Twelve or 22 percent of Republican senators have some backbone, refused to abandon conservative “limited government” principles, and voted to terminate President Trump’s national emergency to unilaterally build a border wall that Congress did not fund. Trump plans to illegally grab $3.6 billion appropriated by Congress for military construction projects to pay for part of... Continue Reading →
The Real Art of the Deal
“It is the politician’s task to pass legislation, not to sit around saying principled things.” -- Lyndon Johnson to biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin in Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Johnson was the master deal-maker who would never have considered an extra-legal maneuver like invoking emergency powers to divert funds from already appropriated projects to... Continue Reading →
“Public Sentiment Is Everything”: Lincoln’s View of Political Persuasion
"Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed." -- Abraham Lincoln, explaining how Stephen Douglas would support the pro-slavery position and he would not, from the 1958 Lincoln-Douglas debate in contest for the US Senate. This explains also why legislation passes or fails in Congress, much more important that... Continue Reading →
Unprincipled Power Grabs Are Normalized in Supreme Court Contests Through 2020s
Thanks to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who deprived President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland even a hearing, the Supreme Court is no longer above politics but a hyper-partisan instrument. For the foreseeable future, no president will be allowed to successfully nominate a candidate for the Supreme Court unless his party has at least a... Continue Reading →
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): Social Media Authoritarianism Threatens Democracy
Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine: "We live in a time of such great disunity as the bitter fight over this (Kavanaugh) nomination both in the Senate and among the public clearly demonstrates. It is not merely a case of different groups having different opinions. It is a case of people bearing extreme ill will... Continue Reading →
A Speech Resonates: Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), Profile in Courage Against Joe McCarthy
In June, 1950, a freshman Republican senator from the state of Maine took her political life in her hands by challenging a hateful demagogue, fellow Republican Senator Joe McCarthy. Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), the first and only woman to serve in the US Senate for many years, offered a "Declaration of Conscience" that has become... Continue Reading →
How to Overcome Trump’s Divide and Conquer Strategy, US Move Toward Authoritarianism
Donald Trump despicably attacks and mocks Christine Blasey Ford, the courageous accuser of Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh, appealing to male insecurity. Trump's strategy is divide and conquer, to make Americans disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against him. It is working. Trump's base is only about 30... Continue Reading →
Add John McCain and Edward Kennedy to Senate’s Incomplete Hall of Fame
History News Network: "With the death of Republican John S. McCain, it is time to add three Senators to the Senatorial Hall of Fame in the Senate Reception Room. It is time to add George W. Norris belatedly in tribute to his greatness, along with McCain and Democrat Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, whom any... Continue Reading →
Violence Was Frequent in Antebellum Congress
The uncivil battle in Congress over Supreme Court nominees harkens back to the 1830s through the 1850s, when Congressional battles over slavery descended into violence -- duels, caining, pistol-whipping and threatening to slash an opponent with a knife. Violence at the Heart of Our Politics https://nyti.ms/2wRvGis
