TRUMP, CONGRESSPEOPLE OMAR AND TLIAB, THE DEMOCRATS, ISRAEL AND NETANYAHU

This last week, (it seems like forever ago), witnessed an epic unfold which was as unique as it was bizarre - an American President demanding that an ally deny entry to American elected Congresspeople. The context was equally unprecedented in that the Congresspeople had as their agenda a boycott of the American ally they wished to visit. Trump’s instruction to Netanyahu to humiliate his own House of Representatives was issued in spite of the negative aspects it would have on his ally, Israel. All this in the hope that his outlandish action would bolster his sagging election hopes.

 An embattled Trump then attacked Jews as being “disloyal” if  they oppose him and Netanyahu. Unfazed by the anti semitic connotations that that type of allegation historically entails, he doubled down on this vitriol a day later repeating his assertion that Jews who vote for Democrats are “disloyal” and that he was “The Chosen One and The King of The Jews”. 

The irony is that his self-made crisis would win him no new votes and merely bolster the resolve of those who were going to vote for him anyway.

This lose - lose situation resulted in giving credibility to two nonentity congresspeople who now became the face and de facto leaders of a movement, Boycott, Disinvest and Sanction Israel, (BDS) which had gone nowhere to date. The other variable in this unparalleled scenario is that the Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu listened to Trump’s instruction to keep Congresspersons Omar and Tlaib out after publicly agreeing to let them enter. This all played out on twitter and has vast implications for all concerned, not the least for the Democratic Party, whoTrump is attempting to label as Socialistic and anti Israel.

One matter that this drama did not advance was any attempt in resolving the real life tragedy the Palestinian people are facing while politicians from everywhere continue to use them as pawns. Whatever all the dramatis personae are up to Israel is in control of the Palestinian territories. The Arab nations other than Iran and Syria, who are merely using the Palestinians as pawns, have lost interest in their cause and the Palestinian leadership itself is not united with the split between Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Movement worsening. No one from any side at the moment is making a serious effort to end the stand off.

WHO ARE CONGRESSPEOPLE OMAR AND TLIAB AND WHAT IS THE BDS?

Congresspeople Omar and Tlaib are freshmen who, to date, have had very little influence on the Democratic Party. In fact if it was not for Trump they would not be international figures let alone world icons which he and Bibi Netanyahu have now made them. For the record they both have been criticized for anti - semitic statements. In fact no lesser personage then famed political commentator, Fareed Zakaria, has twice warned them of the dangers of peddling Jewish hatred. They have made their anti Israel sentiments, rather than other national issues the centerpiece of their thrust in Washington. They have taken positions such as not supporting the two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis since being elected to Congress. 

It remains to be seen if they will be reelected or face Primaries as a result of their volte facie. Already Ms. Omar’s constituency, which included a large number of Jewish supporters have voiced opposition to her anti semitic positions. Ms. Dlaib’s credibility is also being challenged. many arguing that having agreed to accept Israel’s backtracking in granting her a visa to visit her grandmother on the West Bank and then refusing while grandstanding is evidence of her political motives for the whole exercise.

Lest there be any doubt as to where the two Congresspeople stand, on returning home they once again confirmed their support for the BDS movement. They then posted a cartoon drawn by a Brazilian - Lebanese artist whose work won second prize in Iran’s Holocaust Cartoon competition. The cartoonist has argued that there are similarities between the treatment by the Israeli Defense Force of the Palestinians with that of the Nazis of the Jews. What makes their choice of this artist’s work more obnoxious is that Ms. Omar’s exhortation to boycott Israel was made by referencing that it was the boycott tactic that was utilized to attack Nazi Germany. To cap it all they called for a halting of foreign aid to Israel, which incidentally no longer has the near unanimous public backing it previously had.

However whichever way this scenario is viewed the two have gained massive stature being elevated to the status of martyrs and spokespersons of the BDS movement which to date has had nobody of such standing backing them. They are, after all, democratically elected members of the United States Congress and as such have prestige and credentials. The civility and deference usually conferred to those in similar positions should have been afforded to them diplomatically. Had this been done Jay H. Ell would not be writing this blog.

