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| Sad Eagle is now even sadder. |
The impeachment process has generated a lot of partisan excitement and sheer boredom. Both of these serve to have a blinding effect on the public. One group becomes too immersed in the detail and trivia or what will ultimately be a minor historical footnote, while the other just tunes out. But above the dust of petty partisan battles, something very significant has happened. The American Republic has effectively died.
Think about it. The House voted to unseat a President simply for doing normal presidential stuff, and was entirely motivated by party political reasons.
If the Dems held a majority in the Senate, we would undoubtedly be looking at the President being unseated in the next few days without any democratic process whatsoever by what is effectively a political clique. This sets a deeply disturbing precedent, especially as it has occurred at a time when the country has become increasingly polarised politically and culturally. This is ample proof that the two-party political system is now unworkable.
When I was a schoolboy we were taught that the American system of government was based on the separation of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial powers, the famous "checks and balances" beloved by political theorists. This separation of powers supposedly guaranteed that power would never be over-centralised and tyrannical. It also supposedly ensured that government would generally—if somewhat messily—move in the right direction. This basically Montesquieuan view may seem slightly naive in the 21st century, but there was definitely something potent and profound in this separation of powers.
The first thing in our own age that suggested there was something seriously wrong with this ''most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," as the 19th century British Prime Minister William Gladstone described it, was the increasing tendency of the Supreme Court to overstep the mark. There had been a spate essentially undemocratic political interventions by of Supreme Court in the so-called Civil Rights era and of course Roe vs. Wade (1973). But things had died down until recently, when the Court intervened in the "gay marriage" debate and state attempts to verify voter ID. Moves were also made to "weaponise" the Court to override Trump's anti-illegal-immigrant push. Luckily these failed.
For a time the USA seemed to be heading for an actual Kritarchy (rule by judges). However, a relative return to sanity and Trump's two appointees—plus the prospect of a third, if the extremely ill Ruth Bader Ginsburg bows out—suggests that this possibility is declining as the Court loses some of its "activist" character.
But no sooner has this threat receded than a new one has become manifest with the impeachment process.
Sure the Democrats didn't get the dirt they really wanted on Russian collusion and had to settle instead for the extremely weak tea of Ukrainian "quid pro quo," and sure this House vote to impeach Trump will be easily blocked in the Senate. But make no mistake about it, the legacy of this is clear: whenever any party holds majorities in both the House and the Senate, a President that it doesn't like will be toast.
If Trump can be impeached for merely suggesting that a foreign government look into possible corruption by a member of a previous administration—a promise he was effectively elected on when supporters at his rallies chanted "Drain the Swamp!"—then there is absolutely nothing to stop a politically united House and Senate deposing any president it wants in the future.
That means that the American system—the Republic—with its famous system of checks and balances that has weathered over two centuries of strenuous change and enormous social pressure is effectively broken.
The American Republic is dead. What comes next? That is a topic for another day.
Think about it. The House voted to unseat a President simply for doing normal presidential stuff, and was entirely motivated by party political reasons.
If the Dems held a majority in the Senate, we would undoubtedly be looking at the President being unseated in the next few days without any democratic process whatsoever by what is effectively a political clique. This sets a deeply disturbing precedent, especially as it has occurred at a time when the country has become increasingly polarised politically and culturally. This is ample proof that the two-party political system is now unworkable.
When I was a schoolboy we were taught that the American system of government was based on the separation of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial powers, the famous "checks and balances" beloved by political theorists. This separation of powers supposedly guaranteed that power would never be over-centralised and tyrannical. It also supposedly ensured that government would generally—if somewhat messily—move in the right direction. This basically Montesquieuan view may seem slightly naive in the 21st century, but there was definitely something potent and profound in this separation of powers.
The first thing in our own age that suggested there was something seriously wrong with this ''most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," as the 19th century British Prime Minister William Gladstone described it, was the increasing tendency of the Supreme Court to overstep the mark. There had been a spate essentially undemocratic political interventions by of Supreme Court in the so-called Civil Rights era and of course Roe vs. Wade (1973). But things had died down until recently, when the Court intervened in the "gay marriage" debate and state attempts to verify voter ID. Moves were also made to "weaponise" the Court to override Trump's anti-illegal-immigrant push. Luckily these failed.
For a time the USA seemed to be heading for an actual Kritarchy (rule by judges). However, a relative return to sanity and Trump's two appointees—plus the prospect of a third, if the extremely ill Ruth Bader Ginsburg bows out—suggests that this possibility is declining as the Court loses some of its "activist" character.
But no sooner has this threat receded than a new one has become manifest with the impeachment process.
Sure the Democrats didn't get the dirt they really wanted on Russian collusion and had to settle instead for the extremely weak tea of Ukrainian "quid pro quo," and sure this House vote to impeach Trump will be easily blocked in the Senate. But make no mistake about it, the legacy of this is clear: whenever any party holds majorities in both the House and the Senate, a President that it doesn't like will be toast.
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| Top: control of the Senate; bottom: control of the House. |
That means that the American system—the Republic—with its famous system of checks and balances that has weathered over two centuries of strenuous change and enormous social pressure is effectively broken.
The American Republic is dead. What comes next? That is a topic for another day.
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