MARCH 1, 2025 – Here it is, after 11:00 p.m., and I just jettisoned the lengthy screed that I’d hammered out in anger over the shocking behavior of our president and vice president Friday in their meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine. We Americans who are now convinced that Trump is a Russian agent and that President Musk is an agent of destruction, are ready to declare American democracy in extremis; that it might not survive until midterm elections in November 2026. Under these circumstances it had seemed appropriate to express my strong reactions to the demise of America; to declare my belief that the American experiment is in fact, a case of “game over.”
But after speaking with my wife, I decided to cancel the rant. She’s every bit as upset as I am—and as worried. She added, however, that “We can’t keep on complaining. Screaming and yelling on social media isn’t doing any good. We’re just talking to ourselves. We’re not changing anything.”
She raised the same question that so many of us extremist, radical, leftwing communists are asking ourselves: What can we do? Wait until the next election? Fill the streets in protest? Boycott the goods and services of enterprises owned by Tech Bros? Make our voices heard by writing and calling our elected representatives? All well and good, but what about those of us who live in blue districts and blue states? Our Democratic representatives and senators are . . . The Choir. Republican congresspeople and senators, meanwhile, won’t accept emails or phone calls from non-constituents. So . . . what is left for us to do besides ring our hands in despair?
Meanwhile . . . a Times article today addressed another assault against American democracy—an attack quite apart from the bully tactics applied by the Kremlin’s stooges against Zelensky. The lead-in to this most distressing news item read as follows:
Congressional Republicans, egged on by Elon Musk and other top allies of President Trump, are escalating calls to remove federal judges who stand in the way of administration efforts to overhaul the government.
The further I read, the lower my jaw dropped. Arch conservative Congressmen are amplifying declarations by Caesar Musk and others in the administration to the effect that judges who rule against The Regime should be impeached if they aren’t inclined to rule in favor of the imperatores de facto. Don’t bother with the appeal process in the instance of an unfavorable ruling—simply bag the district court judge.
Articles of impeachment have already been filed against Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. Southern District of New York for having temporarily enjoined Caesar Musk’s minions from accessing sensitive Treasury Department records. Impeachment is an extraordinary measure, and in any event, it can’t succeed unless the House finds that an impeachable offense has been committed and the Senate votes by a super-majority of 67 to convict. Given the Republicans’ thin margin in the latter chamber, conviction would be next to impossible. Yet, in light of the pattern of contempt for the rule of law, why would Trump or Musk even bother with judicial impeachments—or appeals? The easier path to overthrowing democracy will be simply to ignore all unfavorable district court rulings—one step before the final move to rule by unappealable executive order, in essence, by executive fiat. Under such circumstances, the courts’ jurisdiction will be confined to private parties and “non-political crimes,” and Congress will play a mere advisory role in law-making—a subservient capacity that the Republican Party had already accepted even before Inauguration Day.
This effort to shut out the judiciary on the heels of demoting Congress threatens our democracy as much as any other development since January 20.
Wow. Though I’d scrapped my original diatribe, look where I’ve wound up: a substitute rant. I offer this replacement post as evidence that I just can’t expunge Putin’s coup de grâce from my thoughts. Now I must worry further, What will changing the name of our country to “Russian Annex” and our alphabet to Cyrillic do to our public and personal welfare?
Okay, enough already. I must quit wringing my hands and search for answers to my wife’s question, “What can we do?”
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
1 Comment
Eric, maybe read James Carville’s column in the NY Times today. He advocates letting them self-destruct. Force Republicans to live with their own failures. He thinks the public will be sick of Trump and President Musk within 60 to 90 days. That could be right, although lying always seems to be the thing that saves them. But if Republicans start worrying about getting reelected, they might stop playing the roles of doormats. Of course, this assumes we will have an election in 2026. I wouldn’t put it past Trump to just declare we aren’t having an election if he thinks it could go against him.