Politics
Biden and The Supreme Court Ignite Political Fireworks
What do we do now that the smoke is clearing and the stench is in the air?
It’s hard to imagine a sadder irony. 4th of July week in the U.S. The day Steve Bannon, the festering carbuncle on humanity infamous for his battle cries urging supporters to burn America down finally enters jail for defying a subpoena. On that day and in that week, the corrupt and complicit United States Supreme Court actually releases a ruling on presidential immunity that gives the wanna-be dictator Donald Trump, the match, the gasoline, and the freedom to fulfill Bannon’s wishes.
Fireworks.
Coming hot on the heels of a disastrous debate between an obviously faltering Joe Biden and the insanely dangerous convicted felon Donald Trump, this was a thunderous boom that actually hurt more than the ears. It crushed souls. The hopeful collectively felt hope catch in their throats. We got what we expected of Trump and what we feared from Biden. And just days before millions shoot off their own fireworks, annually breaking local laws celebrating Independence Day, this Supreme Court fired off its shot heard round the world as loudly as the ones at Lexington and Concord.
Boom.
America, as the world has known it, is a different thing now.
Heads of hair are bursting into flames, knees are jerking, and the election cycle is spinning into uncertain pinwheels that not only call the political laws of gravity into question, but perhaps physics itself. Politicians, media muckrakers, historians, and plenty of average Joes and Janes have weighed in, and regardless of what’s said and what’s not said you can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the fear, the anxiety, and the blood in the water as bitter as the cordite soon to be in the air.
It’s real.
Official vs Personal
You can debate the legal periods and commas in the Supreme Court decision, seek comfort in scathing dissents, and litigate the difference between official and personal acts, but for all practical intents and purposes we now elect kings and queens and not presidents. That’s now academic. It’s now winner take all, including immunity for official acts, somewhat subject to litigation that most likely won’t survive any legal challenge. Declare any personal act an official act, and tell the lawyers to stand back and stand by.
Going forward, the person assuming the office of the presidency is only as subject to the law they wish to subject themself to. As for the rest of us…well, we’re only subjects.
In a way, the Supreme Court has created a Presidency with more power than many monarchs have known before and since the time of this country’s revolutionary founding. A few of those monarchs have lost their heads for committing “official acts.” It is a good thing that the modern world has lost its taste for guillotines, but there’s that nagging Seal Team Six example hanging around out there.
We refer often to the brilliance of our system of constitutional government designed with checks and balances. We complain and regret just as often how the founders couldn’t see everything coming, and about the mistakes and compromises they made when trying to legislate against the follies of base human instinct. While the system as designed does offer protections, those guardrails depend on the good will and honor of good men and women who hold the offices the system created. The hard lesson we’ve learned is that the only honor it takes to succeed is the honor among thieves and criminals using the gaping loopholes in the system to prey on those who believe in those once exalted principles.
Tell me who are the suckers and losers now?
Voting as the Cure
The current rallying cry that this now all depends on the voters has been circulating for quite a while. Largely that’s true. Set aside how one might feel about the capacity of the American electorate and any hope placed therein. Look instead at the circumstances that have led to this legal and constitutional moment we now have to live with.
We arrived here because Donald Trump lost and election and then fought the then existing system to remain in office to protect his own over-made up skin. He lost that battle. Narrowly, legally and politically. But not without sewing the minefield for his next offensive. We know, because he’s told us, he will again contest any election he doesn’t win.
The glimmer of good news is that Trump and his 2025 cohort will not have the trappings of office and the newly enshrined “official versus personnel conduct” cloak of invulnerability to protect him should he choose to fight a losing result. I don’t think anyone doubts there will be chaos to come again should that happen. Feeding this apprehension and sense of desperation is a growing discomfort that the majority of the American public would not feel safe letting legal challenges make their way to this Supreme Court this time around.
But wait, there’s already a constitutional solution! Look again. That’s the minefield previously plowed.
Minefield Math
Given constitutional not Electoral College math, it would take a more than heroic effort from voters to change the number of Red State representation in the House Of Representatives, regardless of who wins the majority of House seats.
Currently, and what most predict will hold, the Republicans control 26 state delegations in the House and the Democrats 22. Two states, (North Carolina and Minnesota), are evenly split. As things currently stand the Democrats would not only need to win a majority of House seats, but enough to control the total number of state delegations in at least five states.
