisis.” Pelosi agreed and declared that the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with subpoenas put the nation in a “constitutional crisis.” I think most Americans were seeing Avengers: Endgame at the time, but do you remember where you were during the great Constitutional Crisis of May 2019?
In September 2020, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, objecting to Amy Coney Barrett’s drive-through Supreme Court confirmation, said, “We’re about to enter a constitutional crisis by treacherously rushing” to confirm Barrett, which nonetheless happened and Democrats continued treating Republicans like good-faith actors.
In a 2017 CNN interview, Jennifer Chacón, a professor at the University of California Irvine School of Law, defined a “constitutional crisis” as “a situation where there was a genuine concern that one branch of the government was not acting constitutionally, and no checks seem to be operating on that branch.” So, yes, we are officially in a “constitutional crisis” and, no, it still doesn’t mean anything. A big hint is the CNN article’s headline: “What’s a constitutional crisis — and are we in one?” CNN would run a sequel piece in 2019: “How to know when it’s a constitutional crisis?” It’s like a Cosmo quiz.
The average person considers homelessness a “crisis” because it often directly impacts their daily life, especially if they drive past encampments during their morning commute or walk past tents in their cities. The border “crisis” seems real to voters because Republicans scaremonger about illegal immigrants taxing local resources.
Americans thought COVID-related shutdowns were a crisis. They definitely consider inflation a crisis. They find rising egg prices alarming. But it’s seemingly impossible to get them to care whether Trump obeys the Constitution’s Queensberry rules.
‘Why don’t they just arrest him?’
Last week, NPR’s Ailsa Chang asked Jamie Raskin, the current ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, what tools Democrats specifically possessed to stop Musk, a private citizen no one elected.
“Well, it’s longer conversation because a lot of these are going to be civil service lawsuits,” Raskin said, providing a quick recap of Trump and Musk’s Legion of Doom escapades, before adding, “Litigation is a major tool. Public education is a major tool. We are going to try to mobilize a mass movement in the country to force them to back off of these attacks on the Constitution and the rule of law.”
That doesn’t sound like Trump and Musk are actively breaking the law. You’d need to plan an entire Mission: Impossible-style heist to steal razors from a CVS, but Musk’s droogs can just strip the federal government for parts while we wait for litigation. The razor crisis is seemingly a bigger deal than a “constitutional crisis.”
If I showed up at your house and started rummaging through your personal items, you’d call the cops and have me arrested — or just shoot me if you lived in a “red” state. You wouldn’t file civil suits or “try to mobilize a mass movement” that might convince me to stop robbing you.
The current crisis is wholly political. Trump can openly defy the law because the Republican party operates like his button men. If President Kamala Harris flipped off court orders and handed MacKenzie Scott the keys to the federal government, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman would be the first to call for her resignation. It’s the same Constitution.
The separation of powers still exists. It’s just that Republicans see themselves as a single power that advances MAGA’s interests. There’s nothing stopping Republicans from helping Democrats end the Trump/Musk administration other than their own corruption.
Yet Gerry Connolly, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, was apparently shocked and disappointed that Republicans refused to subject Musk to any actual oversight. “My motion to subpoena him, I thought, would have some broader support on the Republican side,” Connolly said. “It had none.”
Many Democrats want to believe that their GOP colleagues aren’t just craven opportunists who are more concerned about a primary challenge than preventing a nationwide polio sequel. On The Brian Lehrer Show, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand claimed that Democrats couldn’t get a fourth vote to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation because “the Trump MAGA machine is powerful. They are aggressive. They are nasty. They issue death threats. They threaten people. They threaten them with retaliation.”
I’ve watched enough Law & Order and married enough lawyers (well, just the one) to know that the type of coercion Gillibrand describes is illegal. Maybe Gillibrand should wear a wire and get these supposed “good” Republicans’ confessions on the record. She could chat up Lisa Murkowski, who just announced that she’s voting to confirm Russian nesting asset Tulsi Gabbard as the nation’s intelligence director — this nation’s.
The Constitution isn’t in “crisis,” and America is still a democracy. Unfortunately, a near majority of Americans elected a mobster, and based on Trump’s current approval ratings, they’re enjoying the show.
We’re past the crisis stage and now. In our early Nazi takeover stage. Republicans are nothing more than Nazi Reichstag deputies—legislators in name only. Courts will be defied because no one can enforce their rulings.
We blew it, America. We can point to many actions and inactions of the past decade that got us here, but here we are now. The only question is whether people take to the streets in mass demonstrations and (hopefully nonviolent but who knows) resistance, or are we too cowed by it.
I haven’t been this pessimistic about our country in my lifetime.
Constitutional crisis is language that appeals to an educated elite that surrounds themselves with the news and palace intrigue. Once again, the gap between those in the beltway and those outside of it is on display. People see the federal government as a reality show because they have already lost faith in its ability to help them thanks to years of malpractice and right wing messaging demonizing the entire federal apparatus, not just excessive parts. It may suggest decadence but it also is another indicator of inequality and division.