The slap in the face by the Israeli Premier is not principally to those representatives rather it is to the institution they are members off, namely the elected House of Representatives of the United States of America.

HOW DOES THIS EPISODE IMPACT ISRAEL, THE DEMOCRATS, NETANYAHU AND TRUMP?

Israel and Netanyahu

The State of Israel has had, for decades, bipartisan support from the American Congress. This status has been under strain ever since Bibi Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to attack the then President, Barak Obama. The Democrats were furious at the time and the current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi publicly emoted at the abuse the Israeli Prime Minister heaped on the President. 

Obama, in spite of this public slight, did Israel a great favor by ensuring that the foreign aid afforded to Israel would continue for at least four years. (Incidentally it is this foreign aid that Ms’s. Omar and Tlaib attack claiming that it is as a result of Jewish money controlling Congress). 

Israel have to hope that Netanyahu is not the next Premier as the next American President is most likely to be a Democrat. He or she will have to be more than mindful that Netanyahu joined in the Trump campaign by aiding the latter’s agenda in attempting to label the Democratic presidential nominee an Israel hating socialist. Netanyahu is an unashamed partisan Republican and why should a Democrat President do anything to help him? In fact it would be far better for Israel if Netanyahu was no longer around when the next Democratic President is sworn in, particularly if it is Biden. The reason being that Netanyahu’s administration, while Obama’s Vice President Biden was on a visit to Israel, announced an expansion of the Settlements which ostensibly at that stage of the game was an issue to be decided in the “peace” negotiations. 

Bibi is about to learn how the bully Trump handles actors who show weakness. He discards them like he tosses away “used goods”. One of the attractions of Bibi was that he was strong like Putin and Kim Jun Un neither whom have caved into him. While the strongmen grovel and just flatter him he in turn fawns and idolizes them. Trump made no bones about the fact that he was the one who persuaded Netanyahu to change his mind on Omar and Dlaib. 

Netanyahu is amidst an election, having failed to form a Government following the previous vote just a short while ago. Well one irony in the wake of this ballyhoo is that the most Right Wing member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, head of the secular nationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu who with his eleven seats, has had it with Bibi. He is obviously unmoved by the Prime Minister’s kowtowing to Trump. Whoever Lieberman sides with will probably be the next Prime Minister of Israel and he has just signed a vote sharing deal with the leader of the opposition Blue and White party, Bernie Ganz. Lieberman’s beef with Netanyahu centers around his continual caving to the ultra orthodox religious Haredi who refuse to serve in the army amongst other controversial positions. By the way the Haredi are the group that caused Bibi to sell out on the Conservative and Reform Jewry in the USA. Netanyahu reneged on promises such as providing access to the Western Wall to those non orthodox groups. Thus far the Israeli Premier has not responded to the attack on eighty percent of American jewry who Trump has claimed are “disloyal” because they are not voting for him and are letting Israel down.

While Lieberman is going for broke and is obviously even fantasizing being Premier himself and is no friend of the Israeli “left”, if he wants to keep the Haredi out he will have to back Ganz against Bibi.

The Democrats

Nevertheless the Democrats have to deal with an empowered pair of martyrs who are allied to progressives on other issues. Trump’s objective in this whole incident namely to send the  Democrats in into a catatonic funk has not materialized. The POTUS also hoped to gain support among Jews and other Israeli supporters. However he met with almost universal condemnation. AIPAC the influential pro Israel lobby organization who always back Netanyahu condemned both him and Trump for their actions while Joe Lieberman the only jew ever to be a Vice Presidential nominee roundly criticized both leaders. For the moment the fall out for the Democrats is very limited as they had condemned BDS way back and there is known irritation at the two Congresspeople who are part of the four person radical “Squad” on the far left of the party. 

