What We SHOULD Be Watching Instead Of Ohmarosa
“Morning Joe” had Ari Melber on to talk about pardons this morning, which doesn’t interest me, but they segued into a discussion of Checks and Balances, the separation of powers written into the constitution to insure that one branch of government can “check,” the other.
Republicans currently control all three branches of government at the Federal level: The Executive, the House, and the Senate. The third branch, the Judicial, is staffed with career lawyers, but the President appoints the head of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General.
The point that they were making on “Morning Joe,” this morning is important. The founders, people like James Madison, George Washington, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, knew, 240 years ago, that Presidents might be flawed. They knew, because they were realists, that sometimes things could happen, and a person might occupy the office that wasn’t perfect. They planned for this. They gave the House and Senate the power to oversee the Executive Branch, with the Senate being consulted and approving appointments, with the House controlling the purse strings. The judiciary can decide if a law is Constitutional or not. They can rule against the House and the Senate. So far, so good. These checks and balances work because the three branches balance each other.
What was somewhat alarming in the discussion this morning during the discussion was that they pointed out that all of these checks pre-supposed that the House and Senate would WANT to check the Executive. Their point, and it is the most important one, is that right now we don’t have a House and Senate, controlled by Republicans, that seem willing to REALLY check the Executive.
This is somewhat distressing, but it doesn’t seem to me that the Republicans are going to suddenly grow a spine and check the President. Although it has gotten lost in the noise, and in the intense Trump hate, Republicans are trapped. Their voters, especially House members, are Trumps voters. They cannot stand up to Trump and keep their seats. They are politicians. They have a sixth sense for survival, for what will keep them politicians. Their antenna right now are vibrating that sticking with Trump is their best course of action.
We, as the Democratic coalition, must change this. We must get Democrats control of the house. Democrats need to win at a minimum of 24 house seats to regain control. We have to focus. We have to make peace with the Bernie voter, and maybe even the Trump voter. We have to volunteer on Congressional campaigns. We have to fundraise. We need to be nice, we need to cajole, to persuade, to do anything that needs to be done to get Democrats control. It has NEVER been more important. We can do it. We have to believe. We have to vote. We need to turn out 70% of our voters, and we are there.
