Democrats Block Senate Quorum As Constitutional Crisis Expands
As we sprint headlong into Armageddon, I’d like to take a moment to toot my own horn because I fear that opportunity may not be available very much longer. Back on January 9th, I recommended that Democrats refuse to allow a quorum in Senate hearing in order to stop Trump’s most ethically challenged nominees. And, lo and behold, Democrats have actually done just that in order to press Tom Price and Steve Mnuchin about why they lied and continue to lie to the Senate committees overseeing their nominations.
Sadly, this is just another example of how our democracy is collapsing under the constant attacks of Trump/Bannon and the sycophantic GOP Congress. Trump is engaging in a broad assault on our liberties and our Constitution. He is in violation of the Emoluments Clause. He is muzzling federal agencies. He is threatening a free press. He has fired the top law enforcement official in the land for disagreeing with him about the law. His agencies have engaged and are perhaps still engaged in violating a federal court order and infringing on the rights of those who live and work here legally. The GOP Congress does nothing about any of these violations and, worse, provides active and tacit support for these actions. They stand mute as Trump uses their employees to craft policy and holds those employees to non-disclosure agreements so that their employers, Senators and Representatives, will be kept in the dark, a clear violation of the separation of powers. His nominees have enormous ethical baggage and freely lie to Congress in the knowledge that the GOP majority will rubber stamp their approval.
In any other circumstance, even as a Democrat, I would vehemently oppose the actions that Democratic Senators took today. The obvious solution would have been to allow the Democrats to further question the nominees to their hearts content and then go ahead with a vote that everyone knows would confirm these nominees. But, in the bizarre world that the GOP currently inhabits, that would be an unforgiveable show of weakness. It will be interesting to what kind of volatile response Trump/Bannon will have to this. It is not out of the realm of possibility that we will be seeing federal marshals arresting recalcitrant Democrats and bringing them to the Senate to create a quorum.
Republicans have destroyed so many of the norms of governance that it has come to this. It is time for Republicans to choose between power and democracy and they have shown no indication that they care for our democracy one whit. Rather, they are only focused on maintaining and wielding power to enact policies that most of America opposes. This will only end in a military coup or a civil war. I’m sorry but it is hard to see any other way forward.