He's already won.
12
Comments here include those promoting the hackneyed notion that Trump's racist, misogynist, ignorant and insane ideas are also held by millions aka his "base". That would be terrifying, except that it can't be true.
Because Trump can't hold an idea for even a millisecond. Can't form a thought without a lot of gesticulating and frowning, then, having strung four words together, repeats them over and over and over and over and over again. Even though he knows lots of words. Big words.
Oh, for the days when to flip-flop was committing political suicide, read my lips. Trump's flops are certainly more numerous than his flips but it doesn't matter to the rabid donald who just crashes headlong into the next trivial tweet, perceived slight, or digestive eruption while children are traumatized at the border, the economy is shaken with Trump's trade war, North Korea continues to build nukes, etc.
Please don't tell me that Trumps genuinely represents millions of my fellow Americans, easily duped as they may be. Some of them may identify with him, might be overweight, like him, past their sell-by dates, like him, maybe disappointed in their own lives, angry at foreigners and women and minorities for perceived theft of opportunity.
But they aren't crazy or stupid really. Are they?
63
I won't be spending too much time lamenting the retirement of Justice Kennedy. On the court he's been a standard-issue conservative voice. If he occasionally wrote an unexpected opinion, it didn't change the overall arch of his career. His final session demonstrated a fundamental disregard for women's rights, union representation and broad voting rights. It was his good fortune that the conservatives around him on the court were extreme enough to make him appear more sympathetic than he was to the interests of most Americans.
62
This isn't a cosmic joke at all.It's a horrific nightmare that when you wake up is still continuing. And this nightmare will only continue until hopefully the mid-term elections and the 2020 elections, if there's still something left of your once great country!
69
I admire your insights Mr. Bruni but I wish you would stop sounding like it has already happened. Your column points to the importance of Trump not getting his next SCourt nominee before the mid-term elections. But assumes he will.
This time Democats have to be smarter. Already vigorous thinkers and doers like Corey Booker has offered a legislative objection to pushing through the next vote on this onerous possibility, There must be other clever well-meaning minds too among the men and women of the legislature. Let's be innovative and smart. So far there are no foregone conclusions and the will to rebel!! Too much it at stake. The cave-in mentality must be replaced.
52
There's more at stake than Roe V Wade. The Federalist Society is doing the vetting and providing Trump's list of nominees. They also want to destroy social security and medicare. They want to privatize education and the prison system. They want to completely destroy unions and they certainly have no interest in fighting climate change.
Trump has no ethics or inner core and will go whatever way he believes benefits him personally the most.
97
#17 (from 15) in the Economist's Democracy Index, rated as a flawed democracy. In the words of the late, great Leonard Cohen:
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?
And, as the button is printed: Democracy is not a spectator sport.
22
If stories in this newspaper and other credible journals are correct, Justice Kennedy was "encouraged" to resign by none other than DJTrump, specifically so that he could replace him with a conservative judge as insurance when Mueller finishes his investigations.
We need to do more than wring our hands because we are in a very dark place in America. We must mobilize against all of the horrors that Trump has visited upon us and actively encourage political candidates who put country before party.
56
Sometimes the pendulum swings in a cruel direction. We as a people, need to become fully educated on the issues, and greater than 35% need to vote. Eventually the pendulum will swing back, but for now, we got what a real minority of us voted for.
38
All we can depend on is the fact that the pendulum must swing both ways...I sincerely hope.
9
45's power to be absolutely shameless and beloved by his supporters and the numbers of Americans who walked the streets expressing moral outrage at 45's zero-tolerance immigration policy portends an uncertain future for the country. Morning in America shape-shifted to Mourning in America by this administration. The Shining City on the Hill has become the Pit and Pendulum inside a deep dark dungeon. Rather than extolling the virtues that indeed made America Great- democratic institutions and traditions, peace and progress made through alliances, and securing the lives, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans- 45 and company perversely denigrates these virtues. Meanwhile, large numbers of Americans openly support a morality that includes liberty and justice for all, including the oppressed and stranger. Interesting times are ahead for us.
17
Frank at his overwrought best.
Trump is the duly elected President. The Republicans control the House, the Senate, most Governorships, and most state legislatures.
It's all about the elections.
Roe v Wade at worst will be left to the states, and may very well be left intact.
It's a good time for Democrats to analyze why they've done so poorly. Maybe candidates who are not nutters is a good place to start.
18
True. The make-up the Supreme Court will persist decades. The make-up of Congress and who runs the Executive Branch does matter. The alternative form of government to liberal democracy bubbling up from the depths of decay at this moment is fascism dictated by extreme religious moralists, 18th century Ivory Tower constitutional originalists, and white supremacists. Even taken together, all these groups are a minority solidifying the contradiction to constitutional majority rule because it is not favorable to their fear, bigotry, or sense of superiority, all in defiance to foundational liberal democracy - equality for all people. Some past questionable decisions by the Supreme Court, those making absolutely no sense and those purposely and narrowly naive, may be resolved through legislation. The current president and his administration are not lovers of democracy. The president shows no respect for the law, norms. President Trump has dictated inhuman, punitive and likely unconstitutional treatment of others and instead of Congress using its powers of oversight to check his abuse, some have blamed the Deputy Attorney General of tearing this country apart by allowing the Mueller investigation to continue, when it is the Republican Party and this president who are doing the shredding and the former are just doing their jobs. Democracy is worth saving. The alternative is oppression, suppression, revocation of Rights and freedoms.
13
Mr. Bruni cites the dubious circumstances of Trump's narrow electoral win as raising "serious questions about how many Americans yearned to see him there."
Can we please start talking about legitimacy? If it is found that Trump effectively cheated to become president, it's not enough to unseat him from power. We must stop pretending like the republic can't handle the truth: A president elected with the assistance of a hostile foreign power is illegitimate. Period.
I don't care how far-fetched it seems to people that this president could ever be deemed illegitimate. It's considerably less far-fetched once we start talking about both the necessity of doing so and the consequences of not doing so.
This is Russia's president. Not ours.
55
Disappointed to learn that the Supreme Court's previous Majority decisions are only as good, valid, legally or morally correct as the next ideologically different Majority Decision renders it defunct...
Must be difficult being a Democracy when 320 Million Citizens lives are held hostage to the ideologically Biased majority findings whenever one or more of the 9 ruling Judges shift and tack when the ideological balance is altered.
Does it not occur to everyone that based on changes in the majority bias of of the court and subsequent overturn of ANY previous decision made when that majority bias changes (making the Supreme Court it's own Hypocrite ) that the form, Function and intent of the Court no longer adheres to its Reason for being and thus should either be reformed or abolished?
Or that the shifting far reaching decisions of just 9 people with jobs for life is acceptable and a cornerstone of Democracy?
It isn't.
It's not even in the ballpark...how could it be?
Do SOMETHING.
22
I do not agree that it is only Trump that is responsible for this situation - it is American culture and a major section of American population. Trump, recent poll suggests have support of 41% of Americans and the pictures of his rallies show clearly the type of people who are supporting him. The long history of racism and bigotry of American culture now is hitting the American democracy and it will make a permanent dent in it. American democracy will never recover from this crack - it will be permanently a divided country now on - white and non-white. It's politics, business, culture and life style will be different for these classes and they will rarely communicate with each other. The dream of constitution makers will remain a illusion.
30
"Shamelessness was his greatest gift."
This should be Trump's epitaph.
19
"A death in the family. A punch to the gut.
Once again Bruni, you have torn the words from deep inside me, and given them life on the page. My reaction was visceral, physical and extreme - retching, head holding, bent over extreme.
But now, some days and time for reflection later, I am curiously at ease over it. Maybe it's denial or just a self protective reaction, but I'm not near as concerned as I was.
Kennedy has turned out to not be the Justice I had convinced myself he was, and his loss will be less traumatic for me after learning a few things about him.
It was obvious that his thumb was tilting the scale towards conservatism more often in recent years, Little did I know that was in part due to his being massaged by Trump and his minions. He was being groomed to retire, and did so at the worst possible moment - before the elections - just far enough away that we can never hold off the GOP til then.
Losing a conservative Justice in exchange for another, and one Trump stooge for another, is not the tragedy I first thought.
Please, god and the universe, allow the remaining liberals on the bench to last until 2020.
13
"George W. Bush, for example, was inaugurated after a messy recount of votes in Florida and a disputed resolution imposed by the Supreme Court."
I agree for the most part with Mr. Bruni's assessment of Donald Trump's presidency - Trump is the luckiest man alive. But in reading the quote above from the Op-Ed, I can only lament that the Democratic Party (and I am a life-long Democrat), is totally responsible for Trump being in the Oval Office.
As for the "dubious mandate" afforded George W. that was decided by un-elected Supreme Court justices, the election would NEVER have reached that domain had Al Gore won his own state of Tennessee. He could not carry his own state! Had he won its electoral votes, what happened in Florida would not have mattered.
Fast forward to the election of 2016: the DNC sandbagged Bernie Sanders's efforts to win the party's nomination because it was "Hillary's turn." Clinton, a deeply flawed candidate, would not listen to her closest advisors, including her husband, who urged her to spend more time in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, to not take those states for granted.
But she wanted to trash Donald Trump electorally and spent her time trying to turn red states blue to further humiliate him and enhance her own mark on victory.
So we look now to November, but the damage has been done, as Frank Bruni points out. Trump has already put a conservative leg hold on federal judgeships, and now he will do the same with the Supremes.
6
Trump is not lucky. He is good at what he does. What he does, of course, is only good for satisfying his need for enjoying feelings of power. So it's not good for anyone else. After all those years of being a Democrat he realized that the party through which he can gain power is the GOP, because single-minded, simplistic stands on issues will win there (sorry, Republicans, just stating a fact). His "truthful hyperbole" will work there. And he saw that Hillary Clinton was going to be a shaky candidate (Democrats had trouble understanding that) so in June 2015 Trump said, this time is the right time for him. Democrats, face the fact you have to get as ruthless as the GOP has been. Stop bringing a knife to a gun fight. You are dealing with Trump. He will do anything, and his allied party (watch the congressional hearings this last week with Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray) will do anything to save him. Because they are scared of him turning on them. No, Trump is good at what he does.
6
Oh, please, your statement that Trump should hand over his decision-making to the opposition party because the election was close is ridiculous. The margin of the win has absolutely nothing to do with Presidential power. It's the same in an electoral landslide or an electoral squeak-by. Winning is winning, and there is absolutely no prize for Democrats for winning the popular vote. None at all. That's the way our republic works. And to suggest that Democrats, given power at this very minute, wouldn't put the most liberal judge possible onto the Supreme Court is laughable.
21
Thank you for this column. Trump has violated his oath of office by continuing to pledge his allegiance to Vladimir Putin. It's all part of Trump's annual review next month in Helsinki. It's like some potboiler paperback you buy at the airport or maybe they simply updated The Manchurian Candidate. Trump is succeeding and exceeding at dividing America into two warring camps -- one of which approves snatching babies from their mothers and putting them in cages -- and at turning the rest of the world -- including our allies in Europe and Canada -- against us, except murderous dictators who will always have a special place in Donald's so-called heart. Somebody is winning, alright, but it's not the American people.
9
It is neither "cosmic power", nor the hand of some god or another, that caused Trump to be inflicted on the world.
It is in fact the result of the work done by the Kochs, Ruppert Murdock, Vladamer Putin, the Mercers, Sheldon Adlelson, and the unseen billionaires who bought and own the GOP and our political system. Let's not fail to identify the real cause and the real goals of this group.
86
Nearing my seventh decade of life, Trump's ascension to the throne and those in complete thrall and devotion to him have forced me to re-evaluate my delusion that good always triumphs over evil, maybe a holdover from years of Catholic indoctrination or maybe from watching Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
This for me is the cosmic joke. The more evil and inhumane are Trump and his sycophants, the more successful they are in cementing their power. This appears to be an inversion of a cosmic order that good will prevail and that compassion and mercy will transcend evil, greed, selfishness. The Republicans are playing dirty pool and disrupting democratic norms and they are triumphant. The SCOTUS will now chip away at our freedoms for a generation or more. This wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. No matter the results of the midterm elections, the Republicans have a complete lock on Court decisions against abortion rights, against unions, pro-corporation, anti-immigrant, anti-affirmative action, anti-LGBT rights, anti-voting rights and on and on back into the Dark Ages.
That is the cosmic joke. The Republicans are just better at cheating, gerrymandering, deceit and Machiavellian manipulation and it is working perfectly for them. Justice will not prevail no matter what Democrats do or don't do. The cosmic joke has turned into the cosmic tragedy. Trump and his minions are triumphant, no matter how evil their tactics. I hope I live to see good triumph over evil.
60
A demagogue is successfully waging ... dysfunctional reality, and Bruno's fears and loathings of DJT are true, but obviously in vain, unless November six comes out better than I of course fear, as a convicted
pessimist.
DJT is operating out of his back pocket, and proving that reality is indeed ugly stuff.
The world is stuck with the brilliant sociopath, and I betcha he'll throw-in an independent charismatic to divide the major opponent in 2020's November election.
15
Republicans won’t overturn Roe v Wade - having it has been one of their surest vote-turner-outs. Conservatives aren’t weaponizing the 1st Amendment, they are weaponizing religion. And it’s working.
6
What’s missing from this discussion is the role of The Federalist Society. They have been working to change the make-up of the courts and they finally found a “know-nothing” who they could easily manipulate - just promise him the greatest presidency ever. Mitch McConnell has been their lackey for years and he laid the groundwork. Achieving this goal is why the Republican Party has been so quiet as this president has sown the seeds of discord and embarrassed our country internationally. They have been fixated on this and left healthcare, immigration law, etc. in the dust. Put the blame where it belongs.
24
The Republicans are quiet about Trump, because while he blusters and tweets away, and diverts our attention, they are getting what they have wanted for a very long time - control of the judiciary at every level. And now the gold ring is finally in sight, the chance to swing SCOTUS to the right, with almost a guarantee that Roe vs Wade will be overturned, with the appointment of a super conservative Justice.
There is no guarantee that if Senators Collins and Murkowski do vote with the Democrats on a SCOTUS nominee, that some red state Democrats won't vote with the Republicans for that person to be appointed (as you mentioned Frank).
I agree if the SCOTUS vacancy is filled come the election, it won't matter for years to come what happens in the mid-term election. Years or maybe generations.
Our only hope is that the Democrats will find a way to stave off an appointment until after the upcoming election. How likely is that?
The day Donald Trump was elected president (by whatever means he is occupying the White House) will go down as the day that began the twilight of the Republic as we have known it. We have a crass, vulgar, egotistical, bullying, unknowledgeable presidential impersonator heading our sinking ship of state. We are no longer respected as a friend by our allies, and we are now aligning ourselves with thugs. I am not certain we can be saved anymore, and the appointment of a super conservative SCOTUS will seal our fate.
6
Suppose Obama managed to appoint a non-partisan judge who failed some evangelical litmus test or another. If Obama was accused of the stuff Trump and his campaign team and his swamp full of crooks have done, the judicial appointment should have been under question.
Even Sean Hannity would agree.
7
According to the Law of Changes, everything that goes up must come down. We are only on the beginning of Donald Trump's Presidential Arc. Let's take a longer view. According to the Cosmos, the Upanishads has this to say:
"Now as a man is like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;
And here they say that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does, that he will reap."
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 7th Century
Everything changes. We just don't know when.
5
This is merely the beginning of our end. All empires crumble.
7
It's time for someone to steal the show from the boy king and his crusty old courtiers and show what the creative comic genius of those with money and Hollywood-honed skills and equipment can plot to use humor and antics more outrageous than theirs to point out the absurdity of what has happened to our system, and lure them away from it.
Calling Tony Clifton!
1
The serious damage from Trumps illegal election is continuing and it will not be stopped by the likes of the GOP. So if we want to stop the bleeding, we need to vote in November. As far as I can see, Trump is likely to get the next supreme court choice. But we need to realize that there is no longer a concept of Supreme Court, perhaps there never was. This body is most often biased and political regardless of claims to the contrary. If we want relevant and critical changes to the requirements of a president and the makeup of the highest court in our country, we must do better. We can only start such a change if we control the House and Senate.
3
It's unfortunate, but the only thing that "might" save us now is a huge crash in the stock market and the economy. Money, at the top, and for the masses, seems to be the only motivating factor that mobilizes.
7
That Trump was as close to a popular majority in the 2016 election -- California aside, he amassed a majority -- is the dismaying outcome of several decades of a bipartisan failure of governance. Tens of millions of people know first hand that predatory greed has afflicted them financially, whether through outsourcing, adverse trade agreements, technological displacement, financial engineering, or otherwise, and they were looking for someone who would voice their anger and at least claim to act as a counterweight.
A decisive share of Congress in these decades has chosen craven office holding and prepping for post-electoral sinecures over complying with the charge of the Constitution's preamble, which is the statement of purpose for the entire enterprise of constitutional governance:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Recent presidents have adhered to the post-office, cash-in mindset to the tune of increasing their net worth by 8- or 9-digits.
Will the Supreme Court notice that six of the most recent 13 amendments to the Constitution have either expanded or protected the right to vote? And in so doing protect that right and preserve the cure for this failure of governance?
1
The whole GOP's grip on power is incredibly tenuous. Its why they've gone all in for Trump. Their economic policies and approach to government have failed miserably. Currently, their only choice is to either push ahead with Trumpism (fear and resentment) or head crashing down into a heap of ashes from which recovery will be nearly impossible. Let's hope an alternative path emerges.
5
I voted for Hillary and one of the reasons was because of the Supreme Court.
However, a year and half later, the response of the resistance to Trump has completely changed my mind.
For example, today, the NYTimes ran an article
"How Free Speech Is Being Used as a Weapon by Conservatives"
When I see something like that, I feel better knowing the new Trump Justice will be protecting free speech.
6
I think the media still refuses to take full responsibility for their role on helping Trump get the Republican nomination in the first place. The media covered all of Trump's campaign speeches in 2015 as if he was the Pope on an official State visit. The media, including the Times, must admit that back in 2015 and 2016 up until Trump's November victory, the media was absolutely falling over itself to cover Trump. Trump was the bomb, the sizzle, and covering his every move, campaign flyover and tweet ad nauseam to the exclusion of coverage of his opponents made him the President. The only question that remains is did Trump totally play the media, or did the media totally play the media.
10
When I experience the existential dread engendered by the Trump presidency, I use it to give me insight into the feelings that the right must have felt when gay marriage was condoned or abortion rights were upheld. Not that I approve of their views, but I imagine that they felt then like I feel now: that things are going terribly wrong. The right was able to gain power riding on the back of these strong feelings. It brought people out to vote, consistently in every election. It got people to put aside their differences and unite in defeating liberalism. We are dismayed, but we must use the present moment to pull together and do what it takes to win. Did we really expect to enact an enlightened agenda with no pushback? This present moment may be a gift to us if we learn to work together, and realize that none of us can sit on the sidelines if we want to succeed.
6
Why are we still holding Obama and Clinton to a higher standard of decency and grace than Trump, O’Connell, Ryan? Is it simply we recognize that the former are capable of meeting those standards while there is no reasonable expectation that the three republicans can? Obama and Clinton are not in power but the three have control over two (soon to be three) branches of government. How incredibly discouraging.
8
While it is impossible for me to disagree with any of the characterizations of Donald Trump contained in this piece, It is the failure of the responsible, caring Left to be able to communicate our values, goals and hopes for the country that most concerns me. Paraphrasing an Aaron Sorkin line from The American President, it's not that we don't get it, it's that we can sell it. The key to our doing so is, i believe after 75 years of watching, to stop moderating our views out of fear or so called pragmatism, and to actually stand for something of value and importance in the lives of most americans. Oh , and to have the courage to say it to whomever will listen.
9
"But here’s the most galling thing: In terms of the Supreme Court, it won’t matter, not if Trump and McConnell follow through on their expressed determination to fill Kennedy’s seat before the midterms. "
Democrats need to realize that there isn't a thing they can do to stop Trump from putting a radical conservative on the bench. Not one thing.
But the problem isn't Trump, as supercilious, immoral, and incompetent a President as he is. Instead, the problem is the Constitution.
If we lived in a true democracy, then a majority vote of the people would decide who represents us in the Senate. But that isn't the case. Our Senators are elected through an antiquated system designed to support slave states so as to preserve the Union, and also to support small states so that they will not be overwhelmed by the larger states. The result is the Electoral College, which is the tool of disenfranchisement of the vast majority of Americans, and the tyranny of the minority.
Senators must be elected to represent the population of the states they come from. It is not democratic, or fair, for a state like Montana, with 600,000 residents, to have the same representative power in the Senate as California, with 40 million. It's time to rewrite the Constitution so that it provides fair and truly democratic representation in both houses of Congress. There is no other way to prevent the kind of abject insanity we see from this administration today.
13
Mandates are for PR people and op ed writers. The notion that voting margin (or even winning the popular vote) matters has a plausible appeal. But George W Bush lost by millions of votes too. And gave us what may be the most disastrous military misadventure in US history, the last round of reckless tax cuts for the rich ("What we have here i a form of looting" -- George Akerlof), and his own right-wing nominees. Obama and Bill Clinton won by comfortable margins and were often stymied.
7
Trump ought to demonstrate his power to astonish and nominate Merrick Garland. It would go a long way toward bringing the country together.
We live in hope.
7
Yes, the media have lost the trust of a substantial part of the American people. But it is not, as some commentators suggest, that Trump has been pummeling them for two years. It is because they have devoted themselves for two years to pummeling Trump rather than doing their job, which is to tell us dispassionately what is going on. After so many of them have joined the Resistance, who do we have left to report on it?
3
Its okay to complain about President Trump, though the constant complaining has not changed a thing. The more interesting and ignored question is how did we get to this point When President Obama was elected he had a majority in both houses. Ten years later we have a republican president, republican controlled houses, a republican supreme court, and the state legislatures and governors republican by a great majority. How and why did the democrats let this happen? Who is to blame? Who should we be angry with?
10
Time for Democratic senators in red states to do the right thing and vote against the Trump nominee who will in all likelihood vote to repeal Roe v. Wade. If they lose their next election, they will have the respect of the great majority of Americans and can always run for office in the future. Do the right thing for the nation and insist on a centrist nominee.
8
Frank Bruni gives Donald Trump way too much power. According to the Constitution the president has two main jobs--to give a State of the Union address and be Commander in Chief of the Armed Services. On July 9th Trump will fulfill another Constitutional duty by nominating a justice to the Supreme Court who will replace the outgoing Anthony Kennedy. Then it's up to the Senate to confirm the potential Supreme Court nominee.
On the issue of a "mandate" and presidents who attained office with the slimmest of margins and the bare minimum of support, let's remember that Bill Clinton gained office with only 43% of the vote (thank you Ross Perot, who surely stole the vast majority of his votes from Bush 41). Even more consequentially, Woodrow Wilson won in 1912 with even a thinner margin thanks to Teddy Roosevelt's compulsive quest to regain power following his hand-picked successor's first term. Neither Clinton nor Wilson exercised the slightest amount of humility or reticence or acknowledgement of their lack of majority support. So why should Trump?
2
Trump thinks it's a brilliant idea to kidnap refugees' children and hold them hostage. He's already bragging about the conservative judges lined up for his choice. (Does he really look at their qualifications, or just wait for Pence or Stephen Miller to pull up a name?) He has no interest in civil liberties, the increasing deficit, healthcare, climate change, the chasm between the rich and the rest of us, gun control, or anything else that affects anything but himself. That's why he's America's major national security risk.
17
How sweet your tears.
Your paper and others have spent decades hiding stories that don't fit your narrative, and trumpeting any story that does. You have put conservative politicians under the microscope while shielding the progressives you favor.
These distortions have been exposed and called out. Yes the election was close, but you lost even with all your fingers collectively pressed on the scales. Imagine how badly you will lose in a fairer contest.
Now the genie is out of the bottle. We are learning how to fight back.
7
All true. There is one other truth which is very uncomfortable. Trump is America. Not all America but a solid 38% and another’s 10% or so who feel they can get something out of his presidency. He’s got the support of 85% of Republicans. People who were afraid to discriminate or say racist things feel freer to open up. Americans who feel powerless to change the trajectory of their lives see hope in him. All those who miss the good old days are willing to give him a chance. I don’t know many of these people, but I know they are there and they are Americans too.
13
Harry Reid set the stage for McConnell's nuclear options in the Senate. And while I detest most of Trump's policies, the Dems can not proffer such a flawed candidate (Clinton) who ran the worse campaign in memory, and expect a Dem win.
I blame the Dems (elites) for the poor things happening to our country these days.
4
@david s ~ RE: " ... the Dems can not proffer such a flawed candidate (Clinton) ..."
The Repubs proffered a narcissist with no regard for nor knowledge of governence who is now an incredibly flawed president. History will decide who was the flawed candidate and my bet is it is trump not Clinton.
The right and Fox have smeared Hillary for years. It's about time they shine a light on trump's malfeasance.
24
Not having a liberal education, but one in art and design, I have thoughts and reactions to this nightmare gift that keeps on giving, without the benefit of educational expertise and language, but..
Is this political place we find ourselves now akin to being under the influence of what is becoming, or has become a political cartel?
6
So, if he's impeached, indicted, found guilty, etc.
Is there any way that his actions (i.e. appointing a Supreme Court Justice), those taken between the time the crimes were committed and formal legal findings against him, can be invalidated or undone?
3
No question Trump is the classic bad apple but he was elected by a system which has allowed barrels full of bad apples to be served with regularity.
The Republicans passed the tax cut for the already wealthy but there is no line of Democrats donating their share to needed services which will be cut as a result of this largesse. A largesse which benefits both sides of the political aisle.
We are all being played.
6
Two-thirds of Americans support Roe v. Wade. Republicans don't stand for the will of the people. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, there will be protesting in the streets like the world has never seen before.
11
I want people to know the issues, and not be apathetic at the choices we have at the Ballot Box.
That's what led to the election of Trump.
6
Both sides only have themselves to blame. The Republican Establishment had Crown Prince Bush, with his $120 million war chest on day 1, plus the Koch brothers had already promised him another $900 million minimum. He had the backing of the entire Republican political machine.
The Democratic Establishment had Pampered Princess Hillary Clinton. Like Bush, she had practically unlimited funds, and the backing of the entire Democratic political machine.
The difference was that, when the Republicans figured out that their voters had their pitchforks out, and they had no intention of letting Crown Prince Jeb! anywhere near the White House, they gave up and let Trump have the nomination.
The DNC, however, had been bought and paid for by Clinton, years before. Her people were in charge. Any opposing candidate that she thought had any chance of winning was pretty much ordered not to run because it was HER TURN. They only let "straw man" Bernie Sanders run, because he was the "token opposition" that she could beat like a drum. When he actually put up a fight, she played dirty. She got the debate questions, got the debates scheduled during football games, so people wouldn't know what he stood for, set up everything she could in her favor.
The problem was that, outside of the DC/NYC/SoCal bubble, she was pretty much universally hated. Even the people who voted for her detested her.
Trump probably couldn't have won against any other candidate the Dems could have ran.
7
I remember Jeb saying he would win without the base, of course after insulting the base he did not share values with. I personally do not like dynasties. I did not want another bush or for darn sure another clinton.
1
Obviously the author lives in one of the 15% of the counties that Hillary won and just does not get out much. Those of us who live in the 85% of the counties that Trump won know that the election was not even close. The electoral college is there to prevent the tyranny of a few high population centers over the Republic. Thank God for that. But the cluelessness of authors such as this one is at least entertaining.
9
If Trump won your county by a vote of 55% to 45% then you're a Trump county and you show up red on the map. But there's a difference between 80-20 and 55-45. Similarly, Hillary Clinton barely beat Trump in Minnesota. So one cannot conclude that Minnesota is a blue state even if the it's depicted as blue on an electoral state map. My point is that the color on the map doesn't accurately reflect the nuances in each county in this country. Trump won by overwhelming numbers in some counties, but not in others. To conclude that the most of the counties in this country are overwhelmingly pro-Trump is not accurate. Moreover, it fails to take into account that only about 27% of the eligible adults in the U.S. voted for Trump. About 46% stayed home. I don't know what percentage of that 46% love Donald Trump but were too sick to make it to the polls. Maybe you know? If so, please inform the rest of us.
11
<I>"To conclude that the most of the counties in this country are overwhelmingly pro-Trump is not accurate."</I>
Actually, this statement is not accurate.
Trump won 3,084 of the 3,141 counties or county equivalents in Flyover country This resulted in a popular vote margin of 7.5 million votes or a 51% to 44% victory over Clinton.
Clinton had an 8.2 million vote margin in a narrow band of 52 coastal counties and five “county equivalent” cities stretching from San Diego to Seattle and Northern Virginia to Boston. Clinton received 70% of the 18.4 million votes cast in these 52 coastal counties, and Trump received only 25% of the vote in these counties. The remaining 5 percent went to other candidates.
Clinton's support was primarily in Calioregonington and North Eastcostia.
Very weak point. That same 46% did not bother to vote for Hillary either. I bet Minnesota goes red in the next election too.
In no way, shape, manner or form can President Trump be said to have “barely” won office. He won despite his opponent outspending him by many multiples. He won without his own party’s structural support. He won despite the Intelligence Community plotting “insurance policies” to “stop him.” He won despite the media doing everything in their power to prevent him. He won with a healthy margin of electoral votes.
He won for the simple reason that he went out and spoke to people about issues they care about. He promised to work to make their lives better. And he has done exactly that. Last night I watched a YouTube video of a black man crying – yes crying – because of what Trump has done for the economy and how it’s affecting the black community, whose unemployment rate is the lowest ever recorded.