A tied election, would result in the election being thrown into the House. One vote for each state. Currently that would favor Trump. If it’s a tie (25–25) voting has to continue until a tie is broken (not likely) or failing that, the Vice President assumes office at noon on January 20, 2025 until Congress resolves the issue.
Oh, and across the capitol we all saw desecrated on January 6th, the Vice President would have been chosen by a Senate where each Senator receives one vote. So, a 51–49 majority would be determinative. Should any of that happen, there is no way, regardless of the chaos, this Supreme Court would rule to overturn those results because they are…well, you know…the law as enshrined in the Constitution. Convenient.
So, yes. It very much depends on the voters. Not just those who pull the lever for Biden or Trump in the right battleground states. But those who must become engaged enough in local and state elections across the country to change the balance of power in state representation in the House.
If you think it’s a hard pull up a long hill to win House enough seats to control the Speaker’s gavel and a Senate majority, there’s a steeper hill waiting for you just beyond, if and when you get to the top.
The Stakes
If you need an explainer as to why this is crucial you should probably stop reading. The Project 2025 agenda lays it all out, but set that aside for the moment. Let’s scale it down to something perhaps more personal.
Let’s say your niece or nephew, posting on some social media website says something negative about a newly elected Donald Trump and it goes viral. Let’s further say that some loyal Trump goon, looking to suck up to the boss, comes across it and decides to make an example of this disloyal and displeasing behavior. Trump, famous for going off on whatever the last ass-kissing mouth whispers in his ear, picks up the phone, calls the Attorney General and demands an investigation.
According to the Supreme Court, any attempts at defending your niece or nephew against such and investigation could now be legally brushed off, under the cover of it being an “official act,” with none of the communications surrounding the investigation and its instigation being available as evidence in their defense.
That might sound extreme. It probably is. Now picture instead of your niece or nephew a journalist, a CEO, or your local pastor. In light of the extreme immaturity and insecurity of Donald Trump, his promises of retribution, and the abject cruelty of some of his followers, nothing like this would surprise me.
So what are we to do? Write angry blog posts on Medium? Vote and encourage others to do so? Engage in subterfuge and civil disobedience to defeat the forces of evil?
Certainly vote. The others I’m not so sure will help, but they might. My hesitancy is that sadly any next steps beyond being loud and voting aren’t really up to us, considering the state of the presidential race after Biden’s faltering debate performance and this Supreme Court decision.
Perhaps Biden should step down from running or resign. I honestly don’t know. There are as many complications in him doing so as there are trepidations of him staying in the race. It’s not often we’re faced with such uncertainty. As for the Supreme Court? There’s not a damn thing we can do.
Fantasies
Given these history and confidence shaking events of the last week I can imagine a fantasy, wherein Biden would somehow summon the rest of the Democratic superstars so many are suggesting replace him to stand beside him in an “Avengers Assemble” sort of moment.
Shoulder to shoulder they would assemble on a stage while he repeats his lines about not being as young, not as good a debater, more hesitant in walking, but knowing how to tell the truth. And then he turns to those beside him and says “They do too, and when you vote for me, you vote for all of us. Nationally, state-wide and locally. That’s what it’s going to take. To take our country back we need you to come with us.”
And then they’d break into a chorus of “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
More urgently, more to the point, it’s time to cast sentiments aside. America is a different thing now. Brutality has won this moment and, I hate to say it, probably needs to met in kind. I’d rather fantasize about Biden with those same Democrats standing shoulder to shoulder, actually using some of those new-found powers the Supreme Court bestowed him with and take it to the opposition to “take it back.”
Declare an emergency. Declare “this will not stand.”
It’s not going to change the minds of the base supporting him or the ones worshipping Trump. So that math doesn’t matter. If it does change the minds of those mysteriously still undecided voters out there and we lose it all? Well, given where we are and everything that’s at stake, I’d rather take my chances fighting the good fight fiercely, than limping into battle hoping.
Use it or risk losing everything.
If you like what you read here you can follow my other writings on Ellemeno and in general on Medium, as well as on my own blog Life On The Wicked Stage: Act 3. You can also find me on most of the socials under my name as above.
