Sunday, April 30, 2017

The Man Who Would Be King Has Needs

Kevin Necessary
Has it been only 100 days? Why, seems like only yesterday that we had a president who exhibited dignity and grace. Now we have some kind of weird hybrid with bad impulse control, poor judgment, and the emotional stability of a rich, spoiled brat.

Trump wants more power. He's talking about getting it via doing away with the Senate filibuster. There have been times when we've all hated the filibuster, but no one hates it more than Trump-the-Impulsive.

In Trump's interview with Fox News that aired Friday night, it was pretty clear what -- and who -- he's prepared to declare war on to consolidate and expand his own power:
“We don't have a lot of closers in politics, and I understand why: It's a very rough system. It's an archaic system.”
“You look at the rules of the Senate, even the rules of the House — but the rules of the Senate and some of the things you have to go through — it's really a bad thing for the country, in my opinion. They're archaic rules. And maybe at some point we're going to have to take those rules on, because, for the good of the nation, things are going to have to be different.”
“You can't go through a process like this. It's not fair. It forces you to make bad decisions. I mean, you're really forced into doing things that you would normally not do except for these archaic rules.”
Trump is hungry for more power, and the Senate -- the whole Congress, for that matter -- stands in his way. Back in February (you might remember), Trump implied that the judiciary doesn't -- or shouldn't -- have the power to question him as president. He has said that he admires Putin because he's a strong man who brooks no opposition, and he put in the famous call to President Erdogan of Turkey congratulating him for expanding and consolidating his power over the Turkish people. "Atta boy!"

True, many Republican senators are terrified of T Rex. Witness the craven waffling of Sen. Dick Burr who couldn't bring himself to take even preliminary steps to secure information about the Russian interference in our election and the collusion of the Trump campaign in that project. But others may not be so compliant, like McCain and Graham and even Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Trump is putting pressure on the Senate to do away with the filibuster so that a simple Republican majority can give him everything he wants. But there may not actually be anything like "a simple Republican majority" in the Senate currently, not with this imperialistic ego in the White House. Republican senators who value the historic role of that body, and the valuable "cooling down" of hurtful impulses that the filibuster provides, may not be so ready to release the Kraken.

5 comments:

Wolf's Head said...

So Trump wants to have the Senate run according to the Constitution? A simple majority?

I can see how you would be upset.

Jeff said...

JW
Like your "Atta boy" comment. Could have been Ataturk because he's spinning in his grave as a pissant theocrat does away with everything he did in founding modern Turkey.

Oh Suzannah said...

So no checks and balances for you, Wolf's Head? The Constitution was specifically designed to prevent the "tyranny of the majority," but you seem perfectly okay with that. Of course, it's all "situational" for you, since if it was a Democratic president (like, say, Barack Obama) with a Democratic majority in Congress, you'd be defending the filibuster, just like JW would be hating on it.

Wolf's Head said...

The Constitution HAS checks and balances, but they're not perfect, and the fillibuster is not one of them so get over it.

As for "prevent the Tyranny of the majority", well, that seems to be what happened in the last election, wouldn't you agree?

As for "situational" that's a democrat's stance, not mine.

Whatshisname said...

@Wolf's Head:

"Situational", a democratic stance?

No. That's yours.

All I heard the past 8 years was how the absolute worse thing Obama did was sign all those oppressive EO's.

In reaction to Trump's?

Crickets.

You're blind from that moat in your eye, my man.