Last week I was talking to a lawyer and told him that I thought the GOP had committed the radical and unprecedented step of refusing to respect the US judicial and governance systems by denying hearings to Merrick Garland. My opinion has been that Obama should and could have simply gone ahead and sat Garland on the court. “He can’t do that,” the lawyer said.
But, yes he can and he must.
As we’ve seen conclusively and ever-more graphically, Trump and the GOP have declared war on this country. There are no more rules. The GOP doesn’t observe any. It has become a scofflaw, seditious organization. Marquess of Queensbury decorum is not going to defeat American Fascism. Look at what we just saw them do with the FBI.
In the New Republic, David Dryden, argues that indeed Obama must go ahead and seat Garland in a recess appointment, which remains a more statutory approach than what I was urging.
“The fact that Democrats prefer to maintain governance norms, even while Republicans break them time and again, inescapably pushes the policymaking apparatus of the country to the right.”
Democracy in the U.S. is in for the fight of its life. As Dryden writes, “Democrats, in short, bring a butter knife to a gunfight. They may be correct on the merits that institutional norms allow the government to function properly. But as long as Republicans don’t care about such niceties, that respect is equivalent to surrender.”