Supreme Court Justices Just Gave Presidents Unprecedented New Powers: So Make Their Day…
President Biden needs to do at least one obviously illegal act, in plain sight. It doesn’t even have to be “bad illegal”, it can be “good illegal.” But simply acting like the Supreme Court’s ruling that should shield him from being prosecuted for anything he does while in office is ridiculous, even though it is, and vowing to be above it, is just dead wrong.
Because what the Supreme Court is overlooking in its decision to protect Trump by giving him unimaginable immunity is that immunity should also apply to the current president, should he choose to use it. And use the crap out of it, he should!
Chief Justice Roberts’ super sober argument that if presidents didn’t have immunity for acts while in office they might be afraid to do stuff in a timely way and might tit-for-tat prosecute former presidents of the other party, is so focused, it becomes incredibly fuzzy. Because that question never needed to be resolved before. First, because taking a breath before making a decision sounds like a pretty good thing to me, on balance. Also because we never had a president, before Trump, who was so obviously a low-down criminal before, which without a doubt is really the only reason Trump is coming to the court saying he’s in need of super-strong protection.
And it’s high time for Democrats to stop being good to set an example. This article from NBC News is just sickening to me, saying Democrats should’ve anticipated the Supreme Court was going to possibly or probably rule this way so that they could’ve had hearings ready-to-go, or been ready to issue subpoenas or whatever.
No! If someone is going to give you permission to stomp around and plot and rob and steal and put your foot squarely and unfairly on someone’s neck, you don’t tread lightly away and talk about whether you like giving your rival the ability to do that when you know he will, or sit around in a wood-panel room inviting people over and chatting with them. No. There’s only one thing to do, as I’ve said before: use the power. Even if you see it as abuse of power. Even if it is abuse of power.
Look, people have been throwing around the idea that Biden just issue an executive order saying that a convicted felon cannot be President. Now, there may be some problems with that. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t even know if it’s doable. Also, given the Supreme Court’s ruling, who knows if Trump’ll continue to be a convicted felon; his sentencing has been put off in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling and who knows, his conviction might just be vacated. Trump’s extremely lucky in this way. That’s why his lamenting about how unfair his life has been is also so sickening: no one has been as lucky, anywhere, ever.
Still, that option sounds at least as workable as Biden dropping out at this late hour. Is it legal? Would’ve been the overriding question; doesn’t matter anymore.
Does Biden have the courage to block authoritarianism? Who cares? Doesn’t take courage anymore. Or how about Biden unilaterally as this country’s now unquestionable unitary executive clears away hurdles that make him dropping out of the race seem improbable at the moment, then gracefully exits?
Even if you, a voter, walks away from the Supreme Court decision, and the debate, thinking politcs in America, or government overall in America is just a big joke right now, that’s just a huge four-leaf clover for Trump. Because it means you might not vote. And if you’re fed up enough that you don’t vote, Trump wins, because his die hard supporters do vote.
But anyway, the idea that Biden knocks Trump off the ballot through executive action is just one option. Think of a dozen or so things. Let the Supreme Court try to enjoin them and twist themselves into pretzels explaining why it doesn’t work when this president does it. Because one thing’s not in doubt: no matter what Biden could do, it won’t come anywhere close to what Trump did do, that he’s now not really going to be prosecuted for. Or what he’s sure to do in the future if given the opportunity, now that he knows for sure what the rules are (none) for committing crimes when you’re president. Take that, Alexander Hamilton!