The people have spoken. Democrats cannot accept that fact. And not being able to accept the voice of the people, they have no business being in power over anyone, anywhere, until they do. It’s time to teach Democrats a lesson that has somehow thus far escaped them. Vote Anyone But a Democrat in 2018.
12
40% approval. 55% strong disapproval. I think the majority repudiates Trump decisively.
7
So why didn't that incremental 15% vote? (periodic voting, not instantaneous opinion polls, being the basis for assignment of power in our republic)
PS: that would have translated into an overwhelming EC victory for Hillary, not a comparatively small popular vote victory based on running the total in California. Like California was ever going to vote for Trump anyway.
PPS: it's 45% approval, and equally strong as the disapproval.
2
I suspect the polling is wrong yet again. I am happy to see the left delude themselves yet again while Trump keeps racking up the points at an even faster pace.
1
Ocasio-Cortez is someone to watch.
Same with Connor Lamb, who is a Democrat elected deep in Trump country.
Both did not engage in "Resistance" mentality or hysteria.
They are both very electable, and should be the new face of the Democratic party.
The Resistance's motto seems to be "When they go low, we go lower", and look at the result.
The cosmic joke is on the establishment Democrats because they earned it.
Trump is ecstatic that Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck and Hilary remain the face of the Democratic party.
Journalists should seriously consider this, and instead of judging and blaming or trying to mind read Donald Trump and tell everyone what they assume he is thinking, get back to conventional reporting and try to elevate the discourse like Ocasio-Cortez.
5
If Connor Lamb votes as he campaigned - pro NRA, pro Police, Pro Military - then he will vote with conservatives most of the time.
If he does not, he will lose that seat.
He barely won - few hundred votes - against a really bad GOP candidate.
3
If something totally expected comes as a shock, you need to prepare better in future.
2
The three red state Democrats should turn in their party cards if they once again put their political careers ahead of their party's moral stance. You do not belong in a political party if you don't invest in the party platform.
7
OK, so this makes a lot of sense. The democrats have no way to stop the president's appointee. So the red state democrats should turn in their cards to die on their swords of party affiliation. What do you think happens to them if we insist that they turn in their cards? They will be republicans in the blink of an eye and then run for re-election as incumbent republicans. Isn't it more useful to have them there as democrats so that more often than not they do the right thing?
1
Our country has been taken over by a cult. There’s really no other way to explain Trumpism. The threads of white supremacy, presumed American superiority, and evangelical Christianity have converged to confer heroic status on a man who cares nothing about anything but his own vanity. The coffers of the greedy and mega-wealthy have enabled this through massive injections of cash into our political system. This mountain of money has been used to flood the media with messages stoking the belief systems of those who have been waiting for years for their particular brand of opinion to attain favor at the highest levels of government and “society”. Now that their time has arrived they will not yield gracefully, if at all, to dissenting points of view.
How will this all end? It is of course impossible to say, but unless and until some check is placed on the vortex of power swirling around the madman in Washington, our prospects appear grim. The midterm elections are our greatest hope. Please don’t sit this one out. Make your objections known at the ballot box, while you still can.
19
Socrates provides the necessary insight into our present predicament., when he said, "No god is a philosopher or seeker after wisdom because he is wise already. Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom; for herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself."
7
I'm in my 60s. It's clear I will not live to see the light shine again in this dark night of our republic. We will have a radical right-wing court for a generation. I am so sad I have no words for it. And yes, I do blame those on the left who chose to stay home or vote 3rd party in 2016 because they disliked Hillary. Her worst deeds look like heaven on earth compared to the bestial cruelties and destruction of everything we hold dear by this regime. I cannot understand those who thought fit to litigate past sins by the Democrats at the expense of our future as a nation.
35
March, but vote! It's no secret that young people do not vote. So, I repeat, march, but vote!
11
Everyone in America knew this was going to be the result if the Democrats didn't get their choice into the White House.
I hope Biden follows through now that he is considering a run for next Perez election.
And I hope Democrats get on the ball NOW and GET PEOPLE REGISTERED. Then provide transportation from work/homes to polling places! Help with babysitting if need be while people vote nearby!
Do not take for granted a single voter. Every single one counts!! Help them vote.
5
The whole ball of wax that is Donald Trump is no cosmic joke, Frank. It's no funnier than the fall of Weimar in the early 1930s, and the rise of a dictator like Charlie Chaplin's "Great Dictator" of 1940. No funnier than the ignorant, angry red- meat base that raised Trump to our presidency against all prognostications. Now we have him crowing for being able to pack the Supreme court with ultra-right Conservative extremist justices who will affect our children's lives in the United States for the next 30 or 40 years. Some joke. Our Trumpian allies are now deplorable nations of execrable human rights -- Czarist Russia, North Korea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines -- while our longtime allies, the 28 member nations of NATO, are quaking in their boots. Some cosmic joke! Meanwhile another demented shooting by a young white male in a newsroom in Annapolis, MD today. Gun-owners and sellers and shooters are still running amok and killing innocent people in America. Very unfunny, the sway of the NRA, the sway of our ignorant and demented president these days. The corrupt sway of the G.O.P. in power now in the 3 arms of our government. What irony, Frank, maybe you're right, that our 45th president is the luckiest man alive. But luck isn't a lady, and we all know she runs out sooner or later.
14
To all of Trump’s base who most likely are uneducated, have no skill-set for a decent wage, and probably don’t have $500 in savings for emergencies, much less saving for their children’s college, more than likely won’t even be offended when they discover Ivanka and Jared Kushner reported making about $85 million last year. How much did each of you get back in tax savings-not even $125 for the avg. family making less than $35K. Trump says he wants to rebuild America, but his ties and Ivanka’s lines are all made in China, probably with child labor.
If you are now upset, he’ll simply say “I can’t help you swallowed my line, hook-line and sinker—I’m not your mother; next time don’t be so stupid.” Now you all know how a con artist works, how a carnival barker keeps “barking trash,” but all of you’ve been duped. But you know what, you’ll probably do the same thing over.
23
I can see it being perceived as a cruel cosmic joke, by an atheist.
2
This atheist finds nothing resembling a joke in regard to president trump.
10
There is a middle ground for moderate Senate Republicans: restore the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations. That would allow them to vote their conscience on Trump's nominee, while ensuring enough bipartisan support to prevent another ideologue of either stripe.
1
Well, the Democrats should not have run the most hated woman in America as their candidate. Throw in the lousy campaign she ran, and here we are.
4
So Judge Gorsuch was a "shallow and fickle choice"? Only in your universe Franky is the judge not a brilliant jurist.
5
Until Democrats begin playing by the rules the Republicans have established, the nation will suffer. I believe Democrats have to call into question Republican patriotism, the rule of law, wave the Flag, demand equal justice for all as is described in the constitution and begin nationwide strikes, protests and obstruction in as many areas as is possible, just like Republicans did. The more outrageous the better. The unwritten code of taking the high ground does not work in our current, toxic political landscape. Mitch McConnell refused to even bring Obama's Supreme Court selection to committee and now will seat Trump's pick for the next jurist almost immediately. People abused and denied due process at the border. The alienation of allies and embrace of Putin by Trump is rarely mentioned in Democratic circles. Instead, they're worried about Maxine Waters, who never told anyone to use violence, unlike Trump at his rallies. Democrats are "snowflakes" much like the extreme right categorized them. I'm sorry, but the Democrats are just as responsible for the state of affairs this nation now finds itself in as the extremist right-wing nuts they've allowed to control the narrative. The left's talking heads claim resistance will energize the right. Pay attention. The right is ALREADY energized. That's how we got to where we are.
10
This is a fine description of both a cult of the personality and an emerging autocracy. God help the United States of America.
7
Trump is an accident caused by the unholy alliance of libertarian (neofeudalist) money with the benighted so-called christian conservatives and the hubris of the democratic party financial elite.
But the Machiavellian sociopath McConnell along with libertarian extremists realized their opportunity in Trump's peculiar and striking sensitivity to flattery. The libertarians have Trump's ear. Their PR, propaganda and strategy clearinghouse, the Heritage Foundation provided Trump's list of judges to pick from. Every one of those has gone through a rigorous libertarian vetting process.
Trump is a mean spirited Chauncey Gardener. He doesn't have power. He is a tool manipulated by those willing to get on their knees and do what needs to be done. The libertarian elite, and the right wing christian elite have no actual morals or recognizable ethics. Their aim is and always has been more power for the wealthy. That is what we see happening.
10
Every day I wonder what compromising information Trump and his Russian friends may have gathered on GOP members of Congress that he holds over their heads.
Blackmail and extortion are Trumps tools, I suspect he and his minions are using them to great affect with several members of Congress.
4
Perhaps the bigger story is how the pursuit of personal power in this century has destroyed our democracy. Power is now held by politicians, corporations and the 1%. Money fuels their symbiosis. They have new powerful tools -- Citizens United, TV advertising, PACs, gerrymandering, ALEC, fake news and fake science. Their only interest is more money and power. They face a population that has surrendered by abandoning real life for a media existence. Trump would be nothing without the complicity of the powerful. Now he is the crest of a wave, the perfect storm, the champion at the forefront, the leading edge of utter alpha-male corruption in one of humanity's more civilized societies.
5
The entire history of the Republic changes
All because of a simple computer server and an arrogant, entitled woman who felt she didn’t have to obey the rules.
Pride goes before the fall.
1
Mitch McConnell and Republicans played to win these past ten years. Democrats enjoyed a 60-40 edge in 2009, yet let McConnell tie the Senate in knots with an unprecedented number of filibusters. Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, remained in LaLa land, intoning the "traditions" of the Senate. In exercising the "nuclear option" on Gorsuch, McConnell demonstrated just what fools the Democrats are. Politics is contingent on both votes and judgement. Democrats profoundly misunderstood the threat in 2009-2014. In 2016 Democrats finally got a clue with McConnell's refusal to consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee. Too late. By that time American women were well on their way to Gilead. Democratic Senators have much to be ashamed of.
2
Reading this, I am reminded of the contrasting leadership of FDR and Donald Trump. FDR's speeches and especially his fireside chats pulled a frightened, demoralized country together and gave it purpose and hope. His words were always about the "we", not the "me".
Compare that achievement of leadership to the divisive, demeaning, angry tone of Donald Trump's rallies. We all have frustrations, misgivings, and fears. Trump has manipulated those negative emotions among his supporters and pointed the blame for them at Democrats, Hillary, Obama, 'elites', immigrants, other countries including our closest allies, Hollywood, etc., etc.
We deserve better.
4
You must've written this after a very unhealthy amount of wine and commiserating with your friends. There is a stunning tone of defeat in your article. Trump is no joke -- he is a 4 alarm fire in the house of democracy. Rather than waxing eloquent about this phenomenon, I suggest you help wake up your readers to the reality that surrounds us now. It's time to man the barricades, get out the vote, and maybe lock up some of these criminals before they do any more damage.
Anthony Kennedy himself should be investigated for his obvious conflict of interest. It may be time to try some new tricks too, like impeaching/censuring some of the misbehaving Trump judges, agents, senators, and representatives. Whatever it takes within the bounds of fairness. We shouldn't face this like we have every other threat. We need inspiration, not resignation.
3
Ironic. Bruni accuses Trump of so many things. Notably that he is jamming another conservative jurist down the throats of the Democrats. He conveniently forgets the entire Obama administration. He forgets the haughty Obama telling Republicans in regard to the health act that they had absolutely no input in creating... "Elections have consequences". Obama began the partisan divide we have today. And, Bruni and Begala and others suggesting that some Republican senators should and could vote against whomever Trump proposes, it just isn't going to happen. Whomever Trump appoints is going to be confirmed. Elections have consequences.
5
Republicans had input in the health care law. There were numerous hearings. It is modeled on a Republican conceived state plan.
16
It is not just Trump's base that strongly supports him it is also the super rich. Their purpose is money - you know huge tax cuts. They don't show up at rallies which are so low class and they couldn't be seen with that crowd. They are more powerful than the base because they donate millions to this president's campaign. And possibly to other causes.
The most powerful reason for Trump's strong following this racism. After his election a very responsible organization published these findings. It somehow doesn't not surprise me. He has proudly admitted he is the president of his base only not the majority of Americans. And I find many, many voters voted for him because they opposed Hillary not because they backed Trump.
3
The Oligarchs have one thing in common - insatiable greed.
And they know how easy it is to play on people’s fears and prejudices.
A divided country is the road to riches.
4
Every word of this thoughtful piece is (sadly) true, and the joke is a very dark one, like the jokes of the Greek gods, who jest darkly.
3
Wonderful analysis and chronicle of Trump's preposterous angling. The NYT, along with other major media, continues its thoughtful diary of the Trump nightmare, and it must. This curious and historic tragedy must be well documented. My deep sadness is that, even in the face of its grotesque destruction of much so many hold dear, we allow the saga to continue. I understand my posting adds little to a solution; it does little more than reflect my sense of helplessness. I am one of The People, how can this be so? I will vote in November, for sure; somehow it feels empty.
3
Donald Trump barely won the White House, under circumstances — a tainted opponent, three million fewer votes than she received.
Putin uses this as proof that we lack a total democracy. It happened once before also. That our elections are fixed and we tolerate it by not changing. A tactic he himself employs by other means.
1
This wasn't some cosmic existential coincidence--it's a grift, the fix has been in for some time; and if you don't think this doesn't have something to do with Kennedy's son and Trump leaning all over Kennedy to retire, you need to think again.
If the Dems, and especially their overly cautious leadership, don't fight this with everything they've got, in the streets of public opinion if necessary, like they should have done with Garland, they'll regret it for the rest of their lives and deservedly so. Good people need to stand up and fight for their ideals, even if it means taking a beating.
The illegitimate Trump presidency is a crooked stack of dimes and it will fall over. But Dems and other resistors need to start fighting for their future and what's best for this country, both short and long term. In November, vote like your life depended on it.
3
Quoting my hero, John Lews, from whom my fellow thin-skinned white people and I can learn a lot: Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. #goodtrouble
4
A hundred years ago, the Irish poet Yeats captured the spirit of fascism on the rise in his poem "The Second Coming." "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" if I recall correctly. I fear we may be living through such a time again, and the main beneficiary of this new rise of fascism is Vladimir Putin who is going to meet the man he groomed to be president. What Schlesinger once called "the vital center" is falling apart, the American people are divided into tribal loyalties, which Trump's election has exasperated, and the European Union is in danger of falling apart and the fascist dictator of Russia, who wins fake elections and undermines European and American elections, is well content on the eve of his meeting with Trump.
4
When the country is split 50/50 on many issues, the coin flip can go either way at any time. But the change of the generations is happening. Progress will happen, despite TRUMP.
As a conservative woman, I am incredibly happy that Donald Trump (a man I did not vote for) is picking Supreme Court justices from a list of well-vetter, experienced, originalist judges. The entire nation benefits from these sort of Justices. Whether those on the left will admit it or not. Who wants whims and fads and discovered "rights" not in the Constitution? Stick to what the Founding Fathers intended, what's worked for more than two centuries to keep this country together. Even though I did not support Trump in the run-up to 2016, I will gladly vote for him in 2020, because of the incredible work he is doing to advance conservative causes.
11
Well said. I’m another conservative who did not vote for Trump, but I would next time, assuming he runs. I’m addition to appointing fine judges, the economy is booming and he may even defuse the greatest threat to peace in our time, North Korea.
7
Don't forget that "originalist" also means slave-owning, and slave-owner-supporting. If you're serious about being an originalist, you can't pick and choose which parts of the Constitution to pay attention to and which to discard.
Oh, and by the way, "originalists" would also deny YOU the vote. So if you claim to support originalism, prove it by not voting.
1
What do you mean by fine judges.?
1
In spite of Jon Meacham(sp?)'s recent hopeful book, I fear that our long and proud democracy has/will break down. It has been a great run folks! I'm 75 so I won't know for sure but for my young friends I can only be hopeful that I am wrong.
5
Fear not Bob. The democracy will be fine.
Democrats tell us day after day that the sky is falling and it is the fault of the GOP. Day after day we go outside and see that the sky is still intact and in place.
If Democrats want to convince people then they need to be less hysterical and more realistic. Seems that fear of others who perceive politics differently than they do is the only tool they have in their toolbox.
6
I’m the same age and totally demoralized. I only want to survive to see this man humiliated. I fear this is the end of the American experiment.
Kennedy sold out. The threaten to our democracy it not only at the hands of Trump, but all those who collude with him that make possible the dismantling of institutions that have served the people well and honorably. Hitler didn't do it all on his own, nor did Mussolini (to whom Trump is often compared). Trump is the leader of a cult of personality the membership of which comprises poorly educated, fearful, and prejudiced people who enjoy venting their anger. That cult is being exploited by the greedy rich: the Kochs, the Murdochs, the Haves who want to have more.
27
Just a reminder Kennedy was appointed by Reagan. Difficult to call him a sellout. Would be more reasonable for republicans to call him a sellout
1
For years the GOP has said they were 'moral' and wanted to overturn abortion rights. They are hypocrites. They may never overturn abortion rights because their unwed daughters would embarrass them and would not be able to get abortions. On the other hand, the very wealthy will always have abortion doctors available...
19
Next time a pundit complains about life being unfair, the answer is obviously, "oh, politicians have it worse!" Fact is they all have a jolly good time, and the voters know it.
1
If it weren't so scary, it probably would be funny. But it is not funny. The man scares me to death!
6
Let's leave all the philosophical discussion aside shall we. The truth is that we can no longer live together. It's time for the country to recognize this truth. A significant portion of the country despises Trump and his supporters. The other side equally despises those who oppose Trump. I speak from personal experience as many family members no longer speak to one another. The country needs to split - amicably of course. It's beyond my capacities to devise a solution as to how this would work, but it's time to bring the American experiment to an end. The founding fathers may have been quite wise, but all things must pass. It was a good run - 242 years to be exact - but it's time to go our separate ways. Let's avoid the violence that will undoubtedly come to pass and agree to an amicable split.
32
NY Times:
The older replies disappear when new ones are posted. It seems the maximum is 3 replies. Sometimes a fourth reply appears, but that's only when upvoting that reply does not work (another problem). Can you fix this, please?
6
Frank, the only hope we can think of is one's "conscience". We have been looking for it in vain, from those in the Congress. Whether we have seen it, there is not much or no evidence to support. Now comes another place to look for one's "conscience" - the SCOTUS.
We continue to see less in the 'Check and Balance'. There is much concern here. Some of the readers have pointed out that there is still hope for a November outcome. That will still be a wait and see.
While we continue to have the free press to play Referee, the rhetoric on fake news continues. A new challenge to our democracy.
Those in power, continue to have more power. The irony of it all is that all of this is happening in the name of our democracy. Everyone is claiming the First Amendment, Second, Fourth and so on. No one seems to be in the wrong. Yet, we do not know which direction our country is leading to.
One thought about a "permanent" Republican Supreme Court. Congress determines the number of justices on the court. The number has varied over time. Nothing to prevent a Democratic President and Congress from expanding the Court to say 15 justices. Fire storm for sure. You bet. Before taking that course, I would suggest such a President first make sure he has a firm grip on the levers of legal and military power. Maybe I should have written he/she, but looking at America?
7
"But he’s virtually assured of appointing as many judges to the Supreme Court as each of his three predecessors did…"
That means two justices.
Well…
He's gotten them.
Now he's done.
No more for Trump.
- Ginsburg is still healthy
- Breyer is still healthy
Both can outlast Trump - he's a one term president. Americans will rush to vote him out in 2020 like once in a lifetime chance to get rid of the roaches that have been in the kitchen. They will not miss the chance.
So, with the possibility that the Senate turns Democratic this Fall, AND the better possibility that it turns Democratic in 2020 when far more Republicans are up for election, AND the almost certainty that voters will rid the country of Trump,
we are left with this--
A 5-4 conservative court for two years.
A 2020 presidency held by a Democrat.
A 2020 senate that will be Democratic.
Then, Ginsburg and Breyer can retire.
And we'll see how long Clarence Thomas holds on then.
When Thomas is replaced during the Democratic presidency starting 2020, the count will be 5 more liberal justices, and 4 more conservative.
Within a few years, we will have a 5-4 liberal court that will last for at least 20 years.
Book it.
12
The premise of your assumption that Trump will not be re-elected is that Putin will not want him to remain in office. Unless significant steps are taken by a compliant, obsequious Congress to safeguard our elections, Putin’s vote is the only one that counts.
3
Wishful thinking and I hope this scenario becomes true. It will be critical that people against Trump register and vote and deny him a second term.
Note to Democrats and third party candidates: be united or you will once again hand this orange monster the reins of power.
Here's my hopeful scenario: After re-taking the House this cycle, and using the subpoena power to expose all the self-dealing and corruption in the Trump administration, there will be substantial super-majorities in both houses in 2020. At that point, impeaching Gorsuch and whoever takes Kennedy's seat, and declaring their rulings as fruit of a poison tree will be essential to restoring this country to a rule of law and order that works for the people. It's vitally important that the voices that advised looking forwards, not backwards at the end of the Bush 43 administration be ignored at that point.
2
Because the rest of our political class, media pundits, Left wing neo Marxists, 'we feel your pain' democrats, contemptuous of the common people and the very notion of a democracy elites, paid off by the 1% economists, and business leaders who rule our nation like a medieval nobility are just as ignorant and selfish as they say Trump is. And the people who support Trump, often while holding their nose, know how evil and duplicitous most of the rest of our society's leaders are and so will support Trump if he even only pretends to want to stop the mass illegal and legal immigration waging-killing invasion of our country, and the shoving of our nation's majority into poverty via outsourcing most manufacturing to China, and allowing this avowed enemy to steal trillions in intellectual property and cheat us on 100's of billions in trade every year.
3
I don't understand why you think that the Republicans aren't a huge part of what you're describing. And I don't know why you don't think trump is doing the exact same thing.
But I'm most surprised by the fact that your feelings sound almost identical to people that identify as democratic socialists right now. They feel the same way you do about the economic elites and business leaders.
3
It is not just Trump. It is Trump *and* a subservient GOP-controlled Congress.
During the Obama presidency, the President could not do anything because Congress totally opposed his every single moved. Remember those days?
So, as voters, we do really have a chance to change things next November. Democrats should focus most of their energy into explaining what is at stake and to get people out and vote. Going door by door. Seriously.
Probably the fate is Roe v. Wade is already sealed. But, the positive note is that a new Democrat-controlled Congress can make the move the void Roe v. Wade irrelevant by quickly and swiftly passing a new law, or a new set of laws, that reinstate women's rights.
The veto of the president can be overcome...
10
There is a rumor circulating that Justice Kennedy’s son worked or works for Deutsche Bank in the real estate department and helped Donald Trump secure $1 billion in loans when no U.S. bank would touch him with a 10-foot pole. Isn’t that the bank under indictment? Did Kennedy (author of Citizens United and other oligarch-friendly opinions) see the possibility of his son’s getting off, should he be indicted also, if he and Trump can control the Supreme Court, not just with conservatives, but with justices who will not uphold any attempt to indict, try, and punish the various Trump enablers and colluded. Someone needs to investigate whether this connection (Kennedy - Deutsche Bank - Trump) ASAP.
25
Trump is not lucky. He has the support of approximately 40% of the country. That 40% is distributed in a way that gives them a majority on Capitol Hill. And that 40% votes more regularly than the other 60%. And that 40% dominates the GOP, and punishes any politician who dares to criticize Trump.
I would love to say Trump is lucky and a fluke. But he reflects the will of a substantial minority in this country.
7
Less than half of the electorate voted. Less than half of that group elected Trump--he lost the popular vote. Your 40% "of the American public" is waaaaay off.
12
What price victory? That’s the question the Christian right should but won’t ever ask. We’ve seen a crude justification for all the anti-democratic machinations that the right has wrought to bring this government to the threshold of divorcing itself from the doctrines that separated it from all the previous governments in the world. It was a government conceived to be free from any religion and dedicated to the principle that all people are equal before the law. This is not the government that the Christian right wants. They want a government that enforces a particular religion that they believe in, even though they have strayed far from the principles that Christ represented. They didn’t care how they would achieve it. They would deny voting rights to some, they would gerrymander so that one person’s vote fails to have the same effect as another, and they will stand by a president who betrays the best interest of this country at every turn and trashes the wonderful egalitarian vision of the founders of this republic. Congratulations.
13
Trump's power is no Cosmic Joke. It's the manifestation of our corrupted system of pay to play. Only moments after his first address to Congress Mr. Trump said to Justice Kennedy:
"Say Hello to your Boy" AND "Special Guy"
Innocent enough sounding chit chat Right? Actually it wasn't.
He was referring to Justice Kennedy's son, Justine Kennedy, who spent a decade at Deutsche Bank becoming the head of Real Estate Capital Markets where he assisted in loaning the
Donald over a Billion, with a B Dollars when nobody else but Russians would. Kennedy Senior's departure from the court is no cosmic joke merely a Republican doing business in D.C.
20
To deviate a bit from the Trump chorus. . . Trump represents fear, hatred of the other, lousy trade policy, and horrific foreign policy. His other promises about cleaning up the swamp of politics, cheaper healthcare, infrastructure improvements, and other promises ended up on the cutting room floor or he did the opposite of what he promised his base. Now, he pursues a policy of attacking our friends, embracing our enemies, cutting taxes for the wealthiest, destroying, not fixing, healthcare, while maintaining perhaps the most corrupt government in decades. Those who voted for a change likely did not see these changes coming.
8
I think that most of the Trump voters knew exactly what would happen when they voted for Trump. He is a famous TV personality who has telegraphed his ideas and philosophy to America for decades. He was not an unknown quantity and he is delivering exactly what he said he would do. Your problem is that you can not conceive of how a rational person could have made this choice knowing what would happen. The problem here is that you do not know what is happening in your country. You have become out of touch and you are experiencing the surprise of a sudden correction of your understanding. Like many people you have a long way to go before all of this sinks in but since Trump will be President for eight years you still have a lot of time to learn.
I'm not laughing, this man will leave his mark on our nation for the next 50 years. Sad.
6
Not necessarily. None of us, not even SC justices, are assured length of days; ask Antonin Scalia. The hysteria about a conservative bloc ruling the SC for half century is unfounded. Here today, gone tomorrow is true for us all; no one knows the day or the hour. True two millennia ago; true today.
3
You are invoking death as the solution to the right wing take over of the government. This is a thought that may be occurring to other people as well. But we should all be careful about what we wish for.
I don’t recall a presidency which inflicted more pain, uncertainly and insecurity as this one. Never before have more individuals or allied nations cringed, winced or gasped at the policies & words from Trump’s mouth.
The phrase of “what puffs him up” is so spot on. Everything he says or does is only about HIM, his ego, his vanity. He openly praised and then criticized Harley-Davidson for decisions they made based on Trump’s actions. He also either does not know or does not care what comes out of his mouth. The other day when addressing the groundbreaking Taiwanese electronic screen-making factory in Mount Pleasant, WI, Trump stated that “he had been the first Republican to get Wisconsin’s support since Dwight D. Eisenhower”, however that was incorrect because “Republicans, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, won there, several times, in the interim.” I find it truly difficult to listen or read anything he yaps about because too often, he gets the most basic of information wrong.
I don’t know if Trump’s presidency is so much a cosmic joke as it is a cosmic calamity waiting to implode and explode, taking most of us with it. I often want to bury my head in the sand and not think about him or this dreadful time, but that’s the coward’s way out. If anything was learned from Wednesday's unexpected upset of Joseph Crowley, it’s that everyone's vote counts and everyone must vote come the midterms. Only then can a dent be made in this tin can/garbage can administration.
11
Yes, we have bad leaders. Yes, the system is unfair. Yes, changing things for the better at this point is almost impossible. It's hard to see how one would even begin. But remember, we got here because we failed to honor the chief obligations of a free people: To participate in government with a rational mind and without partisanship or selfishness; to pay attention and insist on good, fact based information, and; to hold our leaders accountable when they lie to us. We did not do our part. And now, we lose the society we took for granted.
Instead, we amused ourselves. We treated politics, not as the art and science by which people govern themselves, but as just another entertainment - a sporting event where we root for "our side," and degrade the others and their supporters. Apathy, "trolling," "news" aimed at reinforcing, rather than informing the views of its viewers, cheering for the crudest and most insulting, admiring "liars for hire," who lie to the public without consequence, all these things have contributed to a culture in which government "by the people, for the people" is rendered impossible because the people have made themselves unfit and incapable of governing.
So what is to come? Well, autocracy never goes away. It is never entirely vanquished, it waits its chance when a free people become too debauched and weak minded to carry the burden of self-governance. If history is any guide, this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. And quickly.
15
I see the words frustrating and infuriated in these comments. How about terrified and outraged? The resignation of Justice Kennedy is so much more than annoying or problematic. It is the end of our democracy and potentially of far more than that. Kennedy let the Republican party persuade him to retire, knowing full well what is at stake. To call him a traitor barely touches the surface.
20
Cosmic joke? There is nothing funny about this. A few days ago I listened to interviews on NPR with employees at Harley Davidson, saying that they don't mind if they lose their jobs - Donald Trump is such a smart businessman, if he says we need tariffs then we must. The country has been willingly bamboozled. The only thing Trump has said that I actually believe: He could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters. I spent last night investigating how to retire to a foreign country; I don't belong here anymore.
22
Frank, you're the man! If we listen to you we might just get some Democrats elected this year.
4
Well written- captures the cosmic joke that is Trump. But in my despair this week, I've come to realize that Trump and the republicans WILL get their SCOTUS judge and the court will likely do huge damage in my view. But looking beyond that, the SCOTUS only interprets laws, it doesn't make them. If progressives take back BOTH houses, we can neutralize the damage done by the courts. I'm starting my research today on where my political donations (meager as they are) can do the most good to make that happen. This is just one battle - the war continues.
