'Don the Con', Constitutional Ignoramus - great read

[malaise]

https://thebulwark.com/donald-trump-constitutional-ignoramus/?amp
Conservatives and Republicans can cloak themselves in the Constitution—they can name a magazine after the famous essays defending the Constitution or say they are committed to the study of statesmanship and the American Founding—but they have enthusiastically embraced a president who knows nothing about the Constitution. And who does not care to know anything about it..

Put aside Trump’s praise of Article XII, which does not exist.

Perhaps you think a president who swore a unique oath to uphold the Constitution—as commanded by Article II, Section 1—might at least have read the Constitution he swore to “preserve, protect and defend.” Maybe careful reading is too much to expect.

So let’s talk basics. Like what do the different branches of government do? How do they check one another?

Trump doesn’t understand that Congress is a co-equal branch that makes the laws and controls the purse. He has ignored subpoenas from the House of Representatives and directed some of his associates outside the executive branch, like Corey Lewandowksi, to decline to answer questions before Congress. Just this week, in a letter from the White House counsel on the unfolding Ukraine scandal, the president flatly rejected any notion of congressional oversight. No administration officials will come before Congress to answer questions and no documents will be provided. Preposterously, the letter deemed impeachment proceedings—clearly vested in Congress by the Constitution—unconstitutional! His intransigence should force Congress to come to terms with its own dereliction of constitutional duty; it must insist on its constitutional prerogatives. If it does, the growing conflict between Congress and the president could be a step toward restoring the constitutional separation of powers and checks and balances rather than a constitutional crisis.


Most strikingly, Trump seems to have no idea how the Supreme Court works. Sure, he understands that he gets to appoint judges. But he seems to view these judges as “his,” with complete disregard for judicial independence. (That must grate on jurists like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh—as if they’re just two more Trump lackeys littering the D.C. landscape.) The worst is his repeated insistence that the Supreme Court ought to take action on his behalf. If Congress tries to impeach him, he has said, the Supreme Court must intervene. But the Court has no role in the impeachment process, beyond the Chief Justice presiding over the Senate trial. Trump thinks the Court is a roving inquisitor. Accusing James Comey of lying, Trump tweeted: “But where is the Supreme Court. Where is Justice Roberts?” He said he hoped “Justice Roberts will take action.” But the Supreme Court does not initiate action. And Chief Justice Roberts is not Trump’s personal attorney.

“But Gorsuch!” That’s the worst of it. The president can trample the Constitution but at least there will be conservative justices! This is a devil’s bargain: It risks politicizing the judiciary (admittedly in the name of restoring judges to their proper role), while allowing gross constitutional malfeasance from the chief executive. Under Article VI, all public officials swear an oath to uphold the Constitution because the promise of constitutional government depends on all the branches. To secure a few seats on the Supreme Court while the other branches neglect the Constitution is a profound distortion of constitutional government that’s likely to have lasting consequences.

The Trump presidency is a great reminder that constitutional forms, as important as they are, do not suffice to preserve our constitutional order. They must be backed up by habits of mind that Donald Trump does not possess and is constantly undermining among his followers—such habits of mind as prudence and respect for institutions. As James Madison put it at the Virginia ratifying convention: “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks—no form of government can render us secure.”

Are we there? Is there no virtue among us? We’re going to find out.

George Thomas