Just a bit of Constitutional Crisis

I am not amazed that we have descended into a Constitutional Crisis. I am surprised that it has come to this, but not amazed.

For those of you unaware of what is happening and how unprecedented it is, let me explain. The US Constitution (for my British friends a “Constitution” is a legal document that defines how a government legally has to function:” I would normally (and snarkily) suggest you get one, but I am in no position to throw stones at this point) our Constitution defines 3 branches of government, Legislative, Judiciary and Executive. Each of these has a “check and balance” on the other.

The check that the Constitution requires of Congress over the executive is oversight. That is, the House and Senate are expected to check that the Executive (the Presidency) doesn’t overstep it’s power, doesn’t rule by fiat and doesn’t break the law.

Now, Congress has requested documents and testimony from the Executive Branch - but the President has issued a blanket rule to disallow any cooperation including responding to requests or subpoenas from the House of Representatives. This has never happened in our history!

Congress has very few options:
1. They can give up and not fulfill their Constitutional duty to oversee the Executive (this is what happened under the Republicans with Trump from 2016 - 2018).
2. They can ask the Department of Justice to prosecute those that ignore the subpoenas - but the Executive Branch who controls the Department of Justice has told Congress to fuck off.
3. They can peruse this via the courts, but it is a long drawn out process that will not produce results until well after our next election. Donald Trump, both before and after his election, is known to use the drawn out process to stall.
4. They can super-charge the subpoenas by Going into Impeachment Investigations - but that looks horrible politically.

Speaking of fucked up precedents, this administration has just determined that the entire Muller Report is NOW under executive privilege. That is, no one can see it because it contains personal information that the President wants to keep secret. This is fucked up for 3 reasons.

First, the report was requested as an investigation of the President and his election team, well before he was president. And it is a valid investigation. If Clinton did this on the Ken Star report imagine the  outrage.

Second, we know it is illegal. President already tried this with Watergate. It is illegal.

Third, the Muller Report was released! You can buy it in a book-store. The President cooperated with the investigation - but didn’t like the outcome. To retroactively call it protected under Executive Privilege is asinine and makes everyone who bought the book a US Felon.

Trump has fucking broke our government and the asshole Republicans have let him.