7
Also support progressive candidates in your state House and Senate as well, especially since these vital issues will now be determined by the states.
3
Look no further for Republican hypocrisy than them screaming "Liar!" at Obama during his state of the Union Address, and their repeating Trump's daily lies. Now we are watching them strangle democracy.
14
I don't know that the world s coming to an end although climate change is a big problem. There is a more fundamental American problem, namely an ineffective system of government which contributes to much of what is complained about. The United States has no effective means of dumping an unfit president. This is ironic because the founding fathers wanted something better than the British parliamentary system. However that system dumps leaders regularly, eg. Cameron resigned after his ill-considered Brexit referendum and May assumed office without an election. When I was in Australia, the governing party once went through 3 prime ministers in a row without an election. As a second problem, in the British system, unlike the American, elections can be called to overcome a political impasse. Here, elections only happen as per schedule. These factors combine to make the US uniquely unable to deal with bad leaders and to be unable to get legislation passed which is acceptable to the actual majority, rather than just noisy minorities. Impeachment is too explosive so mostly you have to sit through 4 years of bad leadership. Time for a constitutional amendment.
9
A person's history is not final until he is old or dead. Consider the change of principle some in the SCOTUS have made after their appointment. Trump seems to a confirmed centralist to this date. His drive is more like mine: how to get the job done. That does not include unlawful actions and lying. But sometimes we do things that no one else had tried or thought about. Deceitfulness and bullying are not treated well on history either. Actions lacking this character are remembered poorly. I like "Mr Khrushchev, take this wall down" and "see what you can do for your country".
I believe Mr Trump has taken the rough road because it is now what he believes is right. His twittering could be improved. My dad and my wife's dad both lightened up at this age, with better eyesight, communication and actions.
1
Mr Bruni,
When President Obama finally got America same sex marriage, you were still upset with President Clinton's DOMA. At the time, I have suggested you should let it go and look at the big picture.
Sadly, some people didn't heed the warning of the big picture. Now we got Trump.
Perhaps it is human nature to react. Had we had some foresight then and known the GOP would bring about Trump, we would not have gotten to this sorry state of affairs
1
Not long after Trump's election, someone, somewhere, posted a two-panel cartoon.
The first panel showed a small brown dog, wearing a MAGA cap, sitting in a chair with a placid expression on his face. All around him, the room he's sitting in is ablaze -- the flames are everywhere; there doesn't seem to be any way out.
The second panel is a close-up of the small dog wearing the MAGA cap in his chair, surrounded by fire, and speaking: a voice bubble shows the text, "Ha Ha Take That Liberals".
11
re: "a tainted opponent" - amen, and amen.
She was not only tainted but she was weak. She was eminently beatable, a phrase I repeated many times in this Comments section during that campaign. I warned that the best thing she could do was gracefully bow out of the campaign and defer to Bernie Sanders (the other candidates were at best, lightweights).
re: cleave the nation in two, agreed. Rarely has the republic been in more danger from within, as well as without than it is now. It is almost a perfect storm.
Wake up, America. Vote in 2018.
1
So eminently beatable she won the popular vote by over 3 million and that was with the help of Russia. {rolling my eyes}
10
Those votes came from the Left Coast. Thank God for the insight of the constitutional framers.
America will not be a democracy by the end of 2019. Mark my words.
4
If our democracy survives, and I believe it will, when the democrats again hold both houses and the presidency in that future, part of the reason may be that after Roe vs. Wade and several other outrageous decisions and ruling reversals will perversely favor a declining minority of the majority. The democrats will seize on this and use McConnell's obstruction not only on Garland but on the Russian investigation of Trump's campaign to campaign on packing the Supreme Court. The only reason FDR didn't pull it off is the Senate voted against it. I'll bet this time around it will be smooth sailing.
2
You aren't counting on them stealing the midterm elections. They will.
1
The joke is on those who are blinded to the overwhelming importance of ideology; who believe that there a “simple morality” that overrides partisan divisions and that “people of goodwill” can always find a common ground; and that Trump’s moral deficiency should somehow make evangelicals and conservatives recoil in horror. In fact, there is no morality apart from ideology. I believe that abortion is a moral good. An evangelical believes it is murder. There is no middle ground between these two points of view. I don’t respect the evangelical’s belief; he does not respect mine. I know I am right but I cannot convince somebody whose foundational assumptions about life are different from mine. Trump is a faithful spokesman for a large proportion of the American electorate. He is a symptom, not a cause.
6
The One Billion Dollar Loan to Trump, handled by Justice Kennedy's son, makes the negotiated arrangement with Kennedy to retire now explicit quid pro quo corruption.
This is literally Unprecedented in American history.
Kenndy's arranged retirement allows Trump to choose a justice for the Supreme Court who will tacitly - even explicitly - agree beforehand to block every indictment of any criminal act or violation of constitutional law by Trump, as well as preventing his possible impeachment.
Any Supreme Court appointment by Trump is an outright overthrow - a negation - of the US Constitution. When the legislature and the courts conspire to dismiss vast tracts of the fundamental laws upon which this nation was founded, the entire constitution is rendered meaningless.
15
Don’t look to the Electoral College for deliverance. It no longer functions as intended, as a check upon placing someone unfit into the office of the President. Nope. Years of two-party rule have entrenched partisans as Electors by Law to vote in lockstep with the winning Party’s candidate, no matter how flawed. Where is it written we must suffer these two particular parties?
4
Despite the warnings thousands of people still give Nigerian princes their bank account information in exchange for promises of sharing the millions of dollars inherited but stuck in mysterious banks. We laugh and shake our heads at the gullibility that greed breeds, but no one laughs as hard as the Nigerian princes.
Except Donald Trump, whose bellowing belly laughs resound across our purple mountain majesties which, no doubt, he believes he is responsible for creating. The problem with cosmic jokes is that they emanate from on high, from a place we can't see or control; we can only hear the laughter.
So, will we try to mute some of that laughter with sound of our feet going to the polls in November? Will we turn away from the notion that all that controls our lives comes from Washington DC, and toward the idea that local governance --- mayors, city councilmen/women, school boards, county commissioners, governors, state legislators --- is far more important and has a far more direct impact on our lives?
I dread what Kennedy's retirement portends. But unless we take control of the local governments we actually live in and, for example, vote in state legislators who will write Roe v. Wade into the state code, we will have surrendered to this cosmic joke, and Trump will have the last laugh.
6
Not much to add here. I agree with everything you said. I often awaken praying that Trump is a recurring nightmare....No matter what happens from here the irreparable damage has been done.
Taking inspiration from the end of the movie Gladiator, it sometimes feels like ….."When Trump smiles at you all you can do is smile back"
Did I miss the mention of how Ruth Bader Ginsburg's failure to retire before Tantrump was elected has now made it also possible for him to appoint her replacement, too, particularly if he wins in 2020 as I expect him to?
Her selfishness has made his third Court appointment a good possibility, even if he is President only for 2 more years.
Thus, she may well be contributing to the rollback of the women's rights she fought so hard for all these years, merely to continue in her beloved job for a couple more years, blind to what she is risking for the country.
Amazing. Can she not think ahead?
Did you miss the fact that McConnell obstructed and refused to allow Merrick Garland to be considered by Obama when Alito died? If RBG had resigned then trump would have had three appointment opportunities by this time.
2
What makes you think Mitch McConnell would refrain from stealing a second Supreme Court nomination from Obama?
6
For his opponents, Trump is “Trump,” a myth, an illustrative parable, through which they can understand themselves. They cannot live without him, because their lives are defined by him.
2
I'm not going to pay much attention to this Administration any more, as well as the man who leads it; I know enough, and it wears.
I am however, turning my attention to my State Government which has been dominated by the GOP (seems like forever). I'm going to work to change that, because I believe that's where effective change can start.
As I am 63, I'll probably be at it until I die; but for me, in these times, it's my civic duty.
Time to dust off that hoe for the long row.
5
Picture this:
The economy goes to the tank, Bush II style. Democrats win 60 Senate seats, the House and the Presidency (that seems to be the rule).
And the President is not someone in the line of a Clinton or an Obama. And you have precedent that when you have some power, you better exercise it (again, Clinton's impeachment).
Then, how many judges from the SCOTUS will you be able to impeach? Of course that is the way of a third world country. But with McConnel and Trump's acts, we are two thirds there. I hope I don't live to see that, because I left Argentina to come here because the most important thing to me was that judges were independent and follow the rule of law. Oh, well...
1
Remember, it may take some time, but what goes around comes around.
3
It is amazingly ironic how the opposition to President Trump gives him no credit for his leadership, but leads their readers to believe the US is on the brink of disaster.
As it is every election cycle, the Republicans and this time led by President Trump will be attacked as taking social security and Medicare away from our elderly, will name judges that will overturn Roe vs Wade, and while they are at it, enter into Global War with our nation's enemies.
Liberals are great at talking from both sides of their mouths.
They are at it again.
The President has been doubted every step of the way, without any belief that he would win the primary, win the election, name the judges, get anything through Congress and the Senate, but now he will succeed on overturning Roe vs Wade.
3
Shamelessness has for a long time been the winning power of the GOP. It is important to not believe that Trump is the "only" one who has no moral bottom. The GOP has shown us since the days of Newt Gingrich that there is no low that is too low for them. I do not understand the shock and hand wringing over the GOP not standing up to him because, in my opinion, Trump is their dream come true.
3
This is what it's come to for Democrats -- cringing at losing Kennedy in the surpreme court. Hopefully, this is a cold slap in the face to stay awake and stay active -- always vote. The price we're going to pay is going to last a long time and do alot of damage -- the only question now is, how long will it go, and how bad are we going to let it get.
VOTE!
3
Trump's advantages weren't made from luck, fate, or a cosmic joke.
They were made by a right wing movement that has fought, for decades in ways gross and subtle, with a relentless and pervasive media propaganda arm, to exert power over the hearts and minds of the American people and use and abuse our political system so that they could turn America into clones of themselves.
And they are well on their way.
If there is a cosmic joke, it is on the Democrats, who mostly don't get the joke, and that it's on them.
They've been played, marginalized, neutralized, and humiliated, and they still don't get it.
Trump supporters keep trying to tell us, but their rhetoric is too wrapped up in their glee and their spite to get the message across - that Democrats were asleep at the wheel when they should have been nurturing and defending the liberal ideals that are the foundations of our system of government, when they should have been listening to the American people, voters and non-voters, Democrats and Republicans, Independents and Libertarians and Greens, to understand their thoughts and emotions, their concerns and their struggles, and address them.
And because they were asleep, they never saw the express train pick up Donald Trump and head straight for them and the foundational principles upon which our Constitution and our liberal democracy rest.
A joke, maybe. But it is not at all funny.
2
STOP legitimizing this presidency.
Words are power, too.
If we stop imagining his influence, it would diminish very quickly.
For example, if at the time Justice Kennedy announced his "retirement" in stead of just saying "Justice Kennedy Retires" it would have been "Justice Kennedy retires due to pressures and machinations, yet again, by Donald Trump". Lawsuit from 'accusation" - Trump loves lawsuits. They take time. He could rack up thousands of lawsuits - he already has. DON'T take any of this seriously. STOP taking him seriously.
1
It’s not just Roe that is in danger but abortion period, anywhere in the US. Even though Trump during his campaign recognized that overturning Roe would mean that individual states could still legalize it. My bet is that Trump and the Republicans will tear up the Constitution, pass a law banning abortion everywhere in the US and his Supreme Court will allow it to happen.
1
I'm waiting for the tapes taken from Michael "the fixer" Cohen's office to surface with Trump's voice telling Cohen to arrange for abortions for all the women who got pregnant because Trump preferred unprotected sex.
From my perspective, this is not really an opinion piece and if only it were merely a depressing satire. It is actually, pretty close to a factual summary, a potential prologue to the next edition of THE DECLINE OF THE WEST. Spengler would definitely have something to say about "originalists" and a lot more. So much for civilization...
2
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The press is the enemy of the people."
-- Donald Trump
Score 5 for Trump
1
Lets just be grateful he’s been given a second choice and a third will most likely follow, if not in his first term certainly his second..and like petulant young children who some day will look back and thank there parents for having tolerated their tantrums, they’ll be grateful..and they’ll realize that president trump made a stronger America that has not only benefited them..but the entire world..but sadly he’ll be gone then and a trip to his grave site or perhaps Mount Rushmore will be the only way left to show their respect..,Until then I’ll watch liberals through themselves on the floor kicking and screaming with amusement.. and once finished I’ll ask them for a Frappuccino ..
2
Bruni has it just right. It is time to take Trump seriously for the corrupt, hollow, self aggrandizing, pathological creature that he has demonstrated himself to be. We can't laugh at him anymore--he is destructive. We can't be sympathetic to him anymore--he is immoral and crass. He has destroyed in less than two years what our fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers fought and died for, what we have struggled in our own flawed natures to overcome in order to be more humane, more generous, and more inclusive. He has ignored or shattered common and established standards for dignity, responsibility, ethics and integrity. He is wreaking havoc on our democratic sensibility, and his enablers will be viewed as collaborators if we survive to tell the story.
10
That we survive is a pretty big "if".
Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan & Donald Trump will be three infamous names in history books, unfortunately for the nation and for the world and for human civilization as a whole, Mr. Trump's presidency will be marked as the starting point of the decline and fall of the American dream: a true Republic of equals, with liberty and justice for all, by the end of his term the whole democratic system and its institutions will be so corrupted by this low morals man that it wont be able to ever recover, think the Romans. So painful. An age of dictators and tyrants is coming to lead the world. My only hope is that the Europeans would take the lead, the other options China or Russia won't be any promising.
6
Mr. Bruni, there is a simple explanation for Trump's success at accumulating power and neutralizing his opponents:
There is no God.
3
Thank you Mr Bruni fir writing the most concise, truthful and eloquent assessment of the latest debasement of our so-called democracy. A cosmic joke, indeed.
2
Trump will fall sooner or later but unfortunately the damage will have been done.
4
Hillary Clinton was not tainted. She was smeared by the right wing and by trump.
7
Right, she was the first perfect politician in our history, and no criticism of her had any validity whatsoever. Can we move on now into tomorrowland, where we can correct our mistakes and get Trump out of the White House?
3
Thanks, Mr. Bruni for the fine article. The only thing that will stop him is if the economy turns sour, which is quite possible given his tariff regime. In fact, a survey of CEOs by the Business Roundtable reveals that they plan on cutting back on hiring in the coming months. This is due to the uncertainty created by this administration. If the economy falls into a recession, then Trump will be thrown into the trash heap of history. And good riddance to him!
1
This is a hard time for progressives for sure. My heart has been sinking this week as each Supreme Court ruling hit like a body blow. And then Kennedy's resignation.
But I also think that you can't fix what you don't know is broken. And boy are we broken. We're so broke. America is truly broken: our citizens: undereducated, anti-intellectual, many impoverished and without healthcare, others rich, and greedy, some or most self-serving. America itself: underfunded, undertaxed, broken down, no priority of monies for schools, roads, housing, healthcare, corporations running amok, a country born out of white supremacy that while rights have been granted has festered for centuries now bursting forth like an infection.
You can't heal pestilence if you can't see it.
So here it is. Front and center. This happened because we didn't care enough. People didn't care enough to vote. Like herd immunization, people thought they could luxuriate in their third-party votes, or non-votes, because common sense and moderation would carry the day. Until it didn't.
Is Trump doing to destroy America? Doubtful. Our government has lasted through many terrible times. But the damage done will take generations to undo. In the meanwhile, people will suffer and possibly die from government malfeasance. It will be up to whoever is left to remake America as the country she is meant to be.
This is a turning point for our nation. It's a long game.
Prepare.
1
America will only survive if we don't let climate change destroy the planet.
It would be terrible if Roe vs. Wade was repealed for women in our society. Someone's religious beliefs should not influence the personal actions of another person's personal choices in a secular society.
But I also recognize that the repeal of Roe vs. Wade would represent an extinction level event for the Republican party. And they know it. They can't point to the Democrats, Obama, Clinton, or anyone else and pass this action off as "not their fault."
What Justice Kennedy has just done is to make the 2018 and perhaps 2020 election a plebiscite on abortion rights issues. This is a big time looser for what passes as our ruling party at the moment. Be careful what you wish for.
Mr. Bruni, at this point, I for one, am not laughing. We have always had a toxic culture in America, an unfortunate mix of machismo, dogmatic religion and racism. The country is probably too big and too diverse to ever come to any sort of internal consensus on anything. The Southern Strategy and the Republican "think tanks" movement funded by self-interested oligarchs have poisoned the public discourse and convinced millions that their economic woes are because of poor people and not because of rich people. Then came Donald Trump, exuding an intoxicating, evil charisma, spouting hate, violence, bigotry and lies to an audience completely prepared to receive him. We may never get out of this one. Our country will fall from its status, we'll suffer long term, severe economic damage. there will be misery, loss of rights and widespread despair. Let's just hope that too many lives are not lost.
2
A good piece, Frank. On the day of Justice Kennedy's announcement, I wretched, too, with similar thoughts---this cosmic paradox of a devil-child,Teflon Donald: It is all falling his way; he has the world on a glitzy orange string; smug Trump's "never a price to pay" cosmic joke alone is enough to scramble one's brain. But if we should settle in with history, its dreadful rulers who have come and gone, its power states that crumbled overnight, there's the temptation to think that after 242 years, perhaps it is America's turn in Dystopia---and Trump is simply the well-timed, apocalyptic catalyst. If this should play out, then the cosmic joke will be on him.
This President is simply handed power by the leadership of his majority party in Congress. The deliberative parts of their body have been speaking through their party muzzles with enough flair TO CONVINCE US that they are doing their job.
Toeing the party line and orating its talking-point tripe IS REWARDED, so far too many of our elected officials JUST DO PARTY WORK - instead of their duty to all constituents and our nation. Once voters remove the worst of these slackers, our democracy will no longer be the sandbox for the likes of Trump or worse.
He may appear to be Teflon Don right now but karma will rule the day in the end (and Mueller). I worry about fatigue and just hope that this lunacy has not become our new normal. Getting out the vote and continuing to hold the administration accountable has to remain the priority. NYT is key to that - keep up the good work.
2
We get the government we deserve....
1
A neighborhood acquaintance told me the other day that she could not believe how mean, nasty, and disrespectful the democrats have been towards trump. She said that when Barack Obama was president, the republicans were always very respectful towards him.
This is the alternate universe that trump supporters live in. You cannot pierce their veil of ignorance.
8
It's been said before that Trump and his loyal followers are a like a cult. Maybe the Dems should start treating it like a cult and and barrel right through and leave them behind in the dust. The followers are in a world all of their own, and whether it's willful neglect or out-and-out stupidity, it makes no difference to them. They would risk the country and our democracy without a blink of their eyes. From documentaries I've watched on television, most cultists require interventions. Basically, an intervention on a grand scale would require never, ever normalizing them or their self-consumed and narcissistic leader. That means they must be called out for the lies the followers endorse from their leader. If they still insist on supporting and enabling, barrel right through them and leave them behind in the dust.
3
What Robert DeNiro said, and apply that to Trump's "base" too.
My flag will be flying upside down this 4th of July
6
Sorry Frank, I'm not interested in re-analyzing Pearl Harbor. Too busy getting ready for MIdway.
3
Yes, the gods must be laughing...
at misguided over-reaching Liberals and Democrats.
And they're probably far from done: I read somewhere that Biden is being considered as a contender for the 2020 presidential election. I've watched video his interactions with women and his demeanor, to put it very mildly, was cringe-worthily creepy.
1
Tenuous claim? No need to read remainder of the article, we can expect no objective analysis.
2
Yes, an absolutely tenuous claim!
Excellent article. Left me speechless and quite depressed. A porn-star loving game show host will destroy this earth.
4
Dear Zeus. America is at the precipice of fascism.
7
I am so frustrated by this situation I can hardly express it.
This is a man with no convictions, no morals, no beliefs, and far from a popular mandate. He won the Presidency by a fluke, a trick of the Electoral College process, and now he's taking the glorious experiment of the United States down after 242 years, by the grace of Citizens United.
What I can't fathom is why we, The People, are so willing to let this intolerable situation continue. This man does not deserve the respect that would once have been due his office. We have been left with no protections, no checks and balances to his power. The Republicans of Congress have shown themselves willing to forfeit any semblance of rational governance in order to achieve their partisan ends. The Supreme Court is about to be set on a course of reconsidering any and all "liberal" decisions, at the behest of the well-funded.
What is wrong with us? Why are the 325 million-plus citizens of the country so docile? It's obvious that petitions and letters to the editor are never going to have an effect on this administration. They don't care - they've gotten what they've dreamt of for years. But why are we willing to let this to happen without taking to the streets? What will it take?
The water is coming to a boil and it seems as if we're completely powerless to do anything to stop it.
8
The cosmic joke is America’s historically blatant racism. The United States has its nuclear arsenal because of the work done by scientists who overwhelmingly opposed the use of the very weapons that they had helped to create. Now, we have a President who appears absolutely elated whenever he remembers that he can start a nuclear war.
Anyone who goes around talking about how ‘good’ their genes are - or how high their IQ may be - is almost certainly an imbecile.
7
So well said, Mr. Bruni. Trump has sown chaos as only he can. I believe he is Putin's "useful idiot" and perfectly fits the definition. His adoring and/or enabling supporters are blind to the consequences as our democracy teeters on the brink.
We must put an end to this black mark in our history by voting in November.
6
We had to endure 8 years of Obama, 8 years of socialism and the pandering to leftist organizations, including BLM, Antifa,...and every organization that is anti-America, anti- law and order, anti border control added to the disrespect of our police, disregard to the sacrifices of our military, no concern for the middle class, presenting our country as weak to our friends and enemies, and the worst of all, the division of our country with identity politics.
Trump 2020.
5
Hopeless just hopeless...thanks to the cult leader Trump. To the followers of this man and religion of hate don't even bother to leave a message.
2
I am 69,and totally unprepared for what is happening to my country. I still say"You're welcome" instead of "no problem", still write thank you notes. But admit that the F word is my new favorite. My husband and I ( in the 1%) will probably move to the Mediterranean somewhere because we can't bear to see what America looks like now. We are a family that includes Jews, Black an Asian, and a disabled member. I think we will find a better life overseas; always more tolerant.
We love it, but have to leave it.
9
Instead of this opinion piece, where is the article today pointing a finger at the hateful monster in the WH who condemns, demeans, and rails against journalists each day calling them “the enemy of the people” until a loon with a gun decided to attack a newsroom because he too was a paranoid jerk like Trump who blamed his problems on an article about his criminal behavior rather than on his actual criminal behavior.
Let’s tell it like it is that Trump’s hate spewing had a hand in encouraging these five murders.
4
Yet this man of all men — a misogynist, a philanderer, a grabber-by-the-you-know-what — may be the end of Roe v. Wade.
Why wouldn't a misogynist be instrumental in overturning Roe v Wade?
4
At the most simple human level, I don't care who you are, what your religious point of view is, or how much money you have...I ask you this question:
You arrive at a party. Maybe it's a 4th of July barbecue like the one many of us will try to enjoy. You get a beer, a burger and a spoonful of your mate's incredible potato salad.
Across the yard, you hear a loud voice. It's "that guy" who we have all met at parties. Who we talk about with disdain and disgust the next day when recapping the event over a coffee.
"That guy" is a bloviator. He is crowing about his successes and his fancy home - oh, so many possessions, businesses. And he crows about his prowess with women. How they love it when he presses up against them thrusting his tongue, grabbing, molesting...
You lose your appetite. Everyone you talk to is repelled by his behavior. He is a cartoon character of a jerk.
How can it be than more than 5% of our population would vote to make him the "leader of the free world" ?
In the 1988 presidential primaries, a clear front runner was "alleged" to have had an "extramarital affair". The embarrassment caused him to withdraw. I guess he might have been a "shoe in" in 2016.
5
So true. Everything breaks Trump's way always. Why does our meanest, shallowest, most mendacious, narcissistic, proudly ignorant citizen always benefit? The consequences will be devastating and felt for generations.
4
"The media, normally the last check on a president with total control of government, has lost the trust of most Republicans and many Democrats, after two years of Trump pummeling.” Trump pummeling? You have to be kidding! All the media has done is report what this miscreant has done. If it makes him look terrible, it's because he IS terrible!
7
I read this as trump pummeling the media, which he most certainly has done on an almost daily basis, for 3 years..
1
Nailed it Frank. Trump is a cosmic joke. He builds his own reality and demands we all live in it. Worse, he's an evil bully. There is but one action to deal with the bully that is Trump. Crush him.
7
The supposed freedom loving GOP have sold their souls to a man who has utter hatred for the very rules of our nation. Disgusting people. There will come a reckoning.
4
I’m very afraid.
2
Thanks to Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders. Your self-centered, egotistic 'my way or the highway' approach to politics has given us the Trump Supreme Court for the next generation.
And don't blame Clinton the candidate. Clinton at her Russian troll worst would not have resulted in the set of supreme court decisions we've had this this year nor the confirmation of yet another right wing supreme court judge.
7
Frank, it's very simple; if you're not white, well off, and willing to call yourself a Christian, you will be better off if you leave while you can. History will not be kind to the idiocracy formerly known as the United States.
3
Trump is a Molotov Cocktail the Trumpers tossed into our political system in order to burn our government to the ground. They failed to realize they live in that same house.
4
Yes, and that especially applies to people like the Mercers and Kochs
2
" But he's the luckiest man alive ". Know who else was extremely lucky, until he wasn't ? The Devil. Just saying.
1
You guys are so out of touch with the pulse of the country. And that's why your opinions and editorials are ignored--except for the salve it gives to the choir who are the only folks you can preach to now.
1
What is the pulse of the country please?
Baby jails are not a 'joke'.
3
The backdrop to Hitler's rise was a nation defeated and devasted by WWI. We do not have a situation that compares! This Republic is transforming itself without a deep national trauma. We have never gotten over the stain of wide spread, brutal slavery. While other developed nations have moved ahead with benefits such as universal health care, we have wasted our wealth on wars, endless partisan wrangling and supporting our billionaire class.
2
I'm not laughing.
1
I agree with you, Mr. Bruni. You've written yet another , highly intelligent, articulate, and effective column.
Now for nitpicking as to word-usage:
You wrote: "...the elements of his base that got him this far and could carry him farther."
"Far" is correct; "farther" is incorrect: it should be "further," since you are not referring to a physical distance but to a metaphorical one.
The English language is tricky. At once supple and expressive, but also with rules governing usage that seem incoherent.
2
Mr. Bruni seems to be hoisting the white flag of surrender already and, disturbingly, to the most abject corrupt and corrupting President and Executive Department in the history of the Republic. While understanding the despair and depression gripping many over recent national events, this columnist needs to snap out of his funk and start doing what he responsibly should be doing in this time of deep crisis: using the enormous power of his op-ed position in the paper of record and his great writing talents to start rallying Americans against the creeping Trumpian fascism attempting to undermine this nation.
If Mr. Bruni cares to slink away from this hard and challenging, upcoming existential street fight, he should gather his laptop and start doing travel articles for American Express instead. I'm certain there is talent waiting in the wings to take over for him. What will it be?
1
Mr. Bruni,
“a tainted opponent”? There you have it. The willingness of pundits like you to go along with the years-long GOP smear of Hillary is a part of what has brought us to the horrible situation we find ourselves in today. I remember only too well the 2000 race where Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich led the charge to vilify and humiliate Al Gore. The DC press corps were out of control. I believe one columnist referred to your behavior as a “journalistic wilding.” And so we ended up with a candidate who won the popular vote and lost the presidency to the guy you all wanted to have a beer with. Then, more of the same from Dowd and Company for Hillary, and here we are. Not to mention the Times gross misrepresentation of the investigation into Hillary and grossly wrong minimizing of Trump campaign connections to Russia. And all the false-equivalence. Forget all the cosmic talk as to why we are in this mess. Just look around you.
1
Can a president still nominate a Supreme Court Justice from a jail cell?
1
Unless Kennedy has gotten a diagnosis of a terminal illness, I have lost all respect for him. Kennedy, retiring now and allowing Trump to pick your successor, is being complicit in this abomination of a presidency. Shame on you Justice, shame on you!
5
This really sums up the pathetic situation we're in.
2
With today's tweets, Hannity's comments last night it becomes clear we are facing an assault on democracy and western liberal civilization from our President. He loves his autocrats, hates the American people (the majority).
10
They can protest (all 8 of them) all they want, their fate was sealed the moment Kennedy stepped down.
The Dems are truly finished for a while.
Laws! If we had leaders we could pass laws. Constitutional laws! That could change and preempt but we have no leaders. Haven’t forever. There is no Democrat who can handle Trump. It’s pathetic. Obama didn’t have the guts to organize a real health care bill, even with his majority. He didn’t even have the guts to tell the country our election was under attack, what? Line every leader of the Dem party up for the last 25 years this is their fault, our fault and that includes BOTH Clintons. The media? Oye! We got what we deserved. “No words can patch this havoc”!
Mr. Mueller must bring something to the table in the interim. I hope that it is so shocking that it could even motivate the cowards of the Congress to act justly.
3
Trump makes a new enemy every day: the latest may be the soybean farmers in his base. The more he focuses on his base, the more he scares away others. And the more he does dumb things (like tariffs), the more he actually threatens his base. Let's hope his scaring and threatening wind up giving him higher and higher approval ratings from a smaller and smaller base!
1
Make ablutions for another cosmic joke. That the gods take him with him sometimes soon. According to Bruni that may be the only salvation at this point.
