Supreme Court Justices Gave Presidents Unprecedented New Powers: So Go Ahead, Make Their Day
Note: I originally wrote a piece very similar to this over the summer. But now the need for President Biden to use his remaining time in office to take some dramatic actions is even more pressing.
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 came to the court saying he needed this super-strong protection in the first place.
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.
Nope! Don’t talk about it. No hearings! Act!
President Biden: Do what it lets you do!
See, 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.
Because it for sure is going to be used liberally going the other way in less than a couple of months!
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. Especially since Trump just already won. But you know, see what happens. You’ve got nothing to lose.
I’m not a lawyer so I don’t even know if it’s doable. Also, given his recent triumph, probably Trump won’t continue to be a convicted felon. Because no one’s above the law, right?
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.
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 adds hurdles to specific actions Trump has said he’ll do that are really evil and will really hurt people and families, so Biden’ll at least complicate Trump doing those things. Forcing Trump to spend a lot of time and political capital cutting those hurdles down.
If you are thinking politcs in America is just a big joke right now, that’s just a huge four-leaf clover for Trump. Make it harder for him. At least support that. Even if you didn’t vote.
Let’s encourage Biden to do 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 now that he’s been 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!