The House has just impeached Donald Trump for the second time following a violent insurrection by his supporters that endangered the lives of Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. Trump got into the White House to begin with despite losing the popular vote in 2016, but went on to pack the federal courts with lifetime judges, including appointing one in three Supreme Court justices. The recent Republican Senate majority, which refused to rein in Trump’s abuses after his first impeachment, was elected with 20 million fewer votes than the Democratic minority.
You don’t have to look far or hard for evidence of the flaws in U.S. democracy. But in thinking about how to fix it, it’s helpful to have a framework for understanding what’s going on here—the roots of the problems and how deep they go. Political scientist Douglas Amy offers a start on that with Second Rate Democracy, a website laying out 17 ways the U.S. lags behind other major western countries on democracy.
In the introduction, Amy notes that:
- Besides Denmark, no other advanced democracy follows the U.S. example and appoints Supreme Court justices for life – all now have mandatory term limits or age limits for justices.
- None use an Electoral College that allows a minority of voters to choose its chief executive.
- Most use different voting systems that make gerrymandering impossible and create more representative multi-party legislatures.
- None have anything like our misrepresentative Senate that gives the 40 million voters in the 22 smallest states forty-four seats, while giving 40 million Californians two seats.
- Nearly all have rejected our conflict-prone separation-of-powers model of government and have chosen instead a more cooperative parliamentary system that avoids the legislative gridlock that plagues our government.
- And all rely much more on public money, not private money from rich organizations and individuals, to fund their election campaigns.
Amy offers a framework for assessing the health of democracies, from majority rule and fair representation to the rule of law, political equality, and public participation. To fix the problem, we need to understand the problem. This is one resource for doing so.
While appearing on “Real Time with Bill Maher” this week, television personality Katie Couric wasted no time in shaming President Donald Trump and his millions of supporters in the worst ways possible.
At one point in the interview, Couric went so far as to pose the question, “How are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?” She then attacked Republican lawmakers who have remained friendly towards Trump in the wake of the Capitol riots earlier this month.
“It is so shocking. … Not only are they not conceding, Bill, but their thoughts – that there might have been some collusion among members of Congress, some are refusing to go through magnetometers … to check for weapons, they’re not wearing masks during this siege,” Couric said.
“I mean, it’s really bizarre, isn’t it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten,” she added.
“But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie,” Couric continued. “And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.”
Related: WaPo Reporter Says Trump Voters ‘Need To Be Deprogrammed’
Not stopping there, Couric also called for Trump’s impeachment.
“But Bill, if you commit a crime and then you move, does that means we’re not going to charge you with a crime because you’re moving out of the neighborhood? I mean, it’s ludicrous,” Couric said. “I think there have to be guardrails on presidential power. He incited violence. … He was really, really inciting violence.”
She then fantasized about a “Hollywood ending” to Trump’s presidency in which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “comes out as the hero” to convict the president. Unsurprisingly, she celebrated the fact that Trump had been banned from social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
“You’re not allowed to yell fire at a crowded theater, so if you’re inciting violence and you’re spreading lies that are getting people fired up, encouraging violence, I think there should be some standard,” Couric said.
Related: Nancy Pelosi Accuses Capitol Rioters Of Choosing ‘Their Whiteness’ Over Democracy
She then celebrated Joe Biden’s upcoming inauguration, calling it an “important symbol of closing the chapter on Donald Trump.” Maher somewhat disagreed, warning that Biden should hold a small, indoor inauguration ceremony to protect against a potential coronavirus risk.
“Joe Biden – he’s a friggin’ tragedy magnet,” Maher said. “He broke his foot playing with his dog. I mean, his eye exploded from blinking. We have got to treat this guy like the baby in ‘Children of Men.'”
Couric, however, was quick to downplay any potential Biden health concerns.
“I think he’s pretty vibrant and in good shape,” Couric said of Biden. “You saw him run across the stage when he made that speech. … I mean, compare his physical fitness to Donald Trump, hello!”
Couric is set to be the guest host on “Jeopardy!” this week, the second guest host behind Ken Jennings after the death of Alex Trebek.
This piece was written by James Samson on January 18, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Tucker Carlson Tells Hard Truths About The Assault On The Capitol
Cawthorn Targeted For No Reason
Masters of Projection and Deception. Democrats Don’t Want to Govern Us; They Want to Crush Us and Then Rule Us.
The post Katie Couric Asks How We’ll ‘Deprogram People Who Signed Up For The Cult Of Trump?’ appeared first on The Political Insider.
Republican strategist Karl Rove spoke out over the weekend to warn that Donald Trump will be convicted in the Senate by a bipartisan vote if he continues to claim that election fraud took place.
“Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says that he is keeping an open mind about the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, a big difference, sharp difference, from his clear opposition from the very start of the first impeachment trial just a year ago,” said Fox News host Chris Wallace.
“What do you think, Karl, are the chances that 17 Senate Republicans, and that’s what it would take if all of the Democrats vote for conviction, 17 Senate Republicans would vote to convict Donald Trump and to keep them from running again?” he added.
“Normally we say not much chance, but I think Leader McConnell’s statement is a sign that every Republican Senator needs to take this seriously,” Rove replied. “I think it’s all going to boil down what’s the president’s defense.”
“Rudy Giuliani charted a very bad course for the president in the morning papers when he suggested that the argument was going to be in there couldn’t have been incitement because all the charges of widespread voter fraud are true,” he added.
“Well, those charges and the so-called experts that the campaign has mustered to advocate them have been rejected by over 50 courts with judges appointed by President Trump, President Obama, Present Bush, President Clinton, and I think even one Reagan justice,” Rove continued.
Related: Karl Rove Warns Trump ‘America Likes Comebacks But They Don’t Like Sore Losers’
“So if it’s the Rudy Giuliani defense, there is a strong likelihood that more than 17 Republicans will because essentially that argument is this was justified, the attack on the Capital and the attempt to end the congressional hearing on certifying the election was justified because all these charges are true and frankly they aren’t.”
“They have been given every opportunity to prove them in a court of law and have failed to do so,” Rove concluded. “I think it really boils down to what’s the defense that the president is going to make, and if it is Rudy Giuliani’s defense, I think it raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction.”
Trump was impeached for a second time last week by the House, and a Senate impeachment trial is expected to take place after the inauguration of Joe Biden later this week.
Read Next: Karl Rove Says Trump’s War On The Media ‘Does Not Help Him’
This piece was written by James Samson on January 18, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Tucker Carlson Tells Hard Truths About The Assault On The Capitol
Cawthorn Targeted For No Reason
Masters of Projection and Deception. Democrats Don’t Want to Govern Us; They Want to Crush Us and Then Rule Us.
The post Karl Rove Warns Trump Will Be Convicted In The Senate If He Continues To Claim Election Fraud appeared first on The Political Insider.