Didn't Citizens United make Trump possible as well, the dark money PAC, and the millions of donations flowing towards anti-democractic candidates from the oligarchic 1%? In other words, didn't Kennedy, appointed by Reagan, pave the way for Trump? For the second time in 18 years, we have an illegitimate president. As the investigation of several media outlets into the Florida ballots showed, Gore won Florida. Now we have an illegitimate court. I mean what is Clarence Thomas doing on the Supreme Court? It should have been Merrick Garland, and instead we have Neil Gorsuch. Each of the Bush appointees on the court are illegitimate. As a German national born in the 60s, I poured over the causes of Hitler and World War II in history classes: the treaty of Versailles, a fledgling democracy, an overtly strong presidency, too many political parties. Are these the decisions and developments we will be analyzing after the dust has settled in the wake of a big cataclysm that the world seems to careening towards?
3
Welcome to the US becoming this centuries' country of Apartheid. In South Africa, a white minority controlled the power over a much larger black majority. In the US, we have basically given power to a minority that represents small percentages of our population, rural voters (15% of the population) and white working class voters (mostly those from the south and farm belt).
The irony is you can blame the founders, they created this situation with the "great compromise", and more importantly, by allowing states to determine elections. More importantly, the Electoral College, that was once seen as a check and balance to a demagogue being elected, has turned into something gamed that is giving the kind of voter the founders feared the power to elect a demagogue. We are heading to a country where religious extremists (who make up at most 30% of the country), older, white and ill educated voters are deciding the destiny of the other 70%, and that can't end well.
The only silver lining is the people who this is based on are going to be the ones getting the biggest shaft, and they will have no one to blame but themselves. Lincoln said you can't fool all the people all the time, but with this group you can, they continually elect politicians who claim to love them, and when they get the shaft, blame everyone but the people they support. Banning abortion might make their heart sing, but it isn't going to put food on the table or get their kids off drugs.
1
He will pick the best possible jurist for all of us ...... believe me
Trump is a cosmic comeuppance for a country that let greed gradually take over their government. Particularly at fault is a Democratic Party that promised to act as a counterbalance to those forces and offer something better. Trump is the logical result of 50 years of capitulation to moneyed interests by both parties, to the point where the Republicans are completely owned, and the only candidate the Democratic Leadership wanted to see in power was someone so out of touch with the middle class and entrenched in the status quo that she couldn’t defeat an ignorant sociopath who only appealed to the worst in us. Trump is simply a personification of the failures of our government, and it’s no joke. A promise of single payer health care would have won the election in 2016, and it’s still nowhere in sight for 2020. At this point, we may find ourselves with a Supreme Court that’s finds single payer unconstitutional. How cosmically funny would that be? Trump is insignificant - look at the system that’s produced him if you want to fix the problem.
One of the most meaningful knocks against the mad doofus in the White House is that he doesn’t care about anything or anybody other than his pampered self but we can’t escape the realization that he reason America and Democracy are in such dire straits is because hundreds of thousands, if not millions of common sense liberal thinking American voters sat on their hands in 2010 and 2014 and 2016 because they just didn’t care enough to vote. Perhaps more of us care enough now but we’re going to find that out in November and if we sit on our hands again we’ll have no one to blame but our own pampered selves as the war on Democracy, women, the poor, minorities, immigrants, the environment, the truth and the rule of law takes another snickering victory lap. The cult will be out in force and they’ll be smelling blood. I can’t believe it’s come to this but I can’t believe so much of what’s happening in my country today.
8
Yes, to some extent, but bear in mind that millions of predominantly urban citiznes were kicked off the rolls with the intent of suppressing the vote. The number in Wisconsin alone would have changed the outcome of that state.
"Donald Trump barely won the White House, under circumstances — a tainted opponent, three million fewer votes than she received, James Comey’s moral vanity and Russia’s amoral exertions — that raise serious questions about how many Americans yearned to see him there." FB
Well he is there; Thanks Bernie. He is now the most powerful person in the world with the full command of the military, a cadre of lunatics around him, fed police force, and the mental instability and pathological traits to use them against his own people (i.e., political opponents) if necessary.
If you think he'll ever allow himself to be on the wrong side of "you're fired" without using the most extreme tactics to prevent such,.....well you need to come back to earth.
This would be to him a complete rejection/failure of his whole life..... I'm a loser.
Wake up. He'd like to be famous and loved but he'll take infamous if need be.
2
The take home message from the 2000 and 2016 elections is that when behind the GOP cheats to win. They will even conspire with Russian agents.
10
Unless Kennedy is suffering from a debilitating fatal disease, his decision to retire now, months before a highly consequential Midterm election, is highly suspect.
1
If this is not a clarion call to eliminate the idiocy of the electoral college; I do not know what is. All the gerrymandering of the Republicans continues to make a farce of the whole democratic system in the U.S. Now that Trump has this "Cosmic Joke" Power; he seems to keep opening Pandora`s Box in turning American against American; and women may be the only force that finally ends all the madness that Trump`s reign of error has become. I have literally run out of ways to describe the total insanity that is engulfing the U.S. by this madman.
4
Trump has to kowtow to his hypocritical evangelical voter base. These holier than thou liars have found a friend in Trump. He doesn't want to do anything that would anger them about their one-note agenda; they love life in the womb, but once it's born it can starve to death. They have shown they don't care that he divorced, a philanderer, and a liar. He fits right in by being a misogynist. You can bet if his daughters wanted an abortion it would be all right with him. If someone asked him if he was pro-choice in the past he would deny it like all his other lies. The biggest problem now is that he is going to taint the Supreme Court with another unqualified judge. The GOP is in cahoots with their mad leader. They passed up the nomination of Judge Garland, respected by both parties and then approved the unqualified Judge Gorsuch. It made a mockery of the court. Judging from their latest decisions, we are in for a long list of very bad judgments.
1
Anyone who couldn't see this coming when he won wasn't paying much attention. So all you Bernie whiners, self-absorbed millennials and minorities that just didn't have the time or desire to vote? Hillary just not good enough for you and your principles? Not gonna get your hands dirty?
It's on you. You can stop blaming baby boomers for all of your troubles. You don't vote, you don't count.
Trump knows this. He's browbeating you into such a sense of helplessness and self-pity there's a good chance you're going to do it again in November and then have the gall to complain about the results. Because you don't compromise, he got elected. It's that simple.
He's laughing at you as he should. But nobody else finds it all that funny.
5
Trump is slowly making America into a dictatorship and the orchestra is still playing as they rearrange the deck chairs as the country sinks. The Republicans are like the 3 monkeys - they see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Trump is allowed to work his evil by equally evil and contemptible Republicans in Congress. Now he’s off to see Putin and give him his end of the deal on the Magnitsky act and sanction reversal promised in the Trump tower meeting and other copious meetings many of his underlings had to discuss “abortions”. This will ensure Putin gets going on his cyber work on the mid terms and also doesn’t release the tapes and videos of Trump frolicking with Kompromt girls in the Moscow Ritz Carlton, so Trump isn’t impe ached and can line his pockets for another 4 years, which is all he cares about.
6
Once again Frank Bruni whines about about the consequences of the actions the Democrats set in motion. Other presidents (before President Obama) had to worry about a super majority for Federal judge nominations. The Democrats set the precedent of using the nuclear option. Granted the Republicans under McConnell happily followed the precedent but they warned the Democrats of that consequence when the Democrats broke with the tradition.
You have to get over this majority vote thing of yours. I know you Democrats have a dim view of the rules (laws) but you really need to learn how to play by them. The electoral college is still in place and hopefully, for the sake of the 40 smaller states, is not going away.
1
You are arguing in favor of swift impeachment. Godspeed.
2
"How unfunny is that?" "'Tain't funny, McGee."
1
All the lies being told.
First, the President was not barely elected.
The method to elect a President has been in effect for quite a while.
The SC will not modify Roe vs Wade.
All previous Presidents got to choose 2 judges.
Reid invoked the nuclear option. He was warned then not to do it to no avail. So what is good for the goose...
I read the NYT and am floored by the lack of objectivity of its journalists.
You know that by accusing a duly democratically elected President of all ills, you also insult all his voters.
But I am sure you don't care, as you see them as deplorables.
What I see now are the real deplorables. Those who call for worse than incivilty, but violence. Should it occurs, it's on you.
3
The real Cosmic Joke is Trump owes his victory entirely to Hillary. The Rs were only too happy to welcome Trump as president because Trump is totally transactional & the Rs were happy to have Trump prance around as president so long as their agenda would be advanced but Hillary is also transactional as Hillary wanted to be super-rich, party in Beverly Hills & thought she had a lock on the presidency all to be accomplished by making the right promises to the right people.
Instead of being the smartest one in the room HIllary, as her supporters claimed & her PR always tried to tell us so, Hillary proved to be abysmally stupid as she could never learn from her mistakes; because H could never admit, even to herself, her own mistakes. HIllary lived in a world of denial, mostly of reality, because she wanted things to be other than they were & that just doesn't work
The big & only winner was Putin. What was Obama thinking when he didn't go public with what the Russians were doing just because McConnell wouldn't sign on to make a bi-partisan showing. Obama could & should have outed McConnell as party above country
In all things great & small Trump is advancing Putin's agenda from destroying NATO & the Atlantic Alliance to destroying the Middle Class & educational opportunities for our children
Trump worked with Organized Crime in NY; fronted for them in Atlantic City; partnered with Russian criminals in the 90s & that is the hold Putin has over Trump who is Putin's puppet
The type of cosmic joke of the president's power that here we have yet another white male carrying out yet another mass shooting, this time a terrible even in Maryland but thanks to the election of Trump, we now have a Supreme Court who upheld a clearly racist ban on Muslim majority nations on the grounds of the president's power to acti in the interest of national security.
That's the type of cosmic joke we're dealing with.
Memo to John Roberts: the number of mass shootings by anyone from the banned countries is still a resounding zero.
Perhaps the best way to avoid those Trumpian cronies from seating one of their own kind on the Supreme Court is to the impeach or fire the guy sitting on his throne in the WH, before more, and more permanent, damage is done!
1
Very, very, very unfunny.
It is time to focus on who will run against this man in the 2020 election. There needs to be a strong candidate who will focus on issues and not get dragged into his sewer. We should really focus, if we keep doing what we are doing, we are feeding him and his base. They only become more determined, as does he. He will win in 2020 if we keep this up. No one will stand up to him. No one. We need to find a strong person with a sense of morality, and we need to do it quickly.
3
Yes, the chips are down. It can feel like the deck is stacked against the forces of reason, tolerance and progress. Despair has been just around the corner -- and now for many it's here. But just like a sports team that's gotten some bad calls from the refs, the only way to get back in the game is to FIGHT. If some states outlaw abortion, contribute to nonprofits that provide transportation out of state. If healthcare is cut, increase benefits for your employees if you own a business. If you live in a safe blue Congressional district go to swingleft.org and find the nearest swing district for the 2018 election. The Right says we are weak snowflakes and not real patriots. Show them they are wrong! As Hamilton dragged those cannons across Manhattan and Washington endured the cold while planning victory, get up and FIGHT for what you believe in. Start today!
2
Alas, it all comes down to whose ox is being gored, as always. As Mr. Bruni points out at the end, both Clinton and Obama got 2 Supreme Court appointments off the bat.
Youse guys are just losing it, more each day....
A "cosmic joke"? Mr. Brunni, your columns are usually better than that. There is nothing funny about any of this, in this or any other universe. Fascism is a lot of things, but it is never funny.
Isn't it ime to draw a line in the 'concrete'? All stops should be pulled out to prevent trump from shaping the S Court to his liking, The futre, for several generations of Americans is at stake. McConnell must not be allowed to push a new appt. through before the next elections.
If Democrats stand together, plus the few republicans with conscience above Party stand firm - no matter what parliamentary practice they have to employ --the next appt. can be forestalled. There are so many ways to stall for time. It must be done -- for all the babes and unborn. Get resouceful, Democrats, unite and Block.
1
Really unfunny.
How about free vasectomies instead of overturning RvW?
2
Media lost people's trust way before Trump. Otherwise he would not be elected.
Solution:
Take back the house and Senate.
Take back the WH in 2020
Add seats to the court to balance it.
Rules? Norms? Traditions? Fair play?
Not in the age of Trump.
3
The endless nightmare of Trump's daily assaults upon those of us who stand for the rule of law and all that America has stood for for over 200 hundred years is unbearable for any American who loves our country..
To see how quickly it can all fall apart and how political systems ment to restrain presidencal power can fail to stop a clearly unstable man to control so much power without any adults pushing back to hold him accountable.
It is sick watching grown men and women bow down and sing praise upon Trump.... I never thought America could fall so quickly.
3
I'm not sure where to post this suggestion, so I'll do it here.
These hand-wringing comments cry out over the desperate situation in which our country now finds itself. But, looking forward, what are the most plausible scenarios? How might this situation play out over the next decade or so? Couldn't the Times draw on insightful political scientists, historians and other leaders to explore the most plausible futures? What forces might take us there? What are the dangers of each path? What events might signal we're heading down a particular path?
I believe Republicans have an "official future" that we're now achieving the desirable state we need. But we see that story is grounded in a growing network of lies, consensual delusion and social distrust. That scenario seems certain to self-destruct in a sobering wreckage.
I see many Democrats holding to an "official future" that we'll simply vote ourselves out of this mess. The government and our culture will begin to heal. But after what we've been through, do we really believe that? Isn't that as implausible as it might be desirable -- the left's own consensual delusion?
Is there a scenario of irreconcilable differences? What are the warning signs? The points of no return?
Is there a desirable scenario that we've not yet identified that today's actors, left and right, could come to see as a better place? Is that scenario already out there today, waiting to be told?
Please New York Times, take this assignment!
The Republicans have won the popular vote for the presidency only ONCE in the past 28 years. They have lost six out of seven times. Yet they get to shape the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal government, and cause great destruction to families, institutions, the environment, etc.
From Bush v. Gore to denying Obama his final Supreme Court pick to Russian interference, they have wielded power through manipulation and lies, aided by Fox News, which has brainwashed just enough voters to take advantage of an electoral system that favors small states over large. The U.S. has become a profoundly undemocratic nation.
3
We the people cannot let the tyrrant destroy our great narion.
Few ideas for everyone’s consideration:
1. Engage: Repeated Protest march in every city and outside Congressional offices against the pupet nominated by Trump
2. Call Congressional members and attend town hall meetings against the nominarion
3. Protest march outside Supreme Court
4. Social boycott: March near the residence of the puppet judges currently in the Supreme Court
5.Funding source: Identify and boycott the business ventures (or major shareholder) owned by the crooks (eg Koch Brothers, Mercer, Adelson and others) funding the propaganda machine to get the nomination confirmed
2
I believe in non-violence and I believe in free speech. I also believe in shaming public figures, who, either by their words, actions or failure to speak up for what is the true and the good should not be able to avoid the public censure they so deservedly warrant. If Trump and his"deplorable" supporters wish to appear in public they should be prepared for whatever vile epithets people wish to throw at them. It isn't true that "names will never hurt me." Names sometimes can be more powerfull than "sticks and stones." Let's hear a few more vile epithets, folks. Right on, Maxine!
1
Maine's Susan Collins said to reporters the other day that she saw Roe v. Wade as "settled law." But she was also against many provisions of Sen. Toomey's GOP tax bill heist, until Mc Connell lied to her, promising Mainers would not be hurt on health care. She believed that traitor and voted for the tax bill. I fear both Murkowski and Collins will readily fold under a little pressure from Mc Connell regarding Supreme Court nominees, as they've done before this. Both these women senators are capable of sinking Roe v. Wade. Don't kid yourself, Frank.
1
I am from Maine and yes I believe she will cave. She wanted to be like Margaret Chase Smith, that she will never be. What I don’t understand how is we all knew this could happen if a Republican was elected. Now it is happening, no surprise. Let’s see what Mueller comes up with.
It is distressing but not unexpected. After all, the justice is in his 80s and is entitled to retirement. Trump is, however repulsive, entitled to nominate justices, and if Bush or Cruz or Kasich had won the presidency they too would nominate conservative candidates as well. There is great hope in the emerging generation of voters who can, in local, state, and Congressional elections, reverse the gigantic steps backwards and restore our country's commitments to human, civil, and women's rights, as well as to economic justice and environmental preservation. Trump looks lucky now, but his fortunes could change quickly. He is not all powerful and is probably much less favored than the polls suggest. Alexandria won this week. Vote in 2018.
2
The certainty of Trump appointing the Supreme c
The most convincing argument for preventing Trump from appointing Justice Kennedy's replacement is that Trump is under investigation by Robert Mueller and several state districts. His lawyers will probably end up pleading their case in the Supreme Court. How is it possible that he be allowed to appoint the very justice who will in all probability be the decisive vote to find in his favor?
A man like Trump, elected to the Presidency by a combination of dubious factors and an undemocratic and highly unfair Electoral College, gets to pick two justices to the Supreme Court. Which justices will be radically right wingers and stay on the court for many years.
A 'cosmic sick joke' is an understatement!!
God help this poor country.
2
I'm so dispirited I want to leave the country.
I don't see any hope.
I wish I could find some optimism, but I can't.
3
While what is stated is true--who knew that the demagogue The Founding Fathers anticipated would be aided and abetted by the other 2 co-equal branches of government?--the real fault lies not in Trump's lucky stars. It lies in ourselves.
An electorate who doesn't turn out to vote and especially not in the midterms. An Independent Nero-like demagogue happy to cleave the only party that stands in defense of Trump, claiming he's "making it more democratic" as the country burns. In younger generations who honestly can't believe rights they grew up with can disappear in a signature. The fault lies not in anyone's lucky stars, but in ourselves.
5
Not only will he nominate someone who will appeal to his base, more importantly he will nominate someone sure to protect him when the constitutional questions arising from the Mueller investigation reach the Supreme Court. Gut punch, indeed.
8
It's the long game now, and we're working for our children and grandchildren, not for the next election. Yes, it's discouraging and frightening, but it's also a galvanizing moment. Look towards the Civil Rights movement to understand how long real change takes. Also, it's important to understand that the Republicans are squandering an opportunity to unify the country and build a really long-lasting majority. But they are too radicalized for that. They are trading the short term gains of Trump and McConnell in return for losing a generation of younger voters who will make themselves heard. Even if the House or the Senate stays in Republican hands in the next election cycle, it is only a matter of time before they are on the outside looking in -- for decades.
5
If Trump wanted to obtain a true bipartisan vote not based on a few senators' fear of losing re-election (and which may not be sufficient to gain their support this time around), he could nominate a moderate in the mold of Merrick Garland. He would even receive praise for doing so.
2
Why would he want bipartisan support...He won...
2
In the end, it will be women who vote and kick him out of office. You know which women: the ones he grabbed, the ones he offended, the ones who dont want to see Roe vs Wade go away and disappear, the ones who feel children should not be taken away from their mothers.
We will crush him in the election..we are angry.
12
Don’t forget the ones Hillary threatened..
1
FORE! The Koch bros. and Vlad have already made up a list of judicial nominees. T rump is their caddy.
8
And to think Soros could of been doing the same for Hillary ..
1
True, we are in for an unbelievable assault on our national values under Trump's administration.Citation: the travel ban ruling; the Criminal prosecution on the border; the overwhelming assault for years on the 4th Amendment's privacy rights.
I do wish, however, that critics would focus on the economic damage rather than Roe V. Wade. The Supreme Court's recent ruling on unions, overturning a 40 year precedent, continues the trend against the labor laws enacted in the 1930s. These justices are not traditionalists! Ecominc issues are unifying. Social issues are divisive.
4
In addition to the three million votes for Hillary over Trump, nearly 8 million other voters, for a total of almost 11 million, said they wanted Hillary or someone else, mainly candidates of third parties or no parties. What kind of election system discounts this expressed "will of the people" in favor of aggregating winners state by state? This is democracy? How many people, whats more, just stayed home because they knew they lived in a state where their votes would be discounted, thrown away, because the state's probable winner was not the person they wanted?
We can't work up any sort of outrage about this system, yet columnists and commentators have written millions of words about the supposed turn of the nation toward populism. How about the turn of the nation toward frustration and anger?
The worst scandals in highly developed societies are hidden within the existing structure, covered over by "the way things have always been done". Accepted scandals where questions aren't even raised.
7
I would suggest democrats, and all those who respect democracy and the rule of law, focus on taking back the House in November.
The Supreme Court is likely a lost cause, but using the appointment of a justice who no doubt will be incredibly hostile to women's rights might help in elections in swing districts where women will want to express their anger about being pushed back down again.
No, it is not much, but it is likely the most productive way to channel the anger and frustration so many of us feel.
5
What country allows it's highest court to be stacked with overtly politically biased judges? What a dumb system. Everyone has their personal biases, but justice must be 'blind'. Gee whiz, it's no wonder America is such a mess with corruptible institutions such as the Supreme Court.
5
I wonder just how the Supreme Court will act when Trump tries to pardon himself all the while, breaking Constitutional Laws that continue to bend?
8
Theory: Trump is no more than a “useful idiot” for the bankrupt (morally) Republican Party. No longer a ‘loyal opposition ‘ but the disloyal driver of an actual coup. Aided by Putin, Murdoch, Koch Bros, etc.
10
What the anti-Trump camp (both the Left and the sane Right) needs to do is to wake up to the fact that Trump is not just a shame. He is a mortal danger.
Mr.Bruni, you advised dropping the Hitler comparison.
Look at what just happened in North Carolina.
Sure, Trump is no Hitler.
Merely because person A is not person B.
But the danger grows exponentially.
8
Trump is a child playing with matches.
8
Trump is an overgrown Child playing with nuclear matches. Seriously.
2
Please, please, stop with the sky is falling articles. We need to fight back against this president, but freaking out with every Presidential tweet or First Lady fashion decision only feeds his supporters. We all know that having Trump nominate another Supreme Court justice isn't in the interests of liberal views. Boohoo. There is a significant percentage of people in this country that think this is fine. We have to face that and figure out how to push the country back to the left. I work a job 40 hours a week that has nothing to do with politics. Why don't you guys who write these articles stop complaining and help us figure out how to fight back??
3
I would like to seed the idea of term limits for supreme court judges. In the Bush v Gore election, the Supreme Court demonstrated its vulnerability to political pressure and loss of objectivity. It is has only gotten worse. Shouldn't we revisit the notion of a lifetime appointment? We have divided ourselves into our tribes. The last bastion of holders of principals such as the common good, justice for all, a government for all of us - these general notions that used to mark our society and used to be upheld by the highest court of the land - has toppled. You can think it is for good or bad, but it now is undeniable, evidenced recently by McConnell's refusal to honor Obama's nomination and now for McConnell's unashamed proclamation that he will put forth as quickly as possible anyone that Trump nominates. We would not want these occurrences from either party. So, revisit lifetime appointment. Maybe it should be 8 years. We also need both sides represented, and thus, a 5 to 4 balance is desirable and should be preserved. It would be hard to argue that lifetime appointments have served us well. It's time to rethink this.
8
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For the first time, however, we have to ask what happens when the one who is given absolute power by a feckless congress is already absolutely corrupted to start with? We are running out of adjectives, but more importantly, we are running out of time.
Where are you Mr. Mueller? Wasting you time and taxpayer money to go after small crooks or investigating this so-called president?
4
I recall an old adage that says:
"God helps those who help themselves."
God must have been looking at the Doug Jones/Roy Moore election and SHE picked the guy who did not make advances on young girls.
God must have been looking at the Conor Lamb/Rick Saccone election and SHE picked the guy who stood with the people, not the guy who kissed up to Dopey Donald.
God will be looking at the 2018 elections. and one has to wonder how SHE will motivate the Evangelicals to do the right thing and have some regard for the ordinary people, rather than blindly following a lying, wenching megalomaniac.
VOTE for Democrats on November 6, 2018, top to bottom, federal, state and local.
10
You refer to him as ‘the luckiest man alive,’ but luck has little to do with his (cough) success. Rather, it has been a well-orchestrated (if messy), purely Machiavellian gambit by the right, which has been facilitated by those on the left. Yes, I said those on the left have helped him: not intentionally, but because they have been very successfully manipulated to feel guilty, simply for trying to point out that the emperor has no clothes. You mention that Trump “points to Robert Mueller’s investigation and to negative media coverage and portrays himself as a modern-day martyr.” Boo hoo – who’s the special snowflake again, I keep forgetting? Yet this nonsense strategy seems to work, because too many liberal voices, including you Frank, keep admonishing us to stay ‘civil’ in our objections.
At what point is it acceptable to complain? Like almost everything Trump does, this ‘martyr’ tactic is yet another pulled straight out of the fourth-grade bully’s handbook. Anyone ever recall the bully whining to teacher, “they all are being mean to me, and that’s why I lash out!” only to have the teacher take the bully’s side? Yeah, that’s how it feels when I read columnists like you, scolding me for being angry about the bully getting away with this. Turns out very little has changed between fourth grade and now.
5
Trump reminds me of Ozymandias, with time whose two stumps of stone will only be left standing in the sand. Likewise the same with the Trump Republicans, the hypocritical evangelicals, and even those in the Supreme Court. The single death of Savita Halpavannar has shaken the grip of of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Likewise the MeToo movement here. The Trumpites and their enablers might be feel all powerful, but their overreach will ensure cosmic justice.
3
"Never mind how much fear it sows in many women, in many people of color and in many L.G.B.T. Americans, all of whom could see rights that they fought so long and hard for snatched away."
In other words, America's second-class citizens may have their rights snatched away. The thing is, though, that every nation has its second-class citizens, whose rights are never guaranteed.
Second-class citizens always need to be prepared to seize their rights, and to vigorously resist their being taken away by those who would.
Sometimes it requires protest.
Sometimes it requires litigation.
Sometimes it requires non-violent non-compliance.
Each in its turn; each as appropriate.
This ain't the time for giving up.
7
The two most important characteristics of a political regime are its legitimacy and it effectiveness. The Trump regime has neither. And yet, give Trump credit: he knows how to manipulate others and how play the rawest, most lawless, and unethical power game--a game that is ripping this country and its people apart--intentionally.
Trump is our worst nightmare and he and his loyalist Republicans are ripping out and throwing away the many constitutional protections of a democracy and substituting authoritarianism and the rule of soulless, corrupt, intentionally cruel and unjust men.
The cruelty is jaw-dropping, no better demonstrated than Trump and Session's policy of separating/yanking away people's children at the border, with nary a thought about how to reunite them. So what? Big deal? These are "aliens," "rapists," "criminals," "animals."
This intentional dehumanization and mis-criminalization then justifies the Trump administration reprehensible treatment of brown people seeking asylum or entrance into this country.
The July 2 New Yorker cover brought tears to my eyes.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine?source=search_google_dsa_paid&gcl...
So where does such a terrible regime get all its power? That is the key question of our Trumperian age.
Answer: We the people, GOP, right-wing lyin' media, and Citizens United $$ gave it and still give it to him.
Will we take it back??
4
The four musketeers, Ryan, Trump, McConnell and Pence will go down in history as the four horsemen of our apocalypse.
13
As we have heard so many times, elections have consequences. The result of electing Trump with the GOP majority in both the Senate and the House has given him carte blanche. McConnell and Ryan have done nothing to temper Trump's excesses, lies, and manipulation. They fear his base, the people who have proven themselves to be all of what they display at Trump's rallies. So, the lesson learned is not to let the perfect get in the way of the good. Hillary was certainly not perfect as a candidate and there were legitimate questions about decisions she had made, but she was far and away more qualified than Trump by any measure. I cannot imagine her giving permission by her words and deeds for the unleashing of racism, sexism, xenophobia and more ugliness as Trump has done. So, all of those who voted for Jill Stein as a protest vote or stayed home rather than vote for Hillary now have the result of their shortsightedness. The difference of 80K votes in three states would have given her the Electoral College majority.
Some of the damage will not be undone. SCOTUS justices have life tenure. But if anything is to be salvaged, the 2018 elections are crucial. Stop whining. Get to work to register voters everywhere. Work for Dem candidates up and down the ticket. Take back the State Houses. Take back he House. Take back the Senate. And keep working even harder to send Trump packing if he has not been impeached or resigned by 2020.
No one should be surprised at any of this. Change it.
5
The NYT link to your article reads “How does a polarizing president with no mandate or compass get to reshape America?”
This started me think about the frequent (and generally self-serving) use of that term “mandate”. What does it mean? Some might reasonably argue that any legally elected president has a mandate. After all, the dictionary defines mandate as “The authority to carry out a policy”, which any president obviously has.
You argue that this isn’t sufficient, in part because Trump didn’t get a majority of the vote. To me, a mandate is when one enjoys the clear backing of the populace as reflected by getting an OVERWHELMING majority of the votes. Winning by a single digit percentage advantage clearly is not an overwhelming majority; it is a simple majority, so to me not a “mandate”
As illustration, Reagan’s victory by 22% over Mondale in 1984 was a clear mandate. By contrast, Obama’s 6% victory over McCain in 2008 and by just 2% over Romney in 2012 can best be described as “majority” and “barely majority” victories respectively, clearly not mandates.
And yet, Obama supporters argued that he had a “mandate” to make the changes that he and they wanted. Their readiness to grossly exaggerate his support reminds me of Trump’s also fallacious claims about innaguration crowd size.
The fact is that we live in a closely and deeply divided country, with no clear mandate for either side.
3
Trump exemplifies, personifies, why democracy in America is an absolute sham. That the institutions can be so radically and rapidly transformed under a new government highlight how fragile democracy is, which, in America, has led to its rapid demise. Money or democracy? Some people have chosen.
5
I watch the pundits and I realize all these “former Eastern District Prosecuting Attorneys” and “Office of Ethics” folks live in a distant past. They are talking about a rule of law, standards and ideas that just don’t exist anymore. Many of us cried the day Trump won, fearing the future-bending dystopian world that might dawn. And here we are. Any Rand dancing in Weimar and brown babies in cages.
