My title reflects the happy, pre-election talk by all sorts of Democrats, Progressive, liberals—in a word, the Left—and sympathetic media. Two weeks before the midterm elections, they imagine a blue wave which will sweep large numbers of Leftist representatives into the House and a smaller number of Leftist senators into the Senate—enough in both chambers to effect significant changes in the government. Talking heads and think-tank savants have detailed lists of steps to be taken to recover from the damage which Trump and his administration have done to the country and the federal government. The sum of all such lists is exhaustive in its scope: pre-Trump personnel, departments and agencies, relationships with the states and their governments, and relationships with foreign governments. Their aim is nothing less than to restore the federal government to the effective functioning of its public services and to the delivery of the necessary benefits to its constituencies.
One of these steps, perhaps the first one, is accountability. The number of administration personnel, from the heads of agencies and departments down to the many staff who have violated federal laws and court orders is enormous. Trump is likely to pardon many but not all of them. But pardons in large numbers are likely to be challenged, and it is possible that the Supreme Court might rule that presidential pardons extend to individuals but not groups. We shall see. Whatever, many who have violated federal law but been pardoned might have violated state laws and might be liable to states’ legal and judicial processes.
Leftist commentators elaborate their suggestions for accountability with varying degrees of ingenuity and intensity but with little awareness of the difficulties and problems involved. Presidential pardons aside, some suggestions are tinged with vindictiveness, understandable but unsuitable to the restoration which is desired. For instance, Glenn Kirschner routinely speaks passionately about accountability. But, as befits a former government prosecutor, he stresses restraint in legal and judicial procedures to achieve accountability. I agree, but it will be difficult to persuade MAGA Republicans and friendly media that accountability pursued by a reformed, revitalized Department of Justice is not just reverse weaponization.
Moreover, the greater problem is likely to be the reluctance of the public to tolerate, much less support, the necessary steps of accountability to restore government. First, the public will want Congress to address the issues which figured largely in the midterms: inflation and affordability generally; gas and diesel prices, food prices, health care and health care insurance costs, and housing costs and availability, with a nod to data centers and immigration reform, namely, the curtailment of the Department of Homeland Security and its subordinate and out-of-control agencies, ICE and CBP. The Left will be under great pressure to produce results, but whether Congress can develop effective legislation and override likely vetoes is unknowable because Trump is erratic and irascible.
Second, the public is likely to be divided into two camps about any widespread, in-depth, or long-lasting efforts of Congressional accountability. After the stress and tension of the past two years, one camp of many people is likely to want to put the unpleasantness of it all behind them and to move on. They will invoke the example of Ford’s pardon of Nixon—which example some maintain taught would-be dictators that there was no punishment for attempting autocracy. The other camp of many people will want to address one problem important in the midterms which I did not mention above: corruption. They will want to see the corrupt punished and as much ill-gotten money as possible clawed back and properly distributed. It is a close call which side prevails; it might be that the public quarrels about which approach serves the country better.
Still, it does seem hard to imagine that the public and politicians on the Left will not want to punish those who have done so much damage to the country: the people, public institutions, the economy, the rule of law, the Constitution. I cannot imagine that there are many who believe that Pete Hegseth, Pamela Bondi, Todd Blanche, Robert Kennedy, Kristi Noem, Markwayne Mullin, Howard Lutnick, Russell Vought, and Kash Patel should be able to leave the government without punishment for their misconduct in office. (Let us not forget satellite figures Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner. I wonder about Melania Trump’s immigration paperwork.) Likewise, government lawyers who served in violation of legal ethics; state disbarment is the proper penalty. And many others at lower levels. Indeed, it might be necessary as well as desirable to discharge with prejudice any federal employee hired during the Trump administration, especially employees of DHS, ICE, and CPB. Such personnel should receive public notice in the media near their residences and be barred from federal employment and federal contracts.
So far as I know, neither Leftist politicians nor any commentators have talked about holding Republicans in Congress accountable for enabling Trump. But they should, and they should do something about those who supported Trump whether out of conviction or cowardice. Their motives do not matter; their betrayal of the country does. One possibility: the Left might refuse to seat the worst of them—i.e., the members of the Freedom Caucus—on committees.
There is a further concern; the persistent resentment of the losers. The defeat of Dixie in 1865 was almost immediately followed by the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, the reign of Jim Crow laws, and the transformation of the Republican Party from an anti-slavery into a racist political party. It has bided its time and carefully prepared to seize power ever since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Goldwater and Nixon candidacies, and the Gingrich-inspired revolution. The MAGA crowd now imbibes the heady spirits of white Christian nationalism; it will not sober up from the hallucination of another election “stolen” by hordes of illegal immigrants. With millions provided by wealthy oligarchs, it will continue its efforts to neutralize its political enemies and undermine democracy. All the while, the winners will become increasingly smug about their midterm victory. They may remain potent through the 2028 election, for Trump will still be in office (unless succeeded beforehand by his political soulmate J.D. Vance) and energize opposition to him. But thereafter comes the great snooze and a startling awakening to a renewed thrust from fascists to overturn democracy.
After the midterms, many will sing happy days are here again—but for how long?
No comments:
Post a Comment