 Trump

Presumably, the Evangelical Christians agree with Trump’s action. Their support for Israel is guaranteed till the Messiah returns, because without a viable Israel, according to their belief, He cannot descend, However there is no sign that Trump has gained a single vote following his destructive act. In fact he has largely diverted from the issue to buying Greenland, then attacking their Prime Minister when she said the idea was “absurd”, then to persuading everyone there is no risk to the economy, then to blaming the Federal Reserve for the lack of growth in the economy, then to stating he was considering a payroll tax cut, to then state that he wasn’t, then to say he was for strong background checks for gun owners, then that he wasn’t, then to stating that China is paying for the tariffs, and then to delaying the next round so that they won’t increase the cost of living to Americans round about Christmas time. All that to once again reaffirming his opinion as to which Jew was loyal to America and as to which one wasn’t. 

Trump and Netanyahu and Israeli President Rivlin

What can’t really help BibI, or Trump for that matter, is the fact that Israel’s President Rivlin, (who often is at odds with his Prime Minister), called Nancy Pelosi to contradict them both to affirm that notion that Israel should not be politicized. In his lengthy conversation with her he stressed, “We must keep the State of Israel above political disputes and make every effort to ensure that support for Israel does not become a political issue….. we respect the wishes of each of our peoples”.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

While the full implications of the Netanyahu/Trump escapade have still to unfold, Trump is now arguing that nearly eighty percent of the American Jews will be “disloyal” if they continue to vote for the Democrats. Trump did soften his smear by adding that another explanation for the Jewish behavior was that they lacked knowledge that Omar and Tlaib wanted to go on a propaganda war in Israel. As AIPAC would agree Netanyahu and Trump have done a far better job than the two could have done in a million years. Hopefully before long both those national leaders will be history. Trump has to be aware that the dual loyalty smear against jews is an age old anti - semitic trope and that he has given strength to the anti semitic white supremacists with his attack on eighty percent of the Jews in America. 

One outcome of this disgraceful episode is certain and that is the two people that have to be most gratified that Bibi did not allow two elected members of the American Government to pass through Ben Gurion airport are the two selfsame Congresspeople, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. They and their cause have gained a prominence they could never have aspired too in their wildest dreams. 

And in the final analysis who knows where this will really end as it is obvious that this grotesque foreign intervention will continue creating more and more unprecedented sequelae, as the President changes the world tweet by tweet. 

For the moment Trump is taking on the world with China at the G7 conference.

TRUMP’S MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN HERALDS THE DEATH OF THE GOP

America, with all its faults and all its virtues, is once again at a crossroads. The choice resides in whether or not to sustain their covenantal democracy which aspired, “To create all men equal with the inalienable right to pursue life, liberty and happiness”. While the revolution Trump is leading is totally contrary to the ethos of the Founding Fathers, America’s history is punctuated with convulsive lurches either heralding progress or attempts to return to the yesterday’s status quo. From the word go the central issue of the Republic was who would constitute “We The People”.

Following Obama’s second election in 2012 the Republican establishment saw the writing on the wall and commissioned an “autopsy” which sought to diagnose and suggest solutions so as to remain a force in America politics. However they were thwarted by Donald J. Trump who sought to drive the Party in a new direction. The  Trump movement to Keep America White has had many historical geneses. However it is self evident that the Trumpian revolution, which trashed the conservative values of the Republican Party, could never have happened without the malignant and narcissistic television personality of The Donald. It also undoubtedly heralds the death of the Republican Party of the twentieth century as formulated by Teddy Roosevelt and modified by Ronald Reagan.

 IN 2012 THE GOP PREPARED TO STAVE OFF THE THREAT OF EXTINCTION WITH AN “AUTOPSY”

In 2012 the Republican National Committee, (RNC), having lost four of the last six Presidential elections and facing progressively decreasing voter numbers, commissioned what they labelled an “autopsy” to address the possible obliteration of their viability as a political party. Obviously at the back of their minds had to be the fact that minority populations were growing, the fastest by far being the Hispanics. By the year 2050 it was predicted that those with white skins would be a minority in America. 

In an unbelievably frank hundred page report it was concluded that the GOP needed to reframe how they addressed minorities, the youth and women. Amongst their findings were realities such as:

“Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents and many minorities wrongly think that the Republicans do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us. If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States, they will not pay attention to the next sentence, It does not matter what we say about jobs, education or the economy; If Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close our eyes to our policies. In the last election Governor Romney just received twenty seven percent of the Hispanic vote…..”