8
I cannot understand why more attention hasn't been given to the undeniable fact that while the least educated in the backwoods of Mississippi understood that in order to service their (misguided) sense of what was good for them and the country, and the importance of the courts, many thousands of liberals, progressives, whatever you want to name them, turned their backs out of pure spite and allowed this creature to inhabit the White House by withholding votes at the top of the ticket, or by voting for the Russian plant, Jill Stein. Did they even understand for a second what turning over all 3 branches would mean? Or were their leaders too obsessed by their crowds and unrealistic rhetoric to educate them? Did they know many Federal Court appointments were for life, and that with a Republican Congress, the most unqualified could not be stopped. Did they care? Do they care now?
We were divided and conquered, and this is the result. And Bernie Sanders, Cornell West, and many others refuse to look in the mirror for how they shaped opinions, enabling their followers, through ignorance of the way things work, to deny this was a binary election, and that withholding a Hillary vote was a vote for Trump. Not to mention the press with their false equivalence.
We got played big time, and refusing to discuss it does nothing to make sure it doesn't happen again.
7
Worried handwringing now won't help if and when Roe vs Wade is overturned by ironically "activist" conservative (i.e. backward thinking )Supreme Court justices. But an over the top Democratic win in the Mid-term elections might give pause to Justices who despite evidence to the contrary are merely human, and do consider the social implications of their decisions. Time for Democrats, especially young women to frame Reproductive Rights as an "inalienable right" and perhaps say to the men in their lives as in the manner of THE TROJAN WOMEN: 'Vote with me or sleep without me!'
2
This man, this Trump, who has suffered not one consequence for any of the malevolence under-pinning his every word, his every action, his every self-satisfying edict, now gets another bite of the soul-crushing apple.
Here is the rub for me: Soon, this very man will be charged with crimes that could range from Conspiracy To Commit Crimes Against America, Bribery, Money-laundering and Obstruction of Justice. And this is the man who will nominate
a jurist for the Supreme Court? Really?
As Frank Bruni so brilliantly spelled out, this man is the recipient of absolutely no rebuke, no censure, no call for impeachment. The House eunuchs of his party are just too
many and too openly servile. As of this writing, Trump has won. If not the election (which should have been annulled
at the first sign of Trump's greased palm across the Volga) then every day since when there was no entity within the government in a position to oust him for crimes against humanity -- that being we, the American people.
6
I never would have thought that I'd see this nation of all so bullied by one man, such a dangerously unfit one at that. What would the veterans of The Greatest Generation have to say about this cynical President and his bizarre base? Would they feel obliged to remind us that the great empires collapse from within -- the enemy is us -- or would they only cover their eyes?
Cosmic joke indeed. It might just be that Trump and his mob provide the definitive proof that human beings are an evolutionary mistake.
6
Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump won 50 percent of the popular vote. Trump won 56.50 percent of the electoral vote and carried 60 percent of the states. John F. Kenney won by a narrower margin than Trump. Kennedy got 56.42 percent of the electoral vote and carried only 44 percent of the states, yet he got to appoint two Supreme Court justices. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush also won by narrower margins than Trump.
This is the time we must come to terms with the meaning of our tri-partite government, and recognize that the Supreme Court does NOT decide what the Constitution means for any but those before it in the particular case they decide. The Supreme Court gets to decide most times because to buck the Court would be a real constitutional crisis. But we face such a crisis now.
The people of each branch swear to uphold the Constitution. They do not swear to uphold what the Court says the Constitution means. As a president famously said about a court case with which he disagreed, "the Court has made its decision. Now let it enforce it."
Recognizing this reality is dangerous no matter what political stripe one has. I count myself as a progressive. But I remember well that Ed Meese, a rock-hard Republican Attorney General, held the same view, when he did not like the leftward drift of the Court. The political winds can and will flap back and forth over time, most likely.
But our system is set up so that two branches can defeat the excesses of a rogue branch. And sometimes one branch can put obstacles before the court. Congress always has the power of the purse. Presidents have been known to enforce some edicts more vigorously than others (Brown v. Board of Education, anyone?).
When two branches are in synch to trash the Constitution, as this President and the Court may be, the responsibility to save the Republic will weigh heavily on the Congress. And we the people.
1
“That doesn’t account for a Democratic takeover of at least one chamber of Congress, the importance of which cannot be overstated.”
I find this statement to be so quaint and so prevalent among our many political pundits. Why is it always understood that we’ll have free and fair elections this fall? Are we not aware that Our Leader has just scheduled an upcoming meeting with his overlord? Will he be requesting Russian “assistance “ in monitoring upcoming elections?
9
What a fantastic, boiled-down commentary on the character of this president and the unfortunate but expected results we are witnessing. Thanks for the article.
9
We've got to look at seismic changes, tectonic ones under all this. As one writer put it, we're returning to 19th century norms with the Supreme Court acting in conjunction with the wealthy and powerful rather than the people. Or it's the Imperial Presidency, which Trump and his tweets and actions reflect his ideas on the only way to run a country--like a bidness. The Electoral College now works against voting that reflects the true population representative of place. Wyoming w/around 500K people has in the Senate as much influence as NY, CA, and/or Texas or other more populated areas. Polarization is at the highest point for we are in many ways very separate in our physical, economic, and personal lives and the government works to separate rather than unite via tax "reform" , the Citizen United case via the Supremes, and while loosening some onerous rules against gays and that spectrum, conservatives are out to control women's bodies. What gives? Fissures in the land, and not just lava in Hawaii.
3
The Electoral College only applies to presidential elections. Voters are apportion to each state according to its population. Each state gets two senators regardless of its population, but that has nothing to do with the Electoral College.
All this handwringing over Trump’s influence, timing and luck obscures the underreported and far more dangerous reality that has been four decades in the making.
The Koch network along with other radical right billionaires have provided hundreds of millions to fund organizations like Judicial Watch, the State Policy Network and ALEC. All of which are aimed at objectives like union busting, voter suppression, and removal of the ability to take corporations to court individually or in class actions.
Trump benefits in taking credit for all the effort of this Fifth Column movement to end Democracy. So yes, there is something to be said for timing. I simply wish that columnists would do a far better job of focusing on these events and how they relate to far larger and darker threats that the radical right billionaires are achieving right under our collective noses.
9
RVN, great comment. the major media outlets should have been looking deep into the destruction of democracy since a) the end of the fairness doctrine during the reagan years, b) the end of the FCC as a meaningful organization during bush 2 and c) of course citizens united. Instead they focused on Obama as "feckless," and Hillary as "flawed." Both adjectives may have some truth to them; neither is on the seismic scale of items a,b,c. And at the very least, both of them had the conscience that as Frank points out, trump totally lacks. He is pure selfish evil-- a man without a soul.
2
No argument here Karen. This process of regression to 1920s America has been going on even before Reagan. The Republican House and Senate is essentially the John Birch Society of the Goldwater era...
I’m an American by birth, but have lived nearly my entire life in Canada. I used to admire the US from afar, though, and felt proud to be an American citizen.
I couldn’t say exactly why—because everyone seemed to admire the US, because it seemed to offer so much promise and opportunity, because it had accepted such a prominent role on the world stage, and because Americans seemed to love it so much? The US was even my first post-secondary educational stop.
Now I want to renounce my citizenship, no matter what the future cost will be to me. The country is In the clutches of an amoral and even cruel cabal, and its ugliness exposed and irredeemable. I have the sobering feeling that even a change of government (which is unlikely in the near term) will not change its new reality. I want no association with it.
13
Alex, unlike you, I was not born in this country, unlike you, I actually chose it because it is the best country in the world.
So for you and people like you, I support your suggestion: renounce!
You say you "want to" renounce your US citizenship. What are you waiting for?
1
If those three Democratic senators do not refuse to vote for what we know will be an ultra-right justice, then they are as bad as McConnell and Ryan themselves.
It is long past time for these "servants of the public" to put country before party.
4
If, as many predict, Roe v. Wade is overturned, the net result will be exactly zero.
First, even if a state passes a statute criminalizing abortion and the statute is upheld in the courts, you'll have to look long and hard to find a prosecutor willing to seek a criminal indictment against a doctor or patient for their rôle in a long-established, routine, everyday medical procedure (abortion).
Second, a grand jury could decline to issue the indictment the prosecutor seeks, deeming it offensive to its sense of fairness and common decency.
Third, the courts would need to uphold the indictment in pre-trial proceedings.
Fourth, a jury would need to convict the defendant. The requirements of a jury of 12, unanimity, and proof beyond a resonable doubt (the highest standard of proof known to the law) present formidable obstacles to a conviction, especially given the excellent quality of defendants' counsel we can expect in any prosecution of this nature.
Fourth, any judgment entered on a guilty verdict would need to survive post-trial procedures at the trial and appellate levels.
Fifth, the court's sentence could easily be a slap on the wrist (e.g., nominal fine, probation, 1 hour in a minimum security prison).
Sixth, the political reprecussions to the prosecutor who prusued such a case would likely be career-ending.
Under all these circumstances, one needs to stop, sit back, and think through the actual, real world effects of a Roe v. Wade reversal.
I think you left out how you get to step #1 in the first place when abortion becomes illegal. A woman, aften alone, has to find a Dr. who is willing to violate the law and and take all the personal and professional risks that entails to perform the procedure. Then the Dr. needs to have access to a medical facility with the right equipment, supplies, and support staff to safely perform the abortion. Then there needs to be some way to obtain Rx medicines and follow-up care for what has become an illegal procedure. Oh, and everyone doing this couldn't get paid any more than the woman herself could pay since you can't insure an illegal procedure. Even with nationwide LEGAL abortion there are several states where getting one is next to impossible. That's my take on why we need to be concerned.
3
S. R.:
All this is quite true, but the left is either too ignorant to see it or want to keep the threat alive to rile the faithful.
If Roe v. Wade were to be overturned (as it should be because it was wrongly decided), abortion wouldn't disappear. Overturning would not make abortion illegal; it would simply make it not a subject of federal jurisdiction (where it most assuredly does not belong).
Each state's legislature would decide what to do with abortion, allow it or not, in what degree, or not address it at all.
My guess is the vast majority of states, or at least states with the vast majority of populations, would keep abortion law roughly where it is.
I have no idea why liberals and abortion proponents don't see that. Even RBG said something similar a few years ago. She sees Roe v. Wade as being of limited utility because as a sweeping federal fiat it has ignited abortion wars everywhere and brought us not an inch closer to resolving the issue in a democratically accepted way. There was a better way.
By the way, the same is true of gay marriage, and many LGBT people said that, and advocated a state by state approach, fearing that Obergefell would go the other way. They got lucky. That decision was wrong also, but there is no outcry because, as it affects only about 5% of the population, most people don't care.
1
Trump is the gift to Republicans that keeps on giving and to the rest of us, the nightmare that won't end. We will now officially enter the Dark Ages with a weaponized and politicized Court whose decisions will impact our lives for many years. We can expect to see more Citizens United decisions that favor corporations over the individual, decisions that allow states to decide women's reproductive rights, severely reduced protections of voting rights and rights of minorities and the LGBT community.
I just saw the documentary on RBG yesterday. I picture Justice Ginsburg spending the rest of her days on the Court writing her dissents, but like our votes in the midterms, her voice and ours will be drowned out by those in power.
We are getting a tragic lesson in powerlessness and saying the Serenity Prayer isn't helping. The meek shall inherit the earth??? I think not. No matter who is president after Trump's Reign of Terror, the decisions of the tribalized Supreme Court will continue to haunt us. We can forget fair decisions on gerrymandering or Voting Rights. We can forget justice for all but the powerful.
After we learned of Kennedy's politically timed retirement, I asked my daughter if she wanted to move to Canada with me. I was only half kidding, but in these days of regression, we can run, but we can't hide.
Silver linings, anyone? I can't find any.
7
If only the Red States didn’t hold such disproportionate power in the Senate where the two senate votes of North Dakota are equal to the two of California, with 39 times the population.
If only gerrymandering wasn’t working so well .
If only the electoral collage was gone and we had a popular vote for president.
If only the unelected Supreme Court would stop declaring acts of the president and congress unconstitutional. [it’s not in the Constitution]
Now for the good news :
Supreme Court could be enlarged.
Trump could take up Un’s offer to open a resort in North Korea and live there.
Bloomberg could send Trump 20 billion to retire.
We could have a Democratic House and senate in 2 years
5
I think the swagger and bleating/squealing coming from inside the Oval Office is taking a severe toll on us (liberals) Again as I read this latest offering by Frank Bruni, I have to fight getting caught up in his despair. I don’t say he has no reason for it, there is a lot to be worried about at this time. I just think that Trump and his squalid entourage while having some success for now have perhaps generated more ill will and animosity towards themselves than we have seen in quite some time. It is well deserved and not likely to go away any time soon. I would not give them the pleasure of reading about my despair and this is a time when keeping up a brave face is most necessary. If only to deny them the satisfaction of believing they are invincible.
We cannot know how this will end, the finest minds cannot say for certain. What is in plain sight is the depth and degree of opposition to the destructive and mean spirited policies being imposed by Republican dominance of government.
To maintain some level of hopefulness, it would be more helpful to pile on the condemnation rather than indulge in so much sadness day in and day out. It sounds like giving up.
2
It would be helpful to also take every state and local election seriously. It makes a big difference. As Tip O'Neal said, "All politics is local."
2
I'd like to give a special thanks to all those Bernie supporters who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hill, who thought the level of destruction Trump would bring to the nation would be worth in in the end...and to Hillary for thinking that visiting the swing states and listening to the concerns of average Americans in the Midwest was a waste of resources...and to those voters who understood that The Donald was dangerous, but they were so desperate for change they voted for him anyway...and for those voters 'of conscience' who threw their votes away on third-party candidates, knowing it was meaningless; and for those citizens who didn't bother to vote at all...to Fox News, who think it's okay to destroy the country in their quest for money and viewers; to Congressional Republican 'leadership' who are willing to stand by silently and watch our institutions and free press dissolve in the face of lies so egregious it's unbelievable, so they can crow about how they got their tax cut through and reversed Roe v. Wade; for Mitch McConnell, who prevented Merrick Garland from getting a fair hearing and a vote; for voters who think saving lives by outlawing abortion is okay, but who are ok cutting food stamps and health care for people in need who are suffering; let's not forget the Russians and Nunes, the president's minion; and for Barack Obama, for not fighting harder and who was too worried about how news of Russian election interference would look. Who's to blame? We all are.
3
Another piece of his undeserved luck is the economy. Obama, against brutal opposition from the Republicans--remember when the national debt was "the issue"?-saved the economy and set it on a steady path to healing. He was not allowed to do what should have been done--greater stimulus--by the Republicans. So, now, Trump can crow about relatively slow growth, which the Republicans forced upon Obama, and, maybe, somewhat faster growth now, once the national debt is no longer remembered.
5
Just one more reminder to Democrats that we can't withhold our votes to make a point. Or because our candidate didn't inspire us. Or because we believed some conspiracy theory that we saw on the internet.
Donald Trump, and all that has come with him, didn't win the election. We handed it to him!
Anyone for a protest vote?
8
I agree with everything you stated----now what? I disagreed with Bush vehemently, but I still recognized my country. Today I am thinking I need to learn how to dissent not just stand in the street with signs. How do I fight for the soul of my country?
3
If we are looking to Collins and Murkowski or to Flake and Corker for the political courage to put country ahead of self and party, we have to look to the Democrats who are likely to vote with Trump to do the same.
5
I'm sorry, but it appears that the DNC's attempt to rig the nomination of HRC continues to bite them on the you know what.
Had they not made the deal to keep the nomination for her regardless of her unpopularity with the working class, President Biden would be making HIS second appointment to SCOTUS.
3
Eloquent. Entirely true. Grim and terrifying.
6
I share Mr. B's sense of illness at the thought of The Donald hand picking more regressive judges to further the disintegration of the USA.
The Donald cares not one iota about the repercussions on millions of Americans. His overarching motivation is to undo the Obama accomplishments and to punish those whom he deems are not "his" people.
We have 2-1/2 more years to survive this assault on civilization. Can we make it?
3
The best way to deal with Trump’s America is to leave it.
4
Frank, I love you, but please don't add to his mystique. His followers - I won't call them "supporters" as there is something too obsequious about them - already think he was put in place by divine providence. This "cosmic joke" talk only gives credence to their delusions.
3
I hope the Democrats have a list prepared of legislation to prevent one person from having so much power. The laws were written assuming a conscience-driven president, but now they must protect against a crazy man.
2
Thanks, Mr. Bruni, for pointing out the obvious, something that goes without review when people describe this president as "pro-life", which is what should be obvious to anyone even remotely familiar with his history, Donald J Trump is most decidedly not pro-life or even pro anything that doesn't serve his immediate purpose.
Pretending to be pro-life, an Orwellian description of being anti-abortion, happens to suit his autocratic aims pandering to the religious autocrats who occupy a high position is his base, for the sole purpose of maintaining power with nary a thought to the repercussions of his actions on any front, personally, domestically or internationally.
Like any bully, Trump takes pleasure in attacking anyone either weaker, in a minority position or relatively powerless in the context of his attack. Lacking the intellectual chops to argue his off the cuff, animus driven, solipsistic opinions with credibility, he relies on the most extreme members of the only party that would have him to take care of the menu while he does his reality show greatest hits tour, attends to his barely legal business concerns and hobnobs with world leaders, none of whom, including the dictators he admires, have an iota of respect for him.
It's indeed not funny that this mediocre, malicious crook is destroying every important institution in our government and poisoning everything and everyone who is susceptible, craven or compromised enough to believe in him.
4
At this point, while I appreciate the points made in your great prose, it's not that trumps power is unfunny.
It's that with all of his bluster and ignorance and freedom to speak via twitter without being challenged and lack of understanding of American history - - and so much more - - his vile rhetoric, coupled with his support of guns, has now produced death. While there will probably never be, absent a confession, a straight line from Trumps mouth identifying our free press as an enemy of the people to the Annapolis shooter, it is sitting there in plain sight.
Trump must be brought to heel. If nothing else, he must be told that his words, forget his deeds because he hasnt done much, just his words have consequences and he must think before speaking his unique gibberish. HE MUST BE TOLD, much like a child.
5
I find it so surreal to be living in this time. We are being led by two empty shells of human beings - Trump and McConnell - and we have no apparent recourse. I understand now how 1930s Germany came about. There is something very wrong with a species that chooses to self destruct by falling for very sick individuals.
12
For all those liberals who just could not stomach voting for "her" and wanted nothing in the world but Bernie, congratulations. This is where we are now. You just could not see beyond your hatred for "her" but will now have to endure a world with diminished rights for women, people of color and other minorities. Welcome to a conservative America because your principles dictated that staying home was a better option to voting.
10
Imagine a world where President Obama had been found to be ineligible for office because he was born in Kenya. The Republicans would have declared him illegitimate and impeached him at their first opportunity, and claimed every appointment he made was illegitimate and tainted as well. Kagan and Sotomayor would have been impeached for their illegitimate nomination, and quite likely every Obama-nominated District Court of Appeals and Federal District judge as well.
Now, if Trump conspired with a hostile foreign power to influence the 2016 election, then he is guilty of treason and illegitimate. Will Democrats impeach, if they have the political power to do so? They simply must, if they want the US government to be legitimate. And, just as the Republicans surely would have done were the shoe on the other foot, Democrats must impeach the illegitimately appointed Gorsuch, the to-be-determined Kennedy replacement, and so on throughout the federal judiciary.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Legitimacy in office springs from legitimate democratic elections. If Trump is guilty of treason, all taints must be expunged.
Of course, this would require Democrats to have the same courage as Republicans have, and there's no evidence of that.
6
The Supremes are appointed for life, unless they commit a crime. They chose when they leave.
One ought to read Winston Churchill's "The Gathering Storm" for an analogy to another divisive politician who seemed to have everything going for him -- until he didn't.
3
The fact that you hate his tenuous claim to power - and I agree completely with your analysis - is exactly what makes this so delicious for your "President" and his credulous supporters. They rule more out of spite and hatred than anything else. And it's not enough that their side wins, your side side must lose.
Is this how a modern government is supposed to work? Is this the genius of your constitution in action? How far must the majority be pushed before it says no more?
4
“... the advantages always seem to cut his way...”
I have long thought that Donald Trump never *really* wanted to be president. I thought all during 2015 that four years is a long time out of the spotlight—he owned some of 2012 with his “birther” claim—and wanted his attention back. So he ran.
He said egregious, outrageous things. He confessed to doing outrageous things. He wouldn’t reveal his tax liabilities. He refused to apologize for his racism. He upended the Republican Party table during the 2016 primaries, forever cementing enemies among the hallowed names on the party’s masthead. He campaigned as if he knew the presidency were beyond his grasp. He displayed an astonishing ignorance about just about everything. He appeared stunned that he won. He reached—by accident—the holy grail of American politics that had eluded far more qualified and principled men (and one woman). He hit both the Powerball and the Megaball in consecutive nights.
Now, with one gifted (but forever tarnished) Court seat to call his very own, it just got sweeter. He has an open field, for, unless death takes him, time is on his side. A complete cipher could set the course of American life long after anyone now alive has gone.
Now wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before a king?
6
Trump is playing whack-a-mole on migration, trade, the budget, law enforcement, and just about everything else.
Our (former?) allies in Europe, Asia, and the Americas recognize that politics is more complex than three dimensional chess.
Whack-a-mole is fun to watch, and requires little skill to play. Three dimensional chess is slow. It is difficult to understand.
Guess who makes the most noise. Guess who gets the most media. Guess what happens to democracy in the USA.
1
When will liberals, acting as unwitting apologists for the right, realize they are being manipulated for Trump’s benefit? A lot of stories honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on the 20th anniversary of his assassination, pointed out that he is conveniently remembered as a respected dignitary, when in fact he was considered a dangerous extremist by many Americans at the time. Not surprisingly, the demographic of those who feared King then, closely aligns with Trump supporters now. Many who decry BLM and ‘uncivil’ Trump opponents as ‘not living up to the legacy of the civil rights movement’ are utter hypocrites, having derided King and other activists then, with the same inflammatory rhetoric used against any who dare oppose their dear leader.
There is no mystery in Trump’s rise – his tactics are identical to those you will see from any elementary school playground bully. Don’t like it? Then don’t let him play the martyr, by exposing such claims as the lies they are. Do NOT back off when scolded by the right to ‘act more like King,’ because silent retreat is NOT how King accomplished what he did. We can remain disciplined, and still be angry – you think King never got angry? The civil rights movement did not wither under false guilt, like way too many on the left now, goaded into submission by the bully right. NO! The point was to stand tall, but not give the bullies any excuse to react violently - that is where their discipline, dignity, and courage shone through.
2
Donald Trump is no Cosmic Joke. He is the natural heir of American Democracy, a system hailed as the model form of government by American politicians. No need to put the blame on some metaphysical force dangling strings on the puppet.
It is American Democracy and its machinery that bestow so much power to one person who, as Frank Bruni put it, "... barely won the White House, under circumstances — a tainted opponent, three million fewer votes than she received, James Comey’s moral vanity and Russia’s amoral exertions — that raise serious questions about how many Americans yearned to see him there."
How many Americans support Trump or not do not matter. Let the facts speak for itself: History will mark Trump as one president who changed the course of USA. How many presidents can claim that "accomplishment"?
3
"How many presidents can claim that "accomplishment"?"
That's like calling the arsonist that burns your house down a remodeling specialist...
So, what is the punch line for the Mueller joke? If he comes back with no Russian/Trump collusion, who has said, "OK, the investigation has been completed, the President is cleared. Now, we need to work together for the good of the country." What is the cosmic plan? We sure haven't seen any cosmic evidence.
Given the left's preponderance of shunning fire arms, will marching and chanting get the job done?
1
For all those Bernie supporters who said there was no difference between Trump and Clinton so they stayed home on Election Day, are you still saying that?
This national disgrace of a President and the damages he is causing is on you.
12
I would wager to bet that Donald Trump's Power is a cosmic joke to Mr. Putin. The tragedy is that Putin's travesty isn't over, not by a long shot. All the American "sheep" who were swayed by Mr. Trump's manipulative and dishonest rantings. They may reverse Roe vs. Wade but they will not get the last laugh. They will be hurt the most by this debacle. And Mr. Trump... what will he get? He will probably get to build a hotel somewhere in Moscow with his name emblazoned in gold.
7
These four years will take a place in history alongside the McCarthy era, the Great Depression and the Civil War as one of the darkest times in US history.
And just as Trump has made the US the laughing stock of both the world's democracies and its dictatorships, his own name will will be disgraced, connoting for future generations grandiose incompetence and shameless self-serving corruption and betrayal.
It doesn't take a stable genius to see that coming.
3
"A death in the family. A punch to the gut."
Mr. Bruni, keep some of the hyperbole in reserve for when President Trump appoints another Justice, such as when RBG retires.
What will you say then?
You knew this was coming. Why the surprise?
Elections have consequences. A guy supposedly smarter than Trump said that. Why argue?
2
In the 2000 election, I stupidly cast a vote for Ralph Nader. It was only stupid in hindsight, because Nader is one of the most knowledgeable policy wonks and honest guys in Washington. And of course I wasn’t inspired by Al Gore. No one was. As a result, the party split, the winner was decided by Justice Kennedy, and we got a lying government that started a gulf war that killed millions and cost trillions.
Fast forward to 2016: I learned my lesson, but thousands of others didn’t. Instead of voting for an imperfect Clinton, thousands vainly threw away their vote on either Bernie Sanders or a more ludicrous choice, Jill Stein. Why? To “send a message?”
Trump didn’t “win” the election. He is president because of that fact and a few other lucky breaks, including a flawed electoral college and a flawed primary system. He “won” the presidency in the same sense that super lotto winner “calculated” which numbers to chose.
2
Trump took an oath when he was sworn in as President. He has not abided by that oath. He is treasonous. What is more frightening are the Trump voters. They are equivalent to cult members. I avoid them at all costs.
2
The truly "tainted candidate" was Donald J. Trump. The media hadn't done their investigating on him during the campaign and was just reporting on his ability to create a reality show and throw bombastic insults at his opponents. Trump's empty, baseless, insults became "telling it like it is" instead of evidence of his lack of knowledge on the issues and how government works. Trump's campaign, and now his administration, is the greatest scam in history on the American people. This is the only 'greatest in history of the U.S.' claim that this grossly unqualified president can make.
1
The reason we are in this predicament today is because of hate fueled by ignorance. The voters who went for trump did so because they hated a black man as president. Because they hated a woman with power. Because they wanted more money for themselves. Because they wanted to return to a white power society. The voters who bought the lies of Fox News for years before trump ran are the reason we are here. trump has no mandate, trump was not truly elected. He is as lucky as he is cruel. He is president to only his base. trump should be impeached for failure to uphold his oath of office, for failure to respect the First Amendment.
2
Wait until he picks Rudy Giuliani as the new Supreme Court justice. Or better yet, Jeff Sessions and has Giuliani replace Sessions! Would there be any Republicans finding that disagreeable?
1
It is truly sickening that the man least fit to be president will decide the makeup of the Supreme Court for generations to come. No joke here.
9
A "tainted opponent"? If Hillary Clinton is considered "tainted" it is primarily because the GOP was determined to taint her for the past 25 years or so. Benghazi? Vince Foster? Pizza-gate? And of course, the emails! And much more!
I voted for Bernie in the Primary (and no, I'm not a youthful Bernie Bro!) but voted for Hillary without hesitation in the General.
5
He gets to reshape America because he won the election. Why cannot the Dems grasp that simple fact?
1
Let the prosperous blue states take their tax base and form their own more perfect union. The red states can flounder around on their own.
9
Surely if the democrats get control of the Congress they can legislate to establish such progress as the US has made toward becoming a modern socially responsible democracy ruled by law. The court can only intepret the law, it cannot make it. Maybe there is no need to panic too much, or to destroy civility to save it. True Christians who have not yet been seduced by money embrace everyone, encouraging them to vote for cooperation, inclusion, peace and wealth rather the competition, isolation, violence and poverty which appear to be core agenda of the current administration. A tall order, maybe, but the only practical way forward. The nation needs its brave and loving hearts to step forward to protect it from the wealthy and thoughtless cretins and thugs who have weaseled their way into power.
Three words: Pack the court. Dems have to be all over it, first chance they get.
1
Putin could not be more pleased. And all it took was sending a few of his oligarchs to wine and dine Trump in 2013.
4
"The advantages always seem to cut his way." Oh boo-hoo. Quit whining Frank. The populist wave is real. Trump is not some freak fissure in the space/time continuum. He arrived (and WON) because so-called "progressives" have pushed a very large portion of the American polity too far too fast. These changes left the economy moribund, and millions of middle and working class people behind. If you don't like it, win the next election fair and square, just as he did.
Yes, trump seems like an joke, but his role will become more defining than a punchline.
It's way too much to bear in 3 days, isn't it?
First was the upheld of the Muslims ban.
Then the devastating blow to unions.
And out of nowhere, Kenndy is retiring.
I blame myself.
I should have camped outside the Capitol and the WH in 2016, vowing never to leave until Obama stage rallies around the country forcing McConnell to hold hearing and confirmation for Judge Garland.
But I didn't
And now McConnell got to decide for me how I live my life from now until I die.
Can it get more depressing than this?
2
“And it ignores one other check that works on some presidents but not on Trump. It’s conscience.”
Frank, will you please come out and say it already: Trump has no conscience and is incapable of empathy because he is a sociopath.
