Saturday, February 4, 2017

So-Called President Hits A Wall (No, Not THAT Wall)

By Sniffles

It's a consolation that after the Republicans denied Barack Obama any kind of a honeymoon — even during a national and global financial crisis — the country is turning on the GOP's new fake President with a vengeance.

Already there have been anti-immigrant-ban protests for a second consecutive weekend. (Which makes it a third straight weekend of major demonstrations since Mr. "American Carnage" was inaugurated.) Now we've heard rumors about protests at tomorrow's Super Bowl. And people are yelling outside Mar-A-Lago tonight. Really good job uniting the country, dude. (Not.)

But there's more than just protests going on.

The New Worst Person Who's Ever Lived surely will find out, if he hasn't already, that the American system of checks and balances just doesn't suit an autocrat. The judiciary, as is its wont, has put the brakes on rash executive action. (The other branch of government could have done it, too, had it not been in the hands of a bunch of Republican weenies.)

So it was left to a George W. Bush-appointed federal judge to throw a monkey wrench into Trump's dreams of anti-immigrant dictatorship, and he's whining about it.

It's called separation of powers. Yes, the President can do a lot, but he (wish it had been "she") is also, to a certain extent, limited. Since Trump knows nothing about the Constitution, and nothing about government, could it be that he's blundered into this job thinking he can get away with murder — only to be thwarted in the first two weeks by James Madison's brilliant system of mutual restraint?

Gosh, we cats sure hope so. Our democracy can be confounding, frustrating and slow-moving — but it's also fragile, so we don't want it smashed to bits by a bully in a china shop. But we're heartened by the pushback that at least one branch of the government has, so far, had the guts to pull off. Let's hear it for the Founding Fathers, whose amazing creation may yet survive Situation Normal All Trumped Up.

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