The recommendation was, “We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian and gay Americans and demonstrate we care about them, too. We must recruit more candidates from minority communities”. 

The report continued “…….there is a growing unrest within the community of Republican women frustrated by the party’s negative image among women…. the Republican Party committees need to understand that women need to be asked to run….”

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOLLOWING ITS “AUTOPSY”

Well Donald Trump won the nomination of the Republican Party in 2016 and totally trashed the recommendations of the “autopsy”. In so doing he not only abandoned the core Conservative principles of Reagan and the social agenda of Roosevelt, he turned it into a white supremacist nationalistic enterprise. He made no bones of the fact that he despised the minorities with his focus on the Hispanics. 

By a freak of nature he then won the electoral college notwithstanding the verification of the ”autopsy” report’s prophesy that the Republican Party would increasingly be in the minority -  Hillary Clinton trouncing Trump by three million votes. The Hispanic vote remained at under thirty percent nowhere reaching the forty - one percent that George W. Bush garnered. 

It took until the 2018 midterms for the forecast that the Republican women would register their anger at the “negative image” they believed the party had of them. The Democrats crushed the Republicans in the House of Representatives knocking out forty of their Congress people with the help of suburban Republican white women. Following the 2018 midterms of the one hundred and twenty seven women in the House of Representatives only twenty one were from the GOP. The Senate Republican representation is not much better with only eight Senators of the twenty - five. The Republican candidates for 2020  will have even fewer women represented. Most significantly the warning in the autopsy of increasing Democratic majorities was realized in the 2018 midterms in that the Democrats received eight million more votes than the Republicans.

Trump has not hidden that his view of America Great Again is to Make America White Again and one of his hopes was to keep out colored immigrants in favor of those with white skins. The problem being that the citizens of his chosen areas such as Scandinavia and Western Europe are not really interested in immigrating to the USA. 

There are two principal sources of immigrants to America - there are those few with exceptional talent whom America courts and those whose credentials that are etched on the Statue of Liberty - the poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Anyone who emigrates thus usually is “exceptional” in one way or another and wave after wave has been responsible for America’s remarkable success. 

Trump who recognizes that he cannot import whites in great enough numbers to prevent America from a fate worse than death promised to stop everyone of “the huddled masses yearning to be free” constituency. He argued that they all came from Mexico and “.. had lots of problems…they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…..” He then reassured that he would send back all those “illegal” Hispanics who were criminals without defining what a criminal was. It turned out that everyone of the eleven million “illegals” was a “criminal”. He would be King Canute and turn back the tides. In the wake of attempting to carry out his “Whites Only” policy Trump inflicted cruelty and abrogations of human rights while breaking laws and treading roughshod over centuries old tradition of liberal values. 

TRUMP IS NOT THE FIRST TO TRY TO KEEP AMERICA WHITE

There is a belief that Trump is the “messiah” and represents the great last hope to right the American ship. Well in truth he is not the first to represent the forces of prejudice against the values which the American Founders espoused. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were immensely troubled by their inability to deal with the issues of America’s indigenous peoples and the African American slaves but they resigned themselves to the fact that any meaningful accommodation would never allow the formation of the United States of America. It was left to Abe Lincoln to resolve the injustice of slavery. Sadly the American frontiersmen resolved, by genocide, the participation of millions of the “Red Indians” as citizens of the Republic.

At the end of the day the clash was always about those who championed the supremacy of the white man versus those who wanted to include all who have constituted and contributed to the amazing success of the United States of America. Besides the moral concerns of the conflict the “white supremacists” forgot the fact that America owed its success to all its peoples and the waves of immigrants that bolstered the workforce and entrepreneurial spirit of the USA. 

The struggle to afford all participants in the American phenomenon full privileges of citizenship continues to this day. The conflict has been and still is slow, painful and violent. The massive injections of the  Irish, Italians and Eastern Europeans - predominantly Jews, for example, were met with resistance, prejudice and even legislation restricting their entry. 

