Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Strengthening Oversight

Trump's relentless onslaught against oversight continues. His primary impulse is score-settling, which is at the root of many of these actions. Like the mafia dons he admires, Trump expects omerta - silence - and loyalty. He can't fathom that the IGs are expected to be loyal to the law, not him. Meanwhile, there is a decent chance the Roberts Court undermines any attempt at Congressional oversight through subpoena powers.

My only worry at the moment about the November election is that Trump and the Republican Party put in place extraordinary voter suppression efforts that render the election a sham. In a fair election, Trump's poor handling of the Covid-19 response and crippling unemployment should sink him.

So, presuming we get a Democratic trifecta, strengthening oversight mechanisms has to be a priority. Nixon Era reforms operated on the presumption that both parties respected the rule of law. Nixon resigned because the 1974 GOP refused to empower a lawless presidency.  With the exception of Mitt Romney and Justin Amash, that is simply not the case today.

Firing IGs can't be done by executive whim. Congressional subpoenas must be respected. It seems odd that we should even be having arguments about that.

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