7
Conservativism as it is currently being implemented looks remarkably like fascism. Maybe not 1933 Weimar (although I suppose we need to wait and see), but certainly Italy in the 20's.
4
This president isn't enabled by Congress as much as he is by his rabid red base in the heartland. Angry, enraged and engaged in what the president is doing to the country, they have cowed Senators and Representatives into doing his bidding in order to hold on to their seats. More than anything, the base is galvanized by the hate, the attitude and the division their hero tweets every day. It's mob rule by the minority.
Congress will pass laws that please the president, who will then sign executive orders, courtesy of the expanded authority of his office, thanks to the Supreme Court, who will, after appeals by the lower courts, rule in favor of the president, who will then gloat and mock the Democrats and the rule of law. The joke is on America and his cruel base is laughing with him.
I really don't recognize this country anymore. I never thought a new york con man could con the red states but he did it and won. I weep for my and my children's human rights where money and power against the poor and powerless will always win in trump's supreme court.
Canada please open your borders for American progressives because this country is regressing rapidly.
7
Pesident Trump is no Cosmic joke . He is the the candidate who wiped out all of the Republican candidates and then defeated the the person that the DNC had already crown the next president of the United States. And this guy is a person who is a bombastic self-promoting reality show host. What is worst, he is doing what has always been a political no no.He is keeping the promises he made on the campaign. The economy, 3 million new jobs, unemployment the lowest in decades and for some groups the lowest ever. Even the NYT gave him credit for defeating the ISIS Islamic State. He is working to bring peace and a nuke free Korea. As far as the election results, didn't Hillary and Mr. Bruni hear about the Electoral College? Did they black out Trump took both houses of Congress with him and they are elected by popular vote. So Mr. Bruni may call him a cosmic joke but he also called the President of the United States.
1
Don't worry Frank Bruni, sooner or later, Trump will be proven a Criminal and, no doubt, a big time criminal. He may end up spending his very elderly years in jail.
The Universe may love to tease, even torment us, but in the end she favors Justice. She most certainly knows right from wrong and sometimes she serves up a big juicy dessert served with real whip cream. That may be seeing an obese man wearing orange behind steal bars. He will be rapidly losing weight and his face will be red with rage. I couldn't think of a better dessert.
1
Chaos theory is indeed at work.
There is no karma.
3
these days it takes courage to just read the paper.
8
Can convicted felons nominate members for the SC? We can all hope that he will be impeached by then . . .
2
I wonder why no one is talking about the effects Mueller's investigation will take with the results of the election. Why if he finds Russian interference, why it does not invalidate the whole election? Give the election to Clinton? Take back all the stuff Trump and gang took? Why would it mean that the VP would take over? If Trump and Pence were elected on the same ticket, the same vote, why would Pence take over? That should invalidate the Gorsuch appointment? Please explain why it will not work that way. This seems to be the only logical conclusion.
5
The US Constitution explains the basis for our laws and rules of governance. And, based on your questions, it provides guidance to change the rules.
1
We'll see if any republican senators have a resemblance of conscience left. Previously, the court had a long standing vacancy so there was some urgency getting Gorsuch confirmed. That is not the case now so delaying the process until after the mid terms makes sense.
If democrats offer candidates that independent voters can embrace - and thus turn out to vote - there could likely be an historical landslide victory in the making. But if the election becomes a referendum to restore Pelosi as Speaker that is probably not going to happen.
Perhaps the best outcome we might hope for is another 8 member Supreme Court. It is highly probable that Trump would simply refuse to nominate anyone acceptable if republicans are ousted from power.
1
Trump is the culmination of Democratic failures They did nothing but pander to labor for years while supporting Wall St and the banksters. They held no one accountable for the mortgage meltdown. In fact threw money at the banks that caused it instead of indicting and prosecuting those to blame. Let's not even start with the DNC coronation of Clinton so the outcome of Trump was inevitable given that the deplorables and those who cling to their guns and religion had enough. Elections have consequences and the Republicans know how to capitalize The Dems are lost in the fog and will stay there if they keep giving us same old same old
4
Thanks for that clarification, Patrick. Now I understand why we are cursed with Trump: it's all the fault of the Democrats.
Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, the "Christian" right, the Russians, the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson--none of them had anything to do with it.
Got it.
Trump gets to reshape the US because we have a largely low-information electorate whose prejudices and fears are easily swayed by a demagogue. Europe in the thirties is the starkest model for this phenomenon, but we are seeing this trend in contemporary Europe, and around the world, for that matter. The shame of it is that the US electorate, and the western Europeans, have the structural means to resist fascism, but not the intelligence, education, insight, or will to do so. They have been bought, lock, stock, and barrel, by the likes of Koch and Murdoch.
6
Isn't it an inherent contradiction to have a court that is partisan? Your country vets judges as if they were politicians. How does that not implicate them--and make them susceptible to--politics? Wanting to know in advance how judges will decide issues seems ridiculously contradictory to the idea of what a judge is supposed to do--judge a case on its merits.
So I think it's a deeper problem than Kennedy's retirement and Trump's confounding and contested hold on power. This just happens to be a collusion of events and circumstances that exposes the problem: making everything--including hiring judges--about LEFT or RIGHT, DEMOCRAT or CONSERVATIVE.
5
Justice Kennedy's timing is extremely suspect. As a justice and holding witness to the excesses and clawing back of democratic norms, it is shocking that he has pointedly chosen this point in time to retire: before the midterms.
9
I agree. The timing of this is far too fishy. I think we may soon see some clues as to why he chose this time to retire.
1
Clinton, Bush and Obama had both houses of Congress at the start of their first term. All 3 three went on to inflame the electorate as a whole and neglect their base. I can see where this Blue Wave fantasy comes from.
Trump has not neglected his base. My interpretation is, he is feeding his base. Politicians in Blue states will probably keep their jobs. Democrats in Red states won't fair as well.
Joe Manchin can say, I am a Democrat. I've always been a Democrat. I'll die a Democrat. He won't be in office when that happens.
It would be nice if our elected Representatives voted their conscious instead of for their political survival. Sometimes a person has to do the right and honorable thing even though it may possess personal jeopardy. Its time for politicians who think Trump is dangerous to stop playing the game and end this talk of "I am willing to work with the President". My belief is that proverbial you know what storm is coming right at Trump via the Mueller investigation and the NY Attorney General's office. Guys like Trey Gowdy are going to look like fools. There's still time to get on the right side of the law.
3
If anyone of these senators Corker, Flake and McCain would renounce the GOP and become independents, as George Will and Steve Schmidt did, we could be free of this problem. No more Republican majority in the Senate. No more McConnell. Be patriots, and do this for your country, Senators.
28
Obama and the democratic leadership deserve an enormous amount of blame for this. As usual, he caved on one of the most important fights of his two terms, and put us all in this situation. I strongly suggest to all democrats to stop supporting the DNC leadership as presently constituted, because they clearly don't care much about the supreme court, health care, or any of the other issues they roll over on.
3
All the Democrats gave us was, "I'm with Her." It wasn't enough, was it? No we can reap the whirlwind that our entitlement and laziness brought us.
2
You made us wait until the last line for the gem..."shamelessness is his greatest gift." How true, how true. He cares only for the theater and himself, all else falls by the wayside.
5
A big difference between Supreme Court appointments for Trump is that McConnell got rid of the filibuster for court appointments.
Without doing that, Gorsuch would not have been appointed.
Same will be for this next appointment.
Trump will go down in history as our worst president ever.
But history will also recognize the terrible damage done to our country by both Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Not just because of abortion but also tax cuts for the rich, deficits, campaign finance.
28
He will have checks on his power and they will be the voices of the majority of Americans or probably close to 70% of we, the people after what he and Sessions have done, and are still doing, as far as separating babies, toddlers, and young children from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border.
This proves the hate and evil within our first 'Russian' president and he thinks he is invincible and that his power will grow with this appointment, but he is going down, and a large section of the GOP will not want him re-elected. He is for himself, first and foremost, and more of a Putin Puppet than a GOP puppet.
NOW Mr. Bruni refers to Hillary Clinton as a "tainted candidate?" Perhaps if he'd used that phrase during the primaries instead of joining his colleagues in bashing and ridiculing Bernie Sanders we wouldn't be having this discussion.
3
Trump is indeed the luckiest man alive, though I wouldn't trade places with him in a million years. But he was preceded by another incredibly lucky Republican icon: Ronald Reagan. He was Teflon #1 - nothing stuck to him. Iran-Contra: brushed it off. Survived cancer. Survived an assassination attempt and shooting. The cost of oil plummeted during his presidency. Plus the pièce de résistance: the Soviet Union put Gorbachev in the Kremlin, a genuine reformer who inadvertently dismantled the Soviet Union and its empire, handing Reagan an unparalleled gift for which this B-grade actor got the credit.
2
Hold on there just a minute, Mr. Bruni!It's not The Donald's fault that SPJUSTICE Kennedy is elderly and made the decision to retire from the bench."Time and tide," as Dickens was wont to write, "wait for no man!"Moreover, you could take a mediocrity like the late Harold Carlswell, whom RN turned down when he asked for a SP appointment, or the late Abe Fortas and make either into a distinguished member of the Court who would grow into the job, the position, and become distinguished jurists on the order of Arthur Goldberg and Oliver Wendell Holmes. It appears to be only your belief, assumption that any jurist appointed by the present admin. would be a Trump puppet!You don't know and neither does anyone else!We are at the mercy of events!Former chief justices like Rehnquist and Warren Burger were approved by the Senate , both highly conservative, but both acquired a reputation for judging each case on the merits. Life is a moving reality as I observe in my latest YOUTUBE. video,and people are always evolving. Look how President Trump has grown from being just another greedy, narcissistic, egotistical businessman to a man of the people, a tribune for the citizenry who puts the country first ahead of his preoccupations, and the American people in ever greater numbers appreciate him for that!
It's the same old story: partisans complain about the Other Guy getting to name Supreme Court justices, ushering in the final collapse of America. Did the world end with Nixon? Nope. Reagan? Unh-uh. Clinton? Negative. Surely Obama? Sorry, no. When you're a political partisan, doomsday is just around the corner. But this time it's real! Again.
1
Is America still a democracy? That's easily answered. In a democracy, there would never have been a president George W. Bush or Donald Trump.
6
“The media, normally the last check on a president with total control of government, has lost the trust of most Republicans and many Democrats, after two years of Trump pummeling.”
No, the media has lost the trust of everyone after a year and a half (pre-election) and now another year and a half of Trump coddling, of using him for ratings, of being party to his wrestling-audience howls and blood-lust, and of equivocating in the face of blatant, defiant, 24/7 lies. Don't flatter yourselves: you profit as much from this catastrophe as he does.
11
Mr Bruni. You are factually incorrect. Supreme Court votes never were filibustered and thus never required the 60 votes you wrote about. Justice Thomas was voted on with 52 votes.
1
Fair play suggests McConnell should wait until after the new congress is seated in 2019 before nominating a replacement for Kennedy. So... by the definition of 'fair play' under Republican rule that will not happen.
I do find encouragement in the idea that the Republican's shameless emersion in hypocrisy will inspire a Great Blue Wave.
Make America Blue Again!
4
Bush, another president elected without the majority (funny how lately republicans have gotten this distinction), got himself 9/11 and started our forever wars in the middle east. Oh, and he left us with the great recession to boot. Republican presidents are the cosmic joke of this century so far.
11
You're right about the cosmic part. God's hand is obvious in Trump's election. He is giving America another chance before we are punished.
2
Right here, in a nutshell, is the perfect illustration of why we're in the mess we're in.
3
Andrew of New York City, that's not GOD'S hand you see in Trump's election and it's certainly not God's hand you see in the traitor's handiwork. That hand has scales and sharp talons. That hand is attached to a body disguised as that of an angel when, in actuality, it is the devil himself whose handiwork we are actually viewing. You evidently suffer from the same blindness that has affected most of the evangelical community; remember Trump's boasts of molesting women or his claims that he has no need of prayer because he alone can solve the problems of the world or the insane remarks that his followers should violently attack the press or any other group who speak ill of this Manchurian candidate?
One more thing before I go: It is not a Loving God who punishes mankind. It is man himself. God loves his creations; He does not punish those He loves.
Bruni provides, again, an important lesson for participation in American politics: get the facts as well as possible, make rational decisions, don't drink the orange poison. And he helpfully provided this lesson up-front so that I could save myself the chore of reading farther. He refers to "a tainted opponent." With such facile nonsense was the road to the White House paved for Donald Trump.
1
This is so depressing. If one weren't already an atheist or a doubter ...this would be the defining proof. Say what you will, but if there was, indeed, a loving God; they would not be "party" to such destruction.
4
'' It’s possible, yes, that two Senate Republicans...'' - Well, I am going to submit that it is more than just 2.
It is one thing to jam through tax cuts for the rich, and cut social programs that directly harms millions of people. It is also one thing to try (50+ times)and repeal health care to 100's of millions of Americans on the principal of privatization, free markets and blah, blah ,blah.
It is definitely another to directly take away the absolute dominion of women to control their own bodies. This would seem doubly true for republican women in the Senate, that would be essentially voting against themselves. All those republican Senators that happen to be men have wives, girlfriends, mothers and daughters too. This is a whole other scale of government intrusion.
So, (there may be people doing eye rolls) put pressure on every single one of those Senators. Write, call, post, show up at their offices, whatever it takes. Voting is but the last thing of all the things that everyone can do.
These are your rights, just as much as they are for women.
2
Well the next obvious step would be to have this Congress repeal the 22nd amendment, and while they’re at it, elections, so we can finally have our first President-for-Life.
Now we know what happens when everyone runs to the same side of the ship at once. The future opening lines of The Star Spangled Banner will be, "Blub.......blub.......blub...... "
2
Frank, you speak 100% for me and my fears about Trump and his destruction of our county. I hope every eligible voter votes to defeat him.
1
Our founders could not envision the nasty piece of work that is Donald J. Trump--to our current, serious detriment. King George III threw his weight around against the colonists, yes, but his worst qualities don't hold a candle to the brutal; deliberately ignorant; separating-children-from-their-parents; misogynistic; and TREASONOUS president our Constitution now overly indulges and protects. Add a big dose of Fox News's
"all-lies-all-the-time" broadcast ethos and you come up with a Molotov cocktail of possible system failures that could blow up our democracy. The Mueller probe has provided the single ray of hope for many of us. But a new SC justice could bring in just the short fuse the Court needs to raze or hobble that effort into oblivion. I don't know...I'm both worried and determined to do all I can to help us claw back from this. But I'm more afraid than I've ever been.
2
Speaking of cosmic, I prefer to view the affairs of state with the eye of Kurt Vonnegut, the cosmic overview which is always laughable. The history of so-called civilization is one of constant turmoil, fueled by greed and power, and the pitiful efforts of the sheep to control the wolves. This current insanity is just another epoch in our debatable evolution. How funny is that?
2
Power corrupts. And absolute power, absolutely. The man has no conscious, no shame and his minions are complicit in epic Shakespearean fashion, but he has a weakness. Legacy. His whole life has been about planting his name, in Pharoah-like fashion, everywhere he can. So he can be attacked in that fashion. And quite effectively, too, right down to chiseling his name off of every obelisk he puts it on and leaving him forgotten to history.
It's a saving grace, though it will come after he is removed from power. And it won't be easy; removing such leeches from the drug of power never is. But it starts, in our republic, by voting in November. It's time for the People to start taking back the Power granted them by dint of the Constitution.
John~
American Net'Zen
2
Trump does not represent the majority of our citizens as evidenced by his historically low approval ratings. He lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes and the evidence that Russia influenced our election to elect the cruel, corrupt, criminal and incompetent Trump is agreed upon by the Intelligence Community and both Dems and many GOP.
An aberration, an anomaly; Trump, as this article makes clear, with the support of the soulless McConnell now has the chance to undo decades of progress on human rights including the right to a legal abortion. In the 1970’s I received excellent health care at a reasonable cost, including an abortion, thru Planned Parenthood. Abortion will not disappear because the Far Right wishes to make it so. Women will be forced to once again use unlicensed medical providers resulting in the death of many innocent women.
5
He is a sinner in the worst way , his karma is wrecked for the next thousand lifetimes. But what pains me the most is his ease at pitting Americans against Americans. I can barely catch my breath when I think about that. What American president does that !
5
Make Trey Gowdy rue the day that he said "show us what the investigation has turned up."
With any luck, by September 1, Robert Mueller files some indictments of Trump himself, and others around him (Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, possibly others, Cambridge Analytica, and Mike Pence, possibly as an unindicted co-consipator) for conspiracy with the Russians to manipulate the 2016 election.
That would be over 60 days before an election. If the nomination and confirmation of a new Justice has not yet occurred, there could easily be an outcry big enough to halt that process.
3
Thank you Frank. With Donald Trump, there is no there there. He is an empty vessel ready to accept whatever flawed action will make him richer.
A question remains, where was the American Angela Merkel when we needed a new profile in courage so badly? Read about her in today's Times "The Tragedy of Angela Merkel (https://nyti.ms/2IBDZlD) by Wolf Biermann.
The man without a conscience, a well chosen word, Frank and the title of a book yet to be written when the home of the free and the land of the brave lies in ruins.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen USA SE
1
Without Mitch McConnell trump would be nothing. I would add Paul Ryan to that but he couldn't lead a thirsty horse to water.
4
This swing toward conservative bent is not so easy to predict. If this is nothing more than a deathbed conservative wish coming from the white majority, soon enough a fresh wave of immigration will quickly wash it away within ten years maximum. Wait and see if Venezuelans are invited in, along with more inviting policies toward Central Americans. The Muslim ban can't last forever. Just press your thumb down on the garden hose and think about the back pressure, it has to do something. That "something" has yet to appear on the American political seen. Keep stirring the pot.
4
Is he the luckiest man alive, which was my first thought also, or his Nero? Will he be remembered by history as the United States of America's last president. One thing I am certain of, he has not brought the US to its knees by himself. His co-conspirators will be remembered as Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan.
4
A great column about a shameless and sickening man who, as someone wrote (more or less) about George W, was born on third base and gave himself credit for hitting a triple. W, unlike Trump, had innate decency, as have most presidents in my lifetime. Trump doesn't. Neither, for that matter, does McConnell, and certainly not the madman Jim Jordan, on stage today. As a group, they are tearing down what has been by far the greatest country of the twentieth century. At the moment, it looks as if that will be our last great century.
We have Sheldon Adelson and friends, and especially the Koch brothers, to thank for Trump and this utterly dysfunctional, spineless Congress. The Kochs do not trust democracy - actively hate it, in fact - and have been especially effective at buying a collection of yes-men who will do their bidding. Unfortunately, they will also bring down our republic.
Trust Mueller, a true public servant. Then vote out all the Republicans in November, and Trump in 2020. They richly deserve it.
13
You never mentioned what Mueller may accomplish; and the sooner the better. I realize that it is a may; yet, what may as our last hope is something to hang on to and fight.....no holds barred and in his face...his weakest link.......make him cry as he is defeated while so close to winning so much. NO WHINING.
2
You have expressed my own thinking beautifully. I too, have been talking to people about this, "Cosmic Injustice to the USA and the world". But I have hope, that a bully and shameless person like Trump will have an unprecedented fall the likes of which the world has never seen.
Cosmoc Law will be just - we just have to act and do our part for justice.
Trump's entire life since he was born into one of New York's richest families has taught him that he can do anything he wants and, should trouble arise, be assured that he can wriggle himself away from it like a snake. As president he has continued the same pattern to the detriment of our country.
We were astonished that he was able to win the election, even after more than a dozen allegations of serious sexual misconduct and his very own taped admittance of one. This should have ended his run for president. It did not. If anything, he was emboldened to brag about shooting someone on 5th Avenue without repercussions. That is who he is, convinced he can skirt all boundaries to save his own slippery skin.
It is not inconceivable that he will once again (with the backing of his ever-faithful supporters and complicit congress) slither away from all charges and possible convictions in Mueller's investigation, his shady business deals, his tax evasion, his dalliances with prostitutes, his contacts with foreign adversaries, etc. Trump has had an uncanny ability and a lot of luck to get away with every nefarious dealing in his long history as a businessman and now as president. This time it's different. He now has the ultimate power to change our nation and the world order. Perhaps his super-magnified ego and profound sense of hubris will finally catch up with him and break his 'winning' streak before he breaks our nation.
One can cautiously hope.
2
Another column that completely misses the point.
Trump is president because Democrats became the party of corporations and a plethora of “protected classes.” Democrats declared war on white folks, especially white males. Then to make sure they lost, Democrats nominated a extremely unpopular corporate shill to remind voters Democrats despise working folks, straight folks, whites, males, and police officers.
The fact they fail to change is simply proof Democratic leadership would rather cling to power than win lose the presidency
How I wish again to serve my country before it is gone!
Trump's saving grace could come from the "best ever" presidential idea: Space Force. Perhaps a voyage to the Sun which circles the Earth could increase his standings amongst his supporters, even better, land a man on the Sun, why not Pence?!
1
"...he will get his way, because — this is part of that cosmic joke — the advantages seem always to cut his way."
Cosmic joke, indeed! Recently I, too, have been wondering about this. When will the law of averages set in?
1
Lots of people are worried about Roe V. Wade which is well settled law. What is happening here is the opportunity for Trump to interview potential candidates and seek personal loyalty ftrom the potential Justice and Mr. me me me.
Trump seeks to pack the court to stifle his coming Impeachment. In our whole histoery has any president sought personal loyalty from any prospective Justice?
http://thegovernmentinexile.live
5
The Supreme Court has driven us off a cliff at least 3 times, in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) and the recently vacated Korematsu v. United States (1946) and our nation, if crippled for a time, did survive.
If nothing else, Mr. Trump is poised to poison the SCOTUS with his second nomination professing a litmus test to gird Roe v. Wade. When completed, this dubious achievement will drive enough women and men into the streets (and hopefully the polls) to make the Women's' March of 2017 look meager.
Abba Eban, an Israeli politician, said it best: Nations can be counted on to do the right thing after they have exhausted all other possibilities.
Now we can count on Mr. Trump to explore all the Stygian approaches previously eschewed.
2
I hesitate to comment, as so much has been said by so many...we are talking about a career criminal, a vile creature of vast crudity and ignorance, and no moral compass at all.
I feel both enraged and helpless.
12
Pelosi and Schumer need to go. NOW. The Democratic Party needs new blood, younger and stronger voices and smarter messaging. Please Chuck and Nancy, for the good of the country: STEP DOWN!
America is in the grip of the biggest fraud of all time.
I firmly believe that even if he were to be defeated in 2020, he will not give up the office.
"So many of Trump’s positions, not just on abortion but also on a whole lot else, were embraced late in the game, as matters of political convenience. They were his clearest path to power. Then they were his crudest way to flex it."
Campaign promises are the key to democracy. Voters use it to determine whom to elect. Once in office, a politician has to carry out the promises or lose his credibility. The first President Bush basically ruined his career by violating his "no new taxes" promise (which was stupid of him to have made in the first place).
The Times just doesn't get it.
Still pushing compromise and appeasement, Frank ??? I sincerely hope not. After the Bush vs. Gore fiasco, I was furious, but eventually calmed down. How bad could it be ??? Pretty bad, it turned out. But Bush was a cakewalk in the Park, compared to Trump. If you are not a straight, White, male, especially with "money" your rights, and liberty are up for grabs. And I used the word "grabs" purposely. HE has no more moral, ethical or religious core than any random cockroach. He knows it, his Collaborators know it, it matters NOT. The only consideration is getting and maintaining absolute power, and its corollary, MONEY. The only way to harness and muzzle the creature is to eliminate his posse. VOTE, or diminish. Maybe permanently. Seriously.
7
Tomorrow will the day after the day before. We are in a major disaster coming but until tomorrow when the disaster hits the minds of Republicans who made this happen will the path forward (or backward) become clearer. I'm still sick of his torturing kids to be able to handle the prospects ahead. A novena or two might help. Oh Canada?
1
The only "lucky"thing about Trump is that the outrageous things he does and says in complete subservience to his ego happen to fit in nicely with the agenda of Republican conservatives. The Republican dog is wagging the Trump tail not the other way around.
1
While Trump is busy dismantling our country, like it was a set of Legos he got for Christmas...
The Republican party sits and watches in a drunken haze of glee because they are winning. The smart Republicans know what it's doing to our country (and their party), but they are such addicts at this point that they can't quit.
The Democratic party sits and watches with co-dependent denial because they keep thinking the country has to come to its senses, all they have to do is wait. The smart Democrats know what it's doing to our country (and their party), but they are so dissembled at this point that they can't lift a finger.
The Media eats it all up with avarice and gluttony. The smart outlets know what it's doing to our country (and the 4th estate), but they are so ravenous that they will eat 'til they drop.
The public sits, toy-less by the Christmas tree, divided and fighting it out among themselves like neglected children. The smart ones know what it's doing to our country (and our souls), but we are children and we won't stop.
Through it all, the rich lounge on the beach somewhere, totally indifferent because they win no matter what... after all, the family will behave for them because we ALL want our inheritance.
It would make a great, black comedy if it wasn't the ugly truth.
1
Thank you, Mr. Bruni. You are the first journalist to succinctly put into words the reason behind the frustration and hopelessness many of us feel today.
10
I'm 70. I think I lived my working life -- for a solid middle class white -- in the best decades of this country. My great sadness is that my grandchildren -- now in their late teens and early 20s -- won't know how good life can be; but then they won't know any different either. And my heart aches for the poor and for minorities, whose lives are going to be worse than before.
43
At least they're not among the 800 million likely to be exposed to fatal outdoor temperatures in South Asia after another trillion metric tons of CO2 has been added to the atmosphere in 25 years.
I usually respect Mr Bruni's observations, but these feel disturbing.
No matter what people say about the voter and electoral counts, Mr Trump is President, fair and square.
In a race to evaluate who is more "shallow and fickle", there is quite a long list of former Presidents, inc the last one. Trump speaks in an often nutty, off-the-cuff manner, but his actions have been sound.
Some of the Trump verbal and Twitter outbursts have been understandable exasperation at the way he has been treated and the spoiled non-acceptance of his Presidency, never known to have happened to this degree in American history.
Re: Roe vs Wade, there is something to be said for financial limits on governmental subsidies for some services.
3
Sorry, as much as I disagreed with Bush II and wasn't a big fan of Obama, they weren't as shallow and fickle as Trump is. After 9/11, George Bush, seeing the wave of anti muslim feeling in the US, didn't fire people up with this, he tried to calm people down, and Bush didn't outright lie the way Trump constantly does. When religious right goons were ranting about gays, George Bush II told them to look at the logs in their own eye, not as Trump has done, pat them on the back and say "I know". GW II ran into an old classmate who was transgender, and said "I am glad you have found happiness", anyone wanna imagine what Trump would do? And then just take a look at the path of sleaze around Trump, the outright using the presidency by his family to 'increase their brand", what president ever did that, maybe outside Carter's brother Billy and "Billy beer"?.
As far as Roe vs Wade we aren't talking limits on spending, we are talking the ability of the great hookworm belt to totally ban abortions (not that it isn't pretty much now)..
2
If you think trump's actions are sound, then you live in a universe that is far different from most of the people I know. He's erratic, knows nothing of foreign or domestic policy, he's rude, condescending, bigoted and has divided this country unlike any other president in my lifetime. Sound? I think not.
It is not entirely clear at all that he is president "fair and square," for the reasons Mr. Bruni enumerates - and even if you want to argue he is, he is certainly not governing as someone who clearly does not have a mandate should.
Sound actions? A trade war with our allies is sound to you? Trying to kick millions off of health insurance is sound to you? Blowing up the deficit in service of the ultra-wealthy is sound to you?
Understand - it's not just his tone that most Americans despise him for. It's what he's doing to this country from a policy standpoint. If he wants to not feel like we don't accept his presidency, maybe he should start acting like he cares about people who didn't vote for him. Otherwise, I could not care less about his feelings - I hope he's miserable all the time, because he is destroying this country and we will still be cleaning up this mess when you and I are dead.
Don't talk to me about Trump being a good man, or a good president. The fact that you refuse to see it is beyond disturbing - it's dangerous.
2
Not only did Trump lose the election by 3 million votes he has a black cloud over his presidency as it looks more and more that he and his campaign actively collaborated with the Russians to "win" the electoral college by a few thousand votes. No such "president" should be allowed to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. We should wait for the outcome of Mueller's investigation and we should also honor McConnel's rule of not nominating Supreme Court Justices in an election year at least while McConnel is still head of the Senate.
25
I would disagree with you there.
This is not a cosmic joke. This situation is the result of years if not decades of cunning political maneuvering, greatly helped by, I would venture, big capital. They manage to instrumentalize white fear, while at the same time undermining social safety, labor unions and voter rights, and telling them "I am one of you".
To say it is a cosmic joke is to say your vote doesn't matter. I rather listen to AOC's message: "When we vote, this is what happens. People vs Money".
It's the result of strategy. Every strategy has a counter strategy.
21
The retirement of one 82 year old man shouldn't be surprising. He has earned his retirement. What is surprising is the realization that the direction of the country supposedly rested on this unelected man's shoulders. Something is wrong here.
23
He could have retired during Obama’s presidency!
This was planned well by the republican establishment and Trump’s personal connection.
@RNS I think you must not understand the purpose of the Supreme Court. One thing we hope for it is its ability to temper the results of irrational voting on the part of the citizens.
If your explanation is correct and the main purpose of the SC is to give you some sense of 'hope' then you're right, I do not understand the purpose of the SC. BTW, the definition you give applies more to the electoral college than the SC.