Then there was the pervasive era of Jim Crow which for practical purposes denied African American their rights till the middle of the twentieth century. Finally legislation was enacted in the 1960’s which enshrined the African American rights. But even that struggle is far from settled as the issue of “voter suppression” has become a real obstacle. However the prejudice du jour is against the brown Latinos whose numbers increase and are the only demographic who have the necessity to immigrate to America in large numbers.

THE FUTURE OF GOP AND TRUMP 

The GOP is dead and may its dear soul rest in peace. The white supremacist Republican party lead by Trump has once again attempted to reverse history and notwithstanding the fact that the 2012 GOP “autopsy” has thus far proved correct there is still a fear that Trump can defy political gravity and do it again.

Trump has a steep challenge, in spite of his adoring mobs at his Nuremberg style rallies. He has, once again, to win all the Democratic leaning Mid West States that he won by a total of seventy thousand votes and not lose any other State on the way. He has a favorable economy and he is the incumbent so from that  micro historical point of view he has the advantage. However from the macro perspective the American electorate has always performed the way Winston Churchill characterized their decisions in tough situations: 

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing once they have tried everything else.”

TRUMP - AMERICA’S MINORITY MONARCH

In the midst of the chaotic Presidency with its amateurish destructive scatterbrained foreign policy where Trump takes on China and Iran with no understanding of the psychology of his foes and no obvious plan A let alone B, it might be useful to look as to how America arose and what it stands for. Some one should tell the POTUS that he is not dealing with Brooklyn hoods whose thought processes he is in sync with. Then his racist rhetoric is being connected with the spate of domestic terror - instead of "Making America Great" again he is taking it back to the Wild West where even the cowboys had to hand their guns in at the door. This weekend in the midst of the carnage of his "Great America" he was playing golf.

American democracy is in the balance as Trump trashes the fragile fabric of centuries of evolution and tradition since the Declaration of Independence, the Ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, (Amendments 1 - 10 to the Constitution). Every fear that the Founders imagined and attempted to forestall is at risk in all three branches of Government in the era of Trump. 

The Federalist Papers, authored by three of the Founding Fathers - Madison, Hamilton and Jay - publicly reflected the anxieties of the pioneers who sought to create a government that could withstand the tyranny of a majority and prevent the emergence of an absolute monarch. There is little doubt as to the desire of the Founders to create a revolutionary moral democratic entity which could not be hijacked. The Constitution and Bill of Rights solutions that they enacted was to provide the checks and balances to create a democracy where “ambition” could be checked and where a majority could not ride rough shod over the rights of individuals and minorities. 

However in the final analysis any system is dependent on the bona fides and integrity of its participants. For all three branches of Government as well as the institutions that have been created to maintain the smooth running of the richest most powerful nation the world the current POTUS has shown scant respect. It has fair to say he has exhibited behaviors never witnessed in the nearly two hundred and fifty year history of the Republic by its chief executive.  Even his alter ego President Andrew Jackson, a nineteen century populist, never sunk this low. 

THE PRESIDENCY 

The prophesy of Michael Cohen, the POTUS'S former attorney and “fixer”, in a Congress hearing where he warned, “I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 there will never be a peaceful transition of power” sent shivers down the spines of every thinking American. That fear was not only based on Cohen’s personal knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump mind but the public utterings and behaviors of the POTUS. 

For those who had long memories they just needed to hark back to his 2016 campaign bravado when he thought he would lose. He confided to the adoring fans that the system was rigged and If Hillary Clinton got elected, “… nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment people, (gun owners) - maybe there is, I don’t know”.  

With regard to him challenging an election result he has not dropped his assertion that the system is rigged and that the deep state is out to get him. Furthermore he is the only branch of government which denies that he aided and welcomed Russian intervention in his election as President of the United States and that they are on their way to doing it again. 

In fairness to THE DONALD he has not hidden his ambition, beliefs and desires. He is upfront and personal with his need to be the absolute monarch of America controlling Congress, the Judiciary and the Institutions such as the Federal Reserve, the Security infrastructure, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the Media. Everybody and every body are all there to serve him and he makes no bones about it.