"Trump is hardly the only modern president to have a dubious mandate. George W. Bush, for example, was inaugurated after a messy recount of votes in Florida and a disputed resolution imposed by the Supreme Court." Of course Frank - and this is one of many examples why you and your colleagues have lost the trust of many - President Bush's Supreme Court appointees were both nominated and confirmed in his second term when he won both the so called and irrelevant "popular vote." Yet Trump is the one loose with the facts. Keep on keeping on and Mr. Trump will be a two term president.
2
Perhaps the inferred point being made is, had the Supreme court NOT stepped in and stopped the recount in Florida, George W. Bush would have not had the opportunity to appoint two justices.
14
Trump cannot be reelected. The next election will be nothing like the last one. He has been busy alienating women, Hispanics, the entire Judicial apparatus, and everyone who considers environmental protections necessary (to name a just a few). Think about it---there won't be Hillary Clinton to smear, Bernie Sanders voters won't go for Trump, and now he won't have voters who thought "He'll change once he is in office."
They didn't "know" him when he ran in the last election; but, to "know" him is to despise him.
Most Trump supporters (but not many of his opponents) understand that he'll be our 'dear leader' for more than a 2-terms. He (and GOP collaborators) will do whatever it takes to put him in power for life. Can't happen here? Wanna bet?
We should have known during the campaign the risks the election of this man posed for our Country . I liked your phrase " Comey `s moral vanity " . Add to that the need of the mainstream media to appear " balanced " in their reporting . The same mainstream media that now Trump calls enemy of the people . Wall Street liked the lowering of taxes and the roll back of regulations . Now they have to deal also with the tariffs . A wrecking ball was coming our way that was going to destroy our liberties , our prestige around the World and our economy . As Cassius said to Brutus ," the fault is not in our starts , but in ourselves " .
17
Frank, I hope that Murkosky and Collins are calibrating the power that they now hold. Since this is all about POWER, it is time that these two women recognize that they wield exceptional powers.
They can become among the most historic women in history should they make it clear that they will No Vote any nominee until the next Congress is seated. The American people and the DNC should be prepared to reward these Senators should they have the courage to stick it to McConnell and Trump.
It would be heck of a gamble. Putting Country in front of Party. They would be ostracized by the GOP. But they could be embraced by the DNC and switch Parties if the times called for it.
We need now more than ever a few profiles of courage and perhaps these two women can place country ahead of some future primary, put people over party, and in doing so, provide some of the most challenged Senate Democrats on notice that there is so much more at stake. Imagine if the two were to come out in opposition to ANY nominee now!
Murkowsky isn't up for re-election for another 2 years. Collins not until 2020. They are safe this fall which gives them plenty of time to work for the American people today.
I can easily see the three Democrats you mention up for re-election this fall voting for a Trump Supreme Court nominee if the writing on the wall read that their vote couldn't stop the appointment. But if they knew that Collins and Murkosky were with them, things might turn out differently.
21
@RichardS ------------------- " They would be ostracized by the GOP. " Indeed, and that would be an honor. If he can hang on, perhaps Senator McCain will stand with them.
Hillary Clinton was perhaps a less than ideal candidate, particularly given the nature of her opponent, primarily in my view because while technically proficient she lacked the all- important charisma factor. But that is not taint, nowhere near it. She was a long-serving, and long-suffering, champion of democracy. Our nation and our world would be in far less peril if she had been elected. As it is, we are all in deep trouble. And that especially includes the millions who still think this is all great.
77
The fickleness of what tomorrow brings can strike again.
the Mueller probe may come to a conclusion faster than expected. And it may bring a conclusion that we do expect. That the trump campaign did accept help and money from Russia. Then this congress is forced to bring charges against this administration and its liar in chief. Then how does this senate spend its time before the mid terms? Stranger things have been happening?
12
I fear that no matter what evidence is presented by the Mueller probe, Congress will discredit it and then just move on, ignoring it. The only hope at this point is that the Democrats win big in November. If that does not happen, I don't know what plan B is.
8
I keep thinking that I should contact every one of the fifth and sixth graders that I taught during the past 50 years and apologize for misleading them about the way our government works. What I failed to say (or realize at the time) was the full extent to which the written framework of our government depends on the ethics, honesty, courage, and intentions of the people whom we elect, appoint, and hire to fulfill its mandate. We discussed the importance of a free press and the people's trust in its reporting. My students explored and came to understand the provisions of the Constitution and its amendments, the three-part system of checks and balances, and the times in which the ship of state has wobbled (e.g., the internment of ethnic Japanese, Dred Scott, the McCarthy era, et al) but righted itself. Will it happen this time? Can it happen, after all the damage that has been done and continues to engender chaos in our courts and Congress? Sorry, kids. I'm as surprised and horrified as you are.
3
"In the days of sail, naval vessels mounted cannon carefully and purposefully rigged into positions which optimised the effect of their fire. Occasionally, the rigging of these very heavy guns might come loose, and with the vessel pitching about on high seas or during manuever in battle, the results for the ship and crew could prove catastrophic. The term has come to describe a person lacking prudence or insight, whose actions and/or speech jeopardises the safety of people in their proximity or under their authority." Urban Dictionary.
4
I’m sorry but at what point in our history do we realize that we’re not actually “one country”? That “E Pluribus Unum” is complete bunk? This is a country in which many many who live here see nothing wrong with their racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. in fact they revel in it. Given that the collective IQ of those who identify with such misguided principals is arguably lower than those who see such demons for what they are, leaves them easy fodder for the powerful to feed their greed. Our country’s history sadly is based on two primary elements: Racism and greed. Their is simply no way for us to have an actual country when the discourse is not relegated in how to achieve our common goals as a society, but more in the stark contrast of what our goals actually are. As long as the segment of the moneyed class can use Bernaysian psychology on those who embrace the aforementioned demons of racism etc. in order to cement their own fortunes and hold onto their Oligarchy we cannot move forward. The civil war was a tragedy on so many levels but I fear that history will reveal the greatest tragedy in the fact that through winning, the Union ultimately allowed the seeds of disunity to flourish. How different it would be if we could simply have two countries. One progressive and one that is free to practice all the worst demons of human nature. Ironically the latter would be the so called “Christian” country.
19
A brilliant, incisive summary of the profoundly flawed individual in the White House, as well as a summary of the failings of democracy's checks and balances, the most glaring of which is that we have placed much too much power in the hands of a very damaged child.
4
I'm pleased liberal democrats are seething. I voted for Trump for the specific reason for him to appoint judges, not only SCOTUS but many many more federal judges. Having a strong majority of conservative judges on the Supreme Court will make the United States a far better country to work and live in. Amoral Liberal Democrat judges have done U.S. families a disservice and have undermined the social fabric that makes the United States a great nation.
This is a great day to be a conservative in the United States, I know it wont last forever but the 5-4 majority hopefully will remain in place for a decade. In that time the constitution will be held in reverence and used as guidance just as it was meant to be.
2
There is nothing "cosmic" about the fact that 90% of Republicans and 35% plus of the voters completely support Donald Trump and everything he is doing. All the hand-wringing about what Trump is, says and does and his vast, vapid emptiness are not the story any longer. The story is that a large swath of this country, even if not a majority, thinks this guy is a wonderful president and a fitting exemplar of our country both here and abroad.
Trump will be gone in two or, Heaven forbid, six years. But the apparent ethical and moral rot of many of his supporters will remain. No matter who is the next president or two, some of us will always wonder: Who are these people? Did I ever really know them? Do we really share any common values? Can I ever truly respect them if they think this guy is worthy of being our president?
Ultimately, THAT will be the legacy of this president.
121
Frank, I'm afraid you're letting yourself in for another wave of uncomprehending protests, this time by using the word "joke" in reference to the implications of Anthony Kennedy's retirement.
The day before yesterday, when you wisely warned that public shaming of Trump's associates was a tactical mistake in several clearly-stated ways, some readers reacted as if you had urged being civil for the sake of civility or in hopes of winning over Trump's supporters.
Let's hope the phrase "a sick cosmic joke" doesn't brush against the tripwires in so many preoccupied minds. It's an apt phrase. Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe," but whether God hands out exploding cigars to its more feckless inhabitants is another question. Of course, one also wonders what Anthony Kennedy was thinking.
Part of the tragedy of these times is the sense that it's not even a noble drama but a crude burlesque act full of historical pratfalls. And there's not much comfort in the thought that the laugh will be partly on Trump's working-class supporters who consider only the social implications of a right-wing federal government.
Yes, what we're witnessing has the quality of an unfunny joke. The appropriate comment was bequeathed to us by Jimmy Durante, who as a vaudevillian was a notch above burlesque: "What a revoltin' development this is!"
Seriously.
2
Was the Gazette shooter emulating the vengefully threatening behaviour Trump characteristically adopts when he feels maligned or ignored? After all, who uses the term 'fake news' more than Trump? But Trump does appear to be learning, albeit lamentably slowly: although he recently related Sanford's electoral loss to ingratitude to himself (Sanford's President), he hasn't tweeted anything relating the shooter's behaviour to his own assaults on genuine journalists. Is that progress? If it is, it's painfully slow and hardly a mercy we can be thankful for.
I've heard these arguments before, when Justice Gorsuch was confirmed, and frankly I'm not sympathetic.
The punditocracy has always been aware that this President would, in fact, need to make appointments to the Supreme Court during his term. Many of the justices are due for retirement and no matter how much those of the Left beg them to continue, they cannot halt the passage of time. Not even for "the good of the country."
Rather than complain that *this* oaf has *this* power, which was past its sell-by date last year, it would be far better to focus on which justice should be appointed. If you can come up with an argument for a person whom the Left could accept as not being hostile to their interests, that would be more productive than the grumbling that pervades the political conversation so far.
1
Sadly Trump is doing everything he promised during his campaign and relishing doing it. For those who are unhappy but did not vote it is your fault that Trump is president with no respect for the office and ignores traditional American values. Do a makeup this autumn and vote early in 2020.
1
Stop the hang-wringing liberals!
The gods have spoken - and it is an unfunny "WAKE UP!"
Republicans have sold their souls but saw the long-game in siding with Trump. Start playing to WIN - with ENERGY, specific IDEAS and PASSION. Only 58% of eligible voters voted in the 2016 election, many of them young people who would naturally align with the Democrats. We need better candidates, better messaging - a younger energy. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a great example of what it will take to resonate with these voters - and win back the Congress - and the Senate. The Old Guard needs to make way for the New. START PLANNING FOR THE A BETTER FUTURE.
FIGHT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! Starting with November 6.
4
"How much power will a president with such tenuous claim to it get to wield? "
This is exactly what I have begun to wonder every day. The least qualified President in history with the least popular vote mandate, but he and his supporters feel it's THIS guy that gets to remake American social/legal norms and our relationship with the rest of the world forged through the 20th century?
Meanwhile, that same minority of America got to decide to nullify the election of a historically popular and transformational President like Barack Obama, because they feared... I don't even know what, since whatever they said never made any sense.
How can all this be?
3
And the Democratic Party leadership's response? Look for hand wringing, pearl clutching, a few votes for Trump's next SCOTUS nominee no matter how heinous and as always, over the top fundraising appeals. But not much else, the Inauthentic Opposition will indeed further enable this president.
5
"A better man might shudder somewhat at the division that he was sowing and the wreckage in his wake. Trump merely revels in his ability to pull off what nobody thought he could. Shamelessness is his greatest gift. How unfunny is that?"
Trump is not the only one reveling. His approval rating among Republicans continues to hover around 90%.
A better, more informed, less spiteful citizenry might shudder en masse at the havoc caused by the election of this ignorant, hateful, authoritarian. En masse is not going to happen. Not even close.
Perhaps the 55% of Americans who currently disapprove of Trump will vote in 2018 in enough numbers, and with enough clarity and purpose, to being the multi-year effort to repair the damage to our democracy.
Or perhaps not. Only about 55% of eligible voters even bothered to vote in 2016. Over 5% of those who did vote, voted for a 3rd party candidate.
“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
- Benjamin Franklin (1787)
We do not seem to be trying very hard to keep it. How unfunny is that?
18
Better candidates in both parties would have led to a better turnout. There is always a significant number of non-voters but in 2016,whether for real or imagined scandals, voters could not pull a lever for either of the candidates. The DNC, always the last to know it would seem, should have realized the perception of their candidate in a large part of the country, They needed to step away from their computers and run a much more open primary with support for a variety of candidates and then let the people choose. That the Dem leadership was surprised by Crowley's defeat might indicate that the people who think they run the party still aren't listening, or even paying attention to the changing demographics of the country.
3
@Bassh1, like it or not, sometimes the less-than-optimal choice is better than the alternative. Dems are going to 'principle' themselves into 4 more years of Trump by idealistically insisting for the 'perfect' candidate who will never appear. A decade or so under Trumpism is likely to inspire some pragmatism among those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary. Who isn't listening to whom? Do you hear the clicking of boot heels goose-stepping in unison down the street yet, or are you going to continue to chide DNC leadership for not providing a candidate which satisfies all your demands? It isn't just the GOP suffering from selfishness in America, it is a national disease, a curse of being blessed too much, and now holding unreasonable expectations. I fear we are all to pay for hubris across the spectrum.
@Basshh1 I agree with your analysis as to why many people decided not to vote (or why they voted for a 3rd party).
My point in my comment was that those people made a serious mistake. Nothing that Trump has done is a surprise, his racism, his corruption, his ignorance, his dishonesty, his authoritarianism, his malignant narcissism was there for all to see.
Democracies are hard to keep.
There was no excuse (including DNC incompetence or false equivalences) for an eligible voter who believed in democracy not to defend that democracy by helping make sure Trump was not elected. Too many did not.
All true. Our Grifter in Chief is a nightmare.
We can not stand the fact that
such a low life has snatched the Presidency. But before we declare the end of our Republic let's pay attention to
how his actions have DIRECTLY affected
American's quality of life. Because this is the only way to reduce his outsized influence. Health care, education, infrastructure, wage growth, income disparity are what his opponents need
to talk about. Anything else is just falling into his trap of describing opponents as
on the wrong side of the cultural hot button of the day.
14
Questions never asked or contemplated:
If it comes out that the Trump administration knowingly and illegally collaborated with the Russian government and/or intelligence and that the Russians did indeed rigged the election of Trump, how will we deal with the supreme court justices that were appointed?
They would have been appointed by an illegitimate president
Secondly, if these supreme judges were appointed by a proven, illegitimate president, then their legitimacy may fall into question along with their legal decisions.
Therefore, wouldn't they have ulterior motives to side with the Trump administration and the GOP even at the expense of the Constitution just to preserve their positions?
I am worried that Trump will require a loyalty oath from the next nominee. And I am even more worried that he will get. Say what you want..but...Trump has a real talent for finding craven, sycophantic, power-hungry subordinates.
Trump will most likely take any Mueller grand jury indictments of his family members and any subpeonas level at him to the supreme court
We should be worried that Trump will use the supreme court to avoid justice and to cement his authoritarian urges
5
Yes, Mr. Bruni you are correct and right about our corupt, feckless, immoral President. However, Justice Kennedy knew exactly what he was doing and understood perfectly about the timing of his retirement; so really isn't he the one against whom your ire should be directed? Didn't he ultimately betray comity and reconciliation by choosing now to retire? He could easily have waited for the mid-terms to be over before leaving, but he chose now... deliberately, consciously, with full understanding of what his actions would bring down upon the country.
5
As Edward R. Murrow said to Senator Joseph McCarthy: "After all this, have you no shame sir?" Like him, Mr. Trump indeed has no shame. I also seem to remember that he has never admitted being wrong. We truly are in for a bumpy ride.
1
From the distance of another saner country, I must say that it looks like Trump’s M.O. of mess’em up and let others clean it up while I collect the money has indeed become normalized. It is what enough Americans have rolled over for, sat up and panted for. And one of them is Justice Kennedy.
3
Abraham Lincoln wrote:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity
But if you want to test a man's character
Give him power"
3
I may not be around, but I sincerely hope thinking Americans will do away with the Electoral College which was supposed to prevent a popularly elected demagogue from becoming President. It certainly has backfired because Trump is certainly the worst President ever accorded an Electoral College victory.
19
Is the Electoral College bad, or did its members not do their job in this last election?
Otherwise reasonable people who held their noses and voted for Trump because they wanted a Supreme Court pick did so because their resentments about protected rights for whomever they saw in their minds as "the others" in areas of women's reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, voting rights, worker's rights and public health and safety. Unfortunately, these resentment voters have taken their own basic rights to a free and open society for granted, and have turned upside down the possibility that they, their children or their children's children will experience a future that has as its foundation liberty and justice for all. They may be gloating today that their social or political resentments will be assuaged by this rogue and amoral politician, but a day is coming when they will realize they (and we) are living in a far different country than what allowed them to give voice to those resentments in the first place.
13
I read the piece about Mitch McConnell before reading this. Double depression! Both men are Iago wearing business suits.
I can only hope that the USA is not entering a period of regressive policies.
3
Great title, but the “cosmic joke of Donald Trump’s power” may be just beginning. It will probably happen that Mr. McConnell will use the so called nuclear option in the Senate to push through a nominee, but it’s Mr. Trump’s real nuclear option that could bring down the curtain, and nobody will be around to laugh. I’m told there are “constraints”, “good people in positions of authority”, “it could never happen”. A cosmic joke indeed.
I keep telling myself that this too shall pass. Trump is a joke, the barrage of bad news in the last couple days is unbelievably depressing BUT I teach high school and have for 20 years, and I have never seen kids more politically energized and engaged. Teens and people under 40 are almost uniformly more tolerant, more accepting of differences than their parents. Biracial and multiracial families are increasing by leaps and bounds; gay kids are open and proud, transgender students speak out, kids expect justice, white and Asian and Latino kids march at Black Lives Matter rallies, Black kids speak up for their immigrant classmates, the environment and science and technology is everything to these students; they DEMAND their rights. I think this is the last gasping, desperate, angry breath for the right wing. They think they're winning but the world marches forward and will not go back to the white, male, entitled powerbase. Evan ads on tv reflect the modern progressive viewpoint; film and other art forms promote tolerance...the genie is out of the bottle and Trump may huff and puff but all his cruelties will be temporary. That doesn't make them less horrible, but I feel youth will lead us in a dramatically different direction. Our generation, raised with bigotry and fear of the other, we thought we could change the world, but it is folks over 65 who voted most overwhelmingly for Trump. Thank goodness we are literally a dying breed. How sad, but so true.
32
Thank you, Eva. Your optimistic message is much appreciated, and I think makes some valid points.
4
I was so pleased to read your post Eva. I believe you are right; it will take a decade at least and it will be worse before it improves but a new generation will save the nation.
1
Stop whining. A lot of us thought McCain lost because the financial crisis hit 6 months too early. The result was two far left justices that we need to live with. Trump was elected as per our system and this is the result. Live with it.
5
You live with it. I plan on doing more. We need to fight back. Resist! March! Vote!
2
There's nothing funny at all about a tyrant seeking to extend his empire from his dubious business to the most powerful nation on earth.
As we've seen in nation after nation where Democracy fell to a brutal, unprincipled strong man with the gift of inciting the worst fears and instincts of a significant minority, short-sighted fools with tunnel-vision allow him his excesses because they think THEY are going to get something out of it.
Tax cuts
No more "wasting money" on pollution controls
Shutting down the media and its inconvenient questions
Free-for-all banking that can take insane risks, knowing the "little people" will be forced to pay for their losses.
Control of women's bodies for religious tyranny
2 completely different standards of justice, one cruel, cold, implacable, extreme and draconian for ordinary people, the other warm, sympathetic, speaking of "fairness" geared to letting the rich and powerful get away with, well, murder, poisoning, fraud, and theft.
And so they happily and willingly give away their freedom for what they think they'll get.
Franklin warned us that if you give up some freedom to get some security, you'll soon lose both and deserve neither. He helped write the Constitution that Trump and the Republicans are disassembling, clause by clause.
13
I have reached a point I never thought I would reach. It is a point of absolute hopelessness, a point of believing that there is nothing to believe in any more. In two weeks, I shall turn sixty-eight, and I am glad that I am nearing the last phase of my existence. I cannot bear to think what lies ahead for a country that allows what this one is allowing, from the collusion of AT&T and the NSA to the obscene connection between the Oval Office and the Kremlin. I have reached the point of despair. I can only hope to live the rest of my life in quiet peace, increasingly ignorant of the obscene actions of my country and its government. I vote, and it means nothing. I think, and it means less. I am sad, less for myself than for the country that I have believed in all my life.
8
Never give up, never surrender.
I'm 65 and I obsess daily, hourly over this monstrous administration.
Then I think of the young who will vote for an inclusive country.
Hope, we must have hope.
1
"Trump will gladly cleave the country in two before he’ll dim the applause of his most ardent acolytes."
Yes, the applause. Trump lives for the unhinged cheers and chants from the trucker-hatted cult members attending his rallies. We've lost count of how many of these have been held since taking office, but they began almost immediately after the inauguration, and are always held in the states where he "won."
This is Trump's bubble where he feels loved, respected, admired and validated. Because virtually everywhere else he is largely despised. Thankfully, Trump will eventually leave the WH. Preferably, sooner than later and involuntarily. But, not so thankfully, don't expect these rallies to end. He'll keep holding them for his base, and Fox News will keep broadcasting them. Sad.
3
Mitch McConnell and his cronies were happy to have the Supreme Court operating with a vacancy so long as President Obama didn't get to fill the slot. Let's accept no words now that it's imperative for the empty seat to be filled!
5
I read, a while back, that conservatives, to win the big elections made a decision to start from the bottom up. By putting energy into winning school boards and state houses they were in essence stuffing the ballot box. In other words, they took the long view, now paying off. Going into the last election their laser focus was on judges, specifically supreme court. When some Republicans wavered at such a ridiculous candidate that brought them back into line. No matter he was immoral to the core, that all he craved was constant attention to his antics, there would almost surely be one or more justices to appoint. Mitch McConnell knew this and held firm.
Donald Trump is their toy. We see it the other way around but he's the same sideshow to evangelicals as to us but he does their bidding and so is anointed with their blessing to spout his diversionary incoherence. Their so-called Christian beliefs are just a hat they wear; nothing to do with their behavior.
The opposition is building. There are more women and minorities and people who believe in fair opportunity than in this cabal of white privilege power. If they all go to the polls it will take time to undo the damage but all that energy is up to the challenge. We do have a major cultural shift but going backwards is not the way.
8
Stop whining about the electoral college. The system is flawed but it rewards the candidate who wins the most important swing states. Trump did that in spades. He is the most loathsome character we could ever elect as president but his message still resonates with his base, even as he embarrasses our country with every word, action and tweet. His values are not "our" values, but sadly, we now own them. Because an entire major political party embraces, or at least, explains away, his values. When will a Republican still on the ballot show the courage? Maybe never, so get used to it.
1
So much for America's vaunted "checks and balances". It is time to acknowledge you that you are have elected what you want, like Russia and Turkey, an autocratic government governing by the laws and constitution you have accepted and continue to believe and support.
3
He is not a cosmic joke, Whatever that is. He was elected the way presidents are elected. Did not Hillary and Mr. Bruni know about the electoral college. Trump did. Others did as well because the were predicting Hillary would get over 300 votes and carry both houses of congress with her to victory. And that was right up to election night. Hillary chose to place her bets on the ocean states. And she got the Pacific coast and North Eastern states. But then a red wave swept across America and it was Trump who won over 300 electoral votes and took both houses with him. By the way, congress is elected by popular vote. After the election, Trump did a usually political no, no. He acted on what he promised. Employment, the economy, job creation, the lowest unemployment rate in decades and for some, the lowest ever. Now he working to bring peace without nukes to Korea. Does Mr. Bruni claim that is all a "Cosmic Joke"? Mr. Bruni and other Trump haters as well as Hillary cannot fathom that red wave. The are stunned to find that a self promoting, bombastic, reality show host not only wiped out republican candidates but also the crowning glory of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton. Democratic primaries are now turning to the extreme right. One wants to do away with all immigration restrictions. Will that wipe out the red? Mr. Bruni falls back on name calling. It's been the most used weapon at Trump as well as his son Barron , his wife, and his daughter. What else has he left.
6
There a multitude of reasons for Hillary's loss. And she won't hesitate to tell you, if you let her. There was no voter apathy, she got 3 million more votes. If it weren't for her get-away van, she may have died at a 9/11 ceremony. George C. Scott, speaking as General Patton said, "Americans love a winner." That seems to be incomprehensible to the left.
And, if it is ever established that Comey was the singular reason she lost, that episode was entirely preventable.
@Ron------------------Of course we all knew about the Electoral College (its actual purpose was to allow the slave states to continue to be slave states.) The problem was naivity, that we had not yet truly believed the depravity of Trump, his backers in the Republican Party and his depravity-starved voters. Now we know. And also, Ron, telling the truth is not the same thing as name calling.
I'll ask it again, as I ask all trump supporters: how do you justify supporting a man who has been documented as having lied over 3000 times in the first 18 months in office?
You're OK with a narcissistical, petulant and egotistical liar in the highest office in the land?
That says a lot about you, my friend, and it ain't good.
1
In the first few days of November, 2016, the Democrats celebrated that they had a champion to run for the Presidency. Many thought and still insist that she was the most qualified candidate ever and almost everyone believed that this election was a sure thing; it was like Secretariat running in the Belmont. So they celebrated. A week early. It was in the bag. And they didn't seem to notice that they did not convince the voters they needed out there to show up at the polls; that to many of those who stayed at home the attitude was "is this all you've got?" Forget about dirty tricks with emails and Comey and the Russians; forget about excuses. Now look at the mess we have. "Hey bud, hold my beer and I'll give you a buffoon for President the like of which you won't believe." It's time to do better. It's not time to celebrate the sure to be won Congress by pushing the slate of candidates ever further to the left. And it's not time to mourn the loss of the Supreme Court. It's time to start winning again by backing winnable candidates and making sure to get out the vote for them. It's time to win back Congress ahead of celebrations. There is a good chance that the alt-right, the haters and bigots and Evangelical zealots are less powerful now than they have been in decades, but that's not enough if the Democratic voters stay home again and if the prevailing progressive attitude that Independents are also the enemy persists. It's time to start stopping this madness.
4
We need the people to elect judges not irresponsible presidents who then seek the approval of an equally irresponsible Senate. Enough! What we have is not working.
1
I read this piece while listening to the soundtrack of our life, CNN coverage of another mass shooting. The only twist to be uncovered is if this is a result of Trump's relentless demonization of the free press as the enemy of the people or just another madman with a gun. His base totally believes him. I believe he is terrified of what the criminal investigation into his campaign will uncover and is only too willing to destroy a bedrock of our democracy to protect himself.
I see what is happening to our country and think that Trump, Sessions, Miller and Kelly may indeed achieve their goal of substantially altering immigration to this country. Who on earth would want to come here?
2
It's not as if Kennedy was a liberal or even a moderate, despite some stray votes.
He'll be replaced by a right winger like himself.
There won't be much of a change.
1
Thank you, Frank Bruni.
You and your colleagues are still researching, writing, publishing truth. You are each a mighty pen (keyboard) against the swords of corruption.
The Times shows up in my inbox every day.
As long as all of you write, and I can read what you write, I have hope.
10
Donald Trump does not have a “tenuous claim to power.” He’s the president of the Unitis States. Period. As such, he will aggressively employ the power of the office, as will all presidents. Predictable hysteria will not change that fact.
2
Which begs the question of why Obama and the Democrats did not fight for Judge Garland. They folded without making the Republicans pay a price.
But here we are. Are they willing to fight Trump and not vote for his nomination?
How Democrats Can Save The Supreme Court
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHHxaHTn_w8&t=917s
How Democrats can shut down the Senate
https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2018/6/20/17480304/how-democrat...
3
It isn’t just shamelessness. It is utter corruption and it will bring him down.
3
If a death blow is delivered to Roe v Wade, many of the people celebrating that event 20 years from now will be those who were given a chance to live this wonderful life instead of being extinguished before they had an opportunity to breathe.
1
Truer words were never spoken when stating that Trump doesn’t govern out of conviction, but out of lust, for power, for ego, for the loyalty of his base, for vanity. I know of no greater cynicism at the root of any American presidency.
Cosmic joke? No. Not a joke of any kind. There is no joy in Mudville. Mighty America has struck out.
53
If Roe vs Wade is repealed by a religiously motivated politicized Supreme Court this country will see the kind of civil strife it has not seen since the Civil War. It will destroy itself from within. Under Trump and the GOP we are hurtling backward at a frightening pace.
10
If Roe vs Wade is overturned, the power to set abortion policy will revert to the states, whose officials are required to win elections. You don't need to riot. Vote. Some people find this concept incomprehensible.
Trump is an empty vessel, a funhouse mirror in a house of horrors reflecting our current political and cultural climate. He is merely a symptom of the stage 4 cancer that is spreading across this once great nation. Most Americans could name one or more Kardashians but couldn’t name their congress member in the House of Representatives or identify the number of their congressional district.
There is a cure, but it is a radical one in these troubled times. VOTE! Vote on November 06, 2018. Vote, not just in every presidential election but in every midterm and primary too. Voting is not just a right or a privilege, it is our civic duty. We cannot protect democracy without participating in it.
4
We have just one hope (Mueller) and one strategy (massive voter turnout in 2018 and 2020) left to save us.
21
"How profound and durable an impact will such a shallow and fickle person make?" This may be the most painful part (among many). To believe that Donald never paid for some woman's abortion is to believe that the earth is flat. And lest we forget, there is an active investigation into this man, and the facts out there already are so glaring one would need to be willfully blind (see Fox News viewers) not to see. which his pick will very likely have a vote on the case in some aspect. This is a nightmare.
9
Trump's presidency is that slow moving trade wreck that makes all other slow moving train wrecks except possibly the first and second world wars, seem like minor disturbances in comparison. That he came into office like a thief in the night meanwhile calling for his opponent to be locked up only adds salt to the wound.
4
I detest Trump, but I’m starting to suspect that more than luck is at play here.
He’s essentially the populist right’s Tribune. He fights for them, relentlessly, savagely, at times absurdly. But no slight goes unnoticed. Harley-Davidson? They were friends until they threatened to leave. Canada? He cares not a whit about their “friendship.” He’ll go to the mat for our dairy farmers. Coal miners? He ignores the price of natural gas and the obsolescence of coal, and goes to bat for them anyway. The Chamber of Commerce Republicans who want open borders for big business? He made short order of Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, and Paul Ryan, being the first GOP leader to bring that faction to heel.
The tweets, the road trips, it just goes on and on and on. He campaigned this way, working against the full force of the media, the political establishment of both parties, and he beat the Clinton machine which had twice the money and three times the staff, all the experts, and all of the prognosticators giving him a 3% or less chance with the exception of Nate Silver, who gave him a generous 30% chance.
Maybe, just maybe it’s the American populist right that got lucky, when they put their trust in him. Maybe, just maybe if Bernie Sanders had a quarter of Trump’s fight in him, he could’ve won.
Again, I utterly detest the man. But sometimes I wonder if it’s just envy. Where’s our Trump? Who will be our maniacal Tribune of the People? Why don’t our liberal leaders fight like this for us?
6
Trans. All great points. The Establishment Dems are just Trump light. The Clinton sycophants are too busy blaming Bernie and Jill Stein for their deeply flawed candidate. Until that changes Trump Rules
My thoughts exactly, a cosmic joke, a sick joke. This is by far the second worst week I have lived through during this eternally long, yet short in years, 18+ months. The first, of course, was that infamous day in November when Trump was "allegedly" elected POTUS.
I keep on asking myself: How does one despicable person have so much darn luck? Is the moral code by which I lived meaningless, not part of a grand scheme? Is this the way it is supposed to be, that my daughters will have their human right to choose taken away by a thrice married, adulterer, and exploiter of women? Then there are my nephew and his husband who are finally sharing that life together that was for so long just a dream.
Now that I am somewhat getting over the egregious decisions by the Supreme Court and Kennedy's retirement, now that I am over those shocks, I have had time to think. And I am not going to give up. I don't know how right at this moment, but I will absolutely find a way to fight this sordid state of affairs in DC. Who knows if I will win these battles and maybe not for now. However, the war is not over. And I will fight until this nation becomes one of justice and equality as it should and must be.
40
You go, girl! I'm right there with you.
7
It was inevitable that America would continue to move to the right, driven by evangelical religiosity and aggressive capitalism.
Here in Europe the opposite occurs with aggressive humanitarianism balancing corporate greed.
There is no perfect political formula here in Europe but it's refreshing to see some effort to reject Trumpism and maintain some level of decency.
3
For Americans and America this is shaping up to be the "perfect storm" for democracy.
Now it is definitely up to us as individuals of conscience to act.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
7
Personally I am very concerned with the future for my children and grandchildren. I don't see a way out of this nightmare for a very long time, and now I am troubled by the fiscal train wreak that Republican's are creating.
The one bright spot I see are my children and grandchildren, they have been immersed at a moment in time that has shown them just how evil and cruel this country has become under Trump.
It all happened so fast it has given them and most of their friends a laser like understanding of what went wrong, and why.
To many Americans have taken for granted the warning to be vigilant and it will cost, but having tasted what this country should be they will in time bring back a better not bitter America.
3
See https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/. As we go down as a country we the people need to take down the Electoral College once and for all even if it is now only a symbolic act. The National Popular Vote Bill gets passed in state legislatures, so it can still be passed in places where some dim echo of a conscience remains. It has been enacted into law in 12 states with 172 electoral votes and states with 98 more votes are needed. It pledges states to give their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. It ends this particular form of tyranny of the minority over the majority in presidential elections. The Electoral College originated as a successful attempt to give power to slave owners and slave states and its death can only be applauded even though it comes too late to save us from authoritarian dictatorship sealed and delivered by the national ballot. Our moment in history is not just a cosmic joke but the recreation of all that Americans have fought and died to prevent from ever happening here.
11
"The Electoral College originated as a successful attempt to give power to slave owners and slave states "
Odd. I was taught in school that the Electoral College originated in a dispute between "large states" , led by Virginia, and "small states", led by New Jersey. Slavery wasn't part of the argument at the time, because the slave states already had the voting advantage; it was only later in history, where immigrants flocked to the Northeast and shunned the South, that the slaveowners started playing tricks.
Either way the College is utterly obsolete, and we're stuck with it. Blame it on the way the Founding Fathers made it difficult to amend their handiwork. Ireland just changed their constitution by popular vote.
reply to charlesbalpha
see http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/
The truth is an embarrassment to this country. The Electoral College was a way for slaves to be counted as people to be represented so that slave states could have more white male representatives and thus supersized power in choosing the president. All sorts of cover explanations have been teased out of context to whitewash this information about an unjust use of black lives for others' gain. No other democracy has or needs an Electoral College. It's difficult to make a case for how something this cruel and unfair in origin and results, an ultimate form of gerrymandering and voter suppression, could be worthy of a democracy.
If you stop and think about it, look at the musing on Melania's back....."I don't care , do you?" What I believe is absolutely true and the message being sent is: there is little Trump ( and his family) care about, other than power and the unimpeded ability for their businesses to thrive. And the Do You? portion is asking his supporters if they care that Trump (and his family) don't care. And the reality is No, they don't. But eventually they will. Although he has convinced them they aren't in the group Trump doesn't care about, they are , in fact, in that group. When all you do care about is yourself, that leaves an awful lot of people outside your sphere of empathy. Sooner or later they will realize that.
14
Yeah, to what you wrote. I got a feeling that this guy is laughing at how gullible his supporters are. Someday they will be on the 'soup line' and he will be ladling out the soup and they will still be thanking him.
Precisely why Kennedy's announcement feels like such a betrayal.
Unless his health is so compromised, why couldn't he wait until after the November elections to announce his retirement?
Yeah, I get it - the Court's calendar starts in October.
Still.
Our nation cannot afford any more right-wing Justices!
5
Red America and Blue America have two different value systems. It is time to face that they may be too different to stay within the same country. One could argue Blue America will get so much farther without Red America - will be so much richer and being freer to enact laws the right wing opposes. e.g. better healthcare systems, more equality in education, reasonable gun control, eliminate the death penalty, keep a woman's right to choose, marriage equality....for how long will Blue America put up with it?
It is a reasonable question.
22
After the 2016 election, someone came of with graphics of the "Clinton Archipelago" and the "Trump Mainland." The archipelago was geographically small, divided, and largely coastal. It also encompassed most of the country's economy.
A forthcoming book, I think from Princeton University Press, argues that becoming part of the United States was disastrous for Boston, which had an exceedingly lively economy during the colonial period and was arguably shackled by southern interests. That, despite incessant southern bellowing about tariffs. Maybe the US was a bad idea.
2
There might be a reasonable argument to be made that if Blue America went its own way, pale red states might become Blue. When push comes to shove a lot of people are not ultra conservative.
Just like, I believe if Trump tries to appoint an ultra right conservative judge now, just watch the blow back in places like Texas/Florida/Wisconsin/Michigan, just for starters. There will be a lot of districts turning blue all of a sudden.
" It’s impossible to square the roughly 77,000 votes by which he won the Electoral College with the license that he has given himself and the rein that the members of his adopted party have given him."
Bush won by 537 votes in Florida. That's 99.994% rougher to square. The media said then that Bush MUST govern from the center given the closeness of that election.
And out of the box we got "The Decider."
Trump knows he can/will be in great legal peril when he leaves office. He knows by controlling the courts at all levels and making lots of "friends" in the legislature he will be well insulated from what ever may come his way.
I blame white women, who STILL have the nerve to blame Hillary for their inadvertence and indifference to the 2016 election and I blame the media, who STILL play video of Trump's campaign, his 2016 CAMPAIGN (!) ,on a constant reel almost 3 years later.
But it is cowering Democrats who've let Trump slip the noose. How hard would it be for elected Democrats to put the effort into developing a rapid response to Trump's tweets instead of letting him control the media's attention every day?
11
The only solution I see to this is for young, educated people from blue cities and states to start moving to places like rural Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and turn them blue.
7
I choose a blue state like Massachusetts because I care about human rights and all the things that are good about our citizenry. Strong gun control and a growing economic engine provide a safe place to raise my family.
I choose NOT to live in a red state, just because they are less informed about the truth, ofter no or fewer human services and are heavily armed.
3
Mr. Bruni, it is tiresome to read the n-th jeremiad about the path Donald the Magnificent took to achieve the Presidency of the USA and all this entails. He did, and that is that. I shall, again, point out that what you have is a system error.
Donald J. Trump was never a person who could be trusted or entrusted with anything. Nothing in his well-publicized life gave any indication that he would see the Presidency of the USA as anything other than a vindication of his own specialness or that he would exercise this Office to the benefit of anyone other than himself or his fickle assortment of cronies.
With this Office comes great power, power which includes the possibility of stuffing the Supreme Court of the USA with people whose interpretation of statute, and indeed of the Constitution, is likely to be more in line with the very narrow and short term interests of business and, as a sop to Trump's base, likely to roll back measures that were introduced to level the playing field for women and various minorities. Alas.
However, this is not Donald J. Trump's fault. He saw an opportunity and seized it, confident (rightly as it turned out) that the media would do the rest and give him the exposure he could never have bought. Confident, too, that the GOP would fold like a sodden paper bag at the prospect of him running as an independent, thereby splitting the vote and handing the White House to Hillary. He gambled, and he won...
A clear system error. Reboot and fix it!
7
Its not about "political power". For Trump, it is ever, always, and only about 'Trump power'. Trump must be the man on top, the man in charge, the 'numero uno'. His image, that he is this prime alpha male, is everything to him. "The ratings." Political positions, political power is all a means to this end, and this is the most singly chilling thing about Trump. Trump doesn't care about "conservatives". Trump doesn't care about "Republicans". Trump doesn't care about the future, except as it pertains to Trump getting more for Trump, Trump being more powerful, more wealthy, and seen as more important. The Congress is flat on its back supine spineless in thrall to Trump. So much for 'checks and balances'. So much for 'co-equal branch of government'. In this the courts are the last bulwark against the primacy of the Executive branch... and Trump's packing of the court, with McConnell's connivance, is the biggest risk to our democracy, the biggest risk to our nation, in 157 years. When the Congress will not stand up to Trump, and the Court becomes a rubber-stamp for any "conservative" policy Trump claims "national security" regarding, then we're 5 minutes from done...
4
"But he’s virtually assured of appointing as many judges to the Supreme Court as each of his three predecessors did...". Why shouldn't an elected president of the United States have the same constitutional power given to all presidents under our constitution? Once again the media chides Trump for not respecting the rule of law but fails to practice what it preaches.
1
“Why shouldn't an elected president of the United States have the same constitutional power given to all presidents under our constitution?”
Why don’t you ask Mitch McConnell about that one?
2
On please. This guy believes in nothing, not even the last thing he has uttered. By the way, the media and the NY Times is not the president of this country. Believe it or not, all this "chiding" is looking out for you.
Look mat what he is doing to the western world?
"Never mind that this is a moment, if ever there was one, to set a bipartisan example and apply a healing touch.
Trump will gladly cleave the country in two before he’ll dim the applause of his most ardent acolytes. What puffs him up takes precedence over what drags us down."
Bravo, Frank. Thank you for putting it so eloquently.
I wonder if His Gibbering Unfitness ever even actually wanted the job of President? Personally I see it as him needing to make the ultimate power grab, and line his pockets too: that, plus his incessant, juvenile need to be reassured that he's the most attractive boy in high school. As if.
A shame that it impacts us all.
16
I find little humor in the current State of the Union. We are quickly sliding down to autocratic one party rule in a country owned and operated by corporations and the 1%.
Some put faith in coming elections. I do not. Dems do not win elections. They are constantly sabotaged by the deviousness of the Right. And when that doesn't work, they sabotage themselves.
3
Having lived through the 1960s I never dreamed I would be living through it again, this time, "1960s - The Sequel".
But that is what we will get. The riots, the public rage, the divided families, students taking over of college campuses and government buildings.
As the Republicans appoint Supreme Court justices who overturn Roe v Wade as well as Obergefell v Hodges, and crush voter's and worker's rights, watch the mayhem unfold.
Apparently the GOP is itching for a rerun of the Civil War. To quote the title of Jacqueline Susann's 1973 novel, "Once is Not Enough".
9
Only hard left liberals are threatening "a new Civil War' or "secession " of blue states.
There have been ruthless conquerors all through history.
We have been lulled into a false sense of security in regard to our system of government, believing "it can't happen here," and that the most serious threats came from outside. The founders feared political parties and they feared the mob. They tried to set up a system favorable to democracy or at least a sound republic, but in the end they may have failed. What we have now is minority rule, with the wealthy exerting an outsized influence and an evil demagogue and his enablers is ascendance. Our Constitution is flawed in many ways. Perhaps fatally. The worst is the undemocratic composition of the Senate, which can't even be fixed because the county is a federation of supposedly equal states. So a rural state with less than a million people gets two senators just like California with 40 million. And the Senate gets to decide Supreme Court justices. Control over voting is left to the states, which gets us gerrymandering. Investigation of a possibly criminal chief executive is left to the overtly political Executive branch and Congress, rather than to the less overtly political judiciary, as it is in for example Israel. It is not an accident that essentially no other Western democracy has chosen a Presidential system over a parliamentary system. Modern communication has changed politics in ways we are only beginning to understand. The founders may have got it right for their times, but not ours.
9
Once the Democrats regain majorities in both the House and the Senate, and once they are back in the White House, what is to prevent their increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court to counter the right-wing bent of the Trump appointees?
17
I don't know, but if they could what would prevent the next Republican majority adding more justices? Perhaps in 25 or 30 years there would be 15 sitting at the bench. Wouldn't this be just another leg in the race to the bottom? Something akin to runaway inflation.
1
None! There is precedent for it, as discussed on Morning Joe today.
1
Yes, that is true. But given the way the Republicans will bend any rule to ensure their majorities I see no need for restraint.
This message is directed at Democrats, or if they continue to be ineffective and feeble, whatever party succeeds them.
A tremendous opportunity awaits.
Considering what the GOP is doing with the Supreme Court, and how the GOP is enabling Trump's destructive behavior, you now have a perfect excuse to write off the Republican Party. Completely. Do not bother with them again. Establish a majority in both houses of Congress and retake the presidency. Then consider bipartisanship dead, at least for the foreseeable future. The GOP is handing that to you on a silver platter.
Do what you have to do to enact your agenda. Up the number of justices on the Supreme Court to 15, as FDR considered doing at the time of the New Deal. Sure, we've had nine justices for the past 150 years, but what does it matter at this point? Make Democratic Puerto Rico a state. Continue with the abolition of the filibuster in the Senate. Gerrymander in favor of Democrats. Republicans have shown you the way. Do you really think the GOP won't continue to act in this way if given the chance again? There is nothing to lose; winning is all that matters. And don't forget: plenty of nasty tweets. Down-in-the-dirt nasty tweets. Because if you don't, those in the next party that counters the GOP will do it; the genie is out of the bottle.
Live and learn. That is, you need to learn and adapt fast, so the rest of us can have lives worth living.
50
It's not a joke. The wheels have come off our democracy. Tens of millions of us are less important than those who live in red States. Our votes count far less. We have a tyranny of the minority that can't last forever. Buckle up. Things will get much more turbulent before they improve.
12
Why didn’t Kennedy wait until the election was over to announce his retirement?
Could he be ill or simply exhausted?
I find it impossible to believe that he -- or any of the Justices -- truly believes that Trump is a worthy and mentally balanced President.
25
Kennedy has personal ties to Trump. And Trump has convinced him to retire before mid terms to get right to center candidate to carry out all his evil plan to destroy all the progress made for women,blacks ,poor for generations to come.
1
the cosmic joke is that the one-time party of the people, facilitated trump's election by shifting to wall street surrogacy and that it has, since then, offered nothing except anti-trump invective, personal attacks in place of cogent policy.
if the present lot of democrat leaders, many of whom, by the way,
were silent or complicit as the worst of our problems grew under our noses: the north korean advance to nuclear status;
the bush-cheney private war, its flames still burning; the russian reclamation of territory; the botched overthrow of libya (then the bengazi disgrace); the interference in iran, deposing an elected government, installing a puppet shah; and so on, back thorugh a number of presidents (some of whom were also "misogynists and philanderers" as history informs, despite media reluctance to expose them, say kennedy and clinton, for recent examples).
what we need to displace trump and more important, trumpism, is a democratic party that will speak convincingly to the most common of our interests as working men and women (the "unum," if you will) while protecting those differences that define our character as a nation of diversity, (the "pluribus"), rather unifying us behind a commitment to "promote the general Welfare" than having us muttering our discontents or chasing our opponents in the streets...in other words, more jefferson/madison than pelosi/waters.
2
After McConnell blocked Obama's nominee from getting a hearing, there are no rules at all.
So when the Democrats find themselves in control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, the first order of business must be to recognize that there is nothing sacred about the number nine … and make it eleven, thirteen, fifteen, or whatever is required to take over the Supreme Court.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
7
Frank Bruni, an excellent column. Thank you for putting it so clearly. Having grown up seeing a court that enforced civil and free-speech rights, I find my hope for SCOTUS dies hard. It's difficult to read Alito's smirking self-regard as he undermines the rights of working people, but it's exhilarating to hear Sotomayor's refusal to endorse the court's willful suppression of the truth about the religious bigotry behind the Muslim ban. Many of the worst--and best-- moments in American history can be foreshortened into case names--Dred Scott, Plessy v. Fergusson among the lowest moments, Brown, Gideon among the highest. SCOTUS has never stood outside or above history, but perhaps it has never been so much in the hands of a man so antagonistic to the constitution.
It's hard to believe that anyone DT nominates will have a much concern with justice other than as a title. Right now he's combing through the files supplied by the Federalist Society to find the most mean-spirited one available. Actually Trump is doing none of the work: he outsources all his combing (and overcombing). The candidates most hope their cruelties are well-honed enough for Stephen Miller's muster.
17
Equality requires agency over our own bodies. The female half of the population in this country has just been relegated to second-class citizenship - again.
4
Exactly right. Trump has no center other than his own self-aggrandizement. He favors anything that feeds his massive ego, and eschews everything else without regard to the merits. Anyone trying to figure him out who strays more than a scintilla away from his grotesque narcissism would remain forever confused. Imagine General Washington at Monmouth Courthouse or General Eisenhower in early June,1944 basing their decisions only on: "If this succeeds -or fails - how will it make ME look?" At the West Point Military Academy, the watchwords are "Duty, honor, country". Trump's duty is only to himself, he has no honor, and our country is solely a means to his ends, which are neither dutiful nor honorable.
2
I've never missed an election, big or small. Primarily because of healthcare and reproductive rights, I've never voted for a Republican, and I lived most of my life in the South. I've made the effort every time to get my absentee ballot mailed in when I knew I would be out of town. I had remarkable social studies teachers when I was young. I knew the importance of civics. I knew that voting was what mattered to hold on to my democracy. The American people who didn't vote or who voted for protest or third party candidates over the last 40 years brought us to this place. I look at the little girls who are 7, 9, 13 years old - the daughters of my friends and cousins - and say to their mothers: now they will have the fight the exact same fight our grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought. And all because a fraud - a con artist - slick to all except New Yorkers who knew him - was elected President in 2016.
8
There is a feeling in the air ever since the 2016 campaign that something special is happening. Rules are being broken, the center does not hold, and through all of it the majority and the Democrats always lose, and the Republicans and their strange raving President always win. There is more than coincidence going on here, with other countries slipping their intelligence agencies into the heart of the most private and sensitive process of a fair national vote. There is a sense that many people know the fix is in and they are scrambling to be on the right side when the results are revealed. This used to be about fear but now it is about survival. This kind of chaos is not something that stops before irrevocable actions are taken. There is a sense that the future is being discounted by the people who we trusted to protect the future. There is a sense that names are being taken and retribution will occur. People are dizzy because things are changing too fast but really nothing is changing. What is happening is that truth is being revealed, that human values are being commoditized and we see that we are not worth what we thought we were. As the smoke clears we are weaker than we thought and there is no one who respects us. Not in law and not in practice. We see that we have been suckers all along and the boss is so bored he doesn't even want to play the game. But without the game what are we and where are we supposed to go? And who will help us now?
3
May be it takes a Trump as a catharsis to finally, finally end the democratic lethargy of so many American voters?
2
It’s no joke and I’m not laughing. Who are these people who support such a man? My neighbors, the people around me. It’s terrifying.
2
Trump is the real teflon president.
He should have served jail time a long time ago for all his cons.
I thought it was illegal for someone to appoint a justice who will likely be hearing the case of that person in court.
14
Then no President could nominate ANY Justice. Presidents very often can have cases in front of the Court.
Trump’s lack of conscience and his shamelessness is unfortunately not checked by either of the two co-equal branches of government. The Republican (Congressional)Party has surrendered its principles and has become Trump’s personal Politburo . Likewise, the Supreme Court’s majority has become the Republican wing of the Court, proved recently by its illogical decision in Hawaii v Trump, where it totally ignored Trump’s undisguised statements about his war against Islam and gave him carte Blanche to discriminate against the Muslim religion .
7
That is not remotely what happened, and the Court clearly said that the President's beliefs -- pro or anti ANYTHING -- have no bearing on the President's power to control immigration and visas.
The "cosmic joke" isn't about Donald Trump. The cosmic joke is the on people who fail to realize Donald Trump is a dream come true for the Republican Party, which supports him more enthusiastically than any previous president, and especially for evangelical Christians, whose celebrations of his ascendance have come to resemble a giant tent rally. Donald Trump is just a symptom; the disease is in the people who support him, and it is spreading.
6
There are plenty of voters who are ready to kick Trump's sorry behind over the Artic into Russia's Siberia, me included. I have a great deal of confidence in voters to make the correct decision at the mid term. I believe that most will reject the Republicans, the reason being that the tone and frequency of criticism of Trump and the Republicans has changed from idle discussion to utter disgust for them. Let's hope they act on their outrage and reject them all in November. Let's also hope that the swing votes won't rubber stamp a fringe Republican to replace Kennedy.
3
'' It’s possible, yes, that two Senate Republicans...'' - Well, I am going to submit that it is more than just 2.
It is one thing to push through tax cuts for the rich, and cut social programs that directly harms millions of people.
It is also one thing to try (50+ times)and repeal health care to 100's of millions of Americans on the principal of privatization, free markets and all that.
It is definitely another to directly take away the absolute dominion of women to control their own bodies. This would seem doubly true for republican women in the Senate, that would be essentially voting against themselves.
All those republican Senators that happen to be men have wives, girlfriends, mothers and daughters too. This is a whole other scale of government intrusion.
So, (there may be people doing eye.rolls) put pressure on every single one of those Senators. Write, call, post, show up at their offices, whatever it takes. Voting is but the last thing of all the things that everyone can do.
These are your rights, just as much as they are for women.
2
Most women never have an abortion, because they use birth control.
For consolation, Americans, read up on what eventually happens to history’s “Trumps” (Yes, there have been many). I just hope he doesn’t take too many innocent people with him.
3
Unfunny, indeed. After years of paying barely any attention to politics I now mainline MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post daily. Reading "1984" in high school barely resonated with me. Watching the re-release of "The Manchurian Candidate" in 1988 struck me as an entertaining cold war thriller, more interesting to me for its cast than its stale cold war warnings of yesteryear. And yet here we are. And it's much more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.
I'm pretty sure we'll get through this and my fantasy of Trump and nearly his entire cabinet rotting in jail for life will probably remain a fantasy for me, I think this whole ugly chapter will soon come to an end.
As John Meacham said this morning, he's shocked the markets haven't reacted yet to this instability as it continues to ride an unexplainable sugar high. It may be the impending recession (if not depression) that will finally start to bring Trump down. And it can't happen soon enough. God help us all.
3
Donald Trump is no longer an interesting topic.
There's a far better one: What are we going to do, we of the liberal, intelligent, patriotic, opposition?
Discussion about replacing Kennedy, and any national policies. should begin and end with a confident, uncomplicated, statement of the obvious.
The president is both lawless and a lawbreaker, nationally and internationally, under multiple investigations, of questionable sanity, and incredibly dangerous.
This needs to be presented constantly, and without complicated explanations.
If someone doesn't understand by now, Miss Manners has told us how to respond to selfish carelessness or thoughtlessness: slightly raise the eyebrows, form a placid question mark of the face, and look away.
The president is a lawbreaker, under multiple investigations, of questionable sanity, and incredibly dangerous.
There's no need to prove this anymore.
His most powerful weapon is that of creating a new crisis hourly, so that we're all zombified to mirror his violent confusion, and spend all our energy there.
We need to value and become a voice of simplicity.
And with a clarity and a volume that sidelines even our valuable, valiant, sleuths and our tireless compilers of lists.
Our conversation about the state of the union stays in the gutter of all the things he's done today and yesterday and the day before.
It needs to be about what we're going to do today and tomorrow to prevent further damage and suffering.
15
Trump is filling up the benches with judges who think that our liberal democracy should be less liberal and less democratic. This is not hyperbole, either. Both the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation hold to views that see liberty and equality to be conflicting and democracy always likely to descend into tyranny of the majority or mobocracy if not carefully managed.
2
It seems that trump is about to pick the Supreme Court that will rule on his ability to pardon himself, and on the legitimacy of Mueller's findings, etc. Does anyone think that they will not allow him to continue to get away with his gruesome destruction of the United States?
2
Would any Republican president nominate anyone different? It's not about Trump. It's about the self-destructive Democratic party with increasingly far-left, far-fetched leaders like Bernie Sanders and Maxine Waters that will continue to move everyone else to the right. Look in the mirror, Democrats!!
1
What is the real center of the argument? A Supreme Court decision that ignored democratic principles and removed an issue from voter's control. It has poisoned US politics ever since, and it is poisoning them now. We need to get rid of it.
1
Attention Democrats: Trump will likely propose a conservative Supreme Court Justice. Please don’t waste any time opposing the choice. You will lose. Deal with it. Focus instead on getting great young people into Congress this year. Get out the vote and vote Trump out in 2020.
2
"But he’s the luckiest man alive."
This is Donald Trump in a nutshell. Hardly any skill involved in his more than seven decades of comfort and privilege; just a ton of luck, including (especially) the awful opponent he faced in 2016.
2
Don't count on so-called "moderate" Susan Collins. Her MO is to play coy until the last moment and then fall right into line with the Trumpistas. She's already announced that a candidate's stance on Roe v. Wade will not be a litmus test for her. She's not a leader, she's a disappointing follower.
10
This lover of liberty, equality, and egalitarianism - as passe' they seem to be now-a-days in power circles - prefers a SCOTUS that accepts the obligation it has MORALLY at least to protect the fabric of our Nation, its highest motives and principles of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, of equality of person and of thought, of adult autonomy over existential aspects of their life, etc..
The way I view it the concept of a modern SCOTUS is that it is our (the People's) bulwark against tyranny, foolishness, plutocracy, fascism, repressiveness, reactionary governments, legislative meanness, bigotry, and non-secular pulpit-izing, etc.
Yup I view it as the adults in the room, the people MOST committed to do what is right regardless if how legal the wrong is.
It is the ONLY "jury like thing" we have to nullify the effects of bad laws, authoritarian actors, and in general plagues upon us - like Trump and the thing that passes for the GOP today.
Oh - I'm not a lawyer and I sure lawyers can wax eloquent about how wrong my view is. And I am doubly sure the so-called conservatives of today will flay against my concepts - with same legal justification.
But I live in the real World - have for many decades. I lament the loss of what should protect freedom, secularism, honesty, fairness, etc.
And I cannot help thinking about the learned European judges that said they had to go along with leaders in first decades of 1900s because it was the law.
Oh well that is just me.
9
I view the Supreme Court as a device for thwarting the will of the people. It's like the British House of Lords. Even if a majority of millions support a policy, a mere 5 judges can veto it and give some silly excuse ( in the case of Roe vs Wade, they "found" a right to abortion in the "penumbra" of the Constituion) and then we're stuck with their ruling forever.,
1
I stand by my statements.
And to cast them relative to your reply - it is a bulwark against the majority thwarting overriding higher principles of freedom and autonomy - or the majority overriding the equality of so-called minorities.
And BTW most of the modern World and most in the USA agree that at least in the first 3 months of pregnancy the woman has full rights to decide what is best for her body and mind under accepted medical practice.
So what is your concern?
That you do not like the fact that a so called "liberal" court will take individual freedoms seriously? or that is protects the weaker from the more powerful? or that it defends minorities from the prejudices of the majority?
I stand by my statement and accept that 42% of USA will say I am wrong.
I just hope the 58% probably with me will get woke and rectify their apathetic and/or cynical driven horrible mistake with their votes.
I am visiting family in the midwest this weekend. People here are disgusted with Trump's non presidential behavior, his racism and they express worry that he will get us into a war.
However, they are pleased with the general conservative policies he's tried to implement. For whatever reasons, they:
dislike payments to the poor in their community such as food stamps, medicaid, etc.;
worry about immigration;
dislike free trade;
dislike government regulations for their small businesses and farm;
etc
Sometimes, when they talk about why, when they talk about the actual effect of policies on their communities, they do make some points worth listening to.
The left seems to be getting undemocratic because enough people in the country don't agree with them that they can't get the votes.
The Democrats could still come out here and just talk to people.
1