Ironically it is one of the Founding Fathers’ elaborate stratagems to make the election of the President as representative as possible that allowed Trump to become Chief Executive in the first place. Trump lost the popular vote by three million to Hillary Clinton. The Constitution in involving the States to the extent that it does, by means of the Electoral College, in the election of a President, gave them an undue influence in overriding the will of the majority of “The People”. 

Trump of course claimed that his victory was of historic proportions. When faced with the persistent reality of the numbers he still would not concede arguing to this day that three to five million illegals voted which cost him winning the popular vote. Although this is a spectacular lie it is only one of ten thousand seven hundred and ninety - six documented false or misleading statements that he made in the first eight hundred and sixty - nine days in office, as of June 2019. Of course some of them are not as material such as,”… I was down there with the first responders on 9/11” or that, “I lost hundreds of friends in the Twin Tower massacre”. Other lies are designed to bolster his racist image such as he saw thousand of Muslims celebrating the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey. In truth he lies about anything and everything to the extent that even The Republicans don’t bother to defend his untruths. They just argue - ignore what he says and only take note of his actions.

Trump has attacked the media labelling them unpatriotic regardless of the fact that their free speech is enshrined in the First Amendment. He has made no secret that the departments within his Administration are there to serve him and not “The People”. This objective which he broadcasts for all the world to know is most notable in relation to the traditionally independent Department of Justice. As he wailed again and again as the Investigation into Russian Intervention in the 2016 election proceeded, he needed an attorney general to protect him. Also like his friend Putin he is fighting tooth and nail to get the whole security apparatus to “look after him” rather than protect the country.

So in line with his failure to unite the country or produce his tax returns, or his conducting a campaign fabricating that he has evidence that a former President was not legitimate or just to lie as a matter of course, what is to stop Trump from refusing to accept an election result that he claims is not legitimate? To this day he claims that the vote count in the 2016 election was crooked and fixed. Furthermore he has not, to this day, dropped his assertion that the system is rigged and that the deep state is out to get him. He remains the only branch of government which denies that he aided and welcomed Russian intervention in his election as President of the United States and that they are on their way to doing it again. 

THE CONGRESS

There is little doubt that the legislative body, The Congress, was regarded by the Founders as the most powerful of the three branches. They were fearful again that the majority could become tyrannical and sought to balance the Congress, like the Electoral College, with a heavy dose of State influence by creating the Senate in addition to the House of Representatives. The former awards the same number of Senators, for example, to California with nearly forty million voters as there are in states that have one million voters.

 The Democrats who, in the 2018 midterms elections, polled eight million more votes than the Republicans are being thwarted in their House Legislative Agenda by the Republicans in the Senate. The latter body in the past was a far more bipartisan chamber, regardless of of which party was in the majority. 

In deviating from the intent and ethos of the Constitution, history will show that Trump in his vandalizing of American values had a key partner, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. The latter like Trump doesn’t give a hoot that the world knows that he has sold his soul, such as it is, to the devil. McConnell who unprecedently refused to put forward President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court with the argument that there was a Presidential election in the near future. With the same circumstances operating at present he has stated he would not hesitate to usher in a Trump appointee should a vacancy arise. 

McConnell’s slavish desire to please Trump came to a head when he refused to bring to a vote a House Bill that called for bolstering security against Russian interference in the 2020 election. He was unmercifully hammered in the media earning the appellation of “Moscow Mitch”. The motive for his sycophantic behavior is to support Trump’s denial of the security establishment's and Mueller finding that the Russians interfered in 2016 and that they are at it again, 

How is the House of Representative check and balance constitutional responsibility of the overseeing of the President working in the face of the Trump move to become the only game in town? The simple answer is not very well. Trump has made a mockery of the constitutional oversight that Congress is empowered to effect. He has used the tactic that has been a landmark of his career - challenging every request for evidence or witnesses in court, dragging the proceedings on long enough to make the outcome meaningless. With an army of lawyers he is effectively, for the moment, denying Congress its constitutional rights to oversea the Presidency.

Recognizing the dominance of the Legislative Congress the Founders gave them the responsibility to impeach and remove a President for “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Without going into any detail there is a strong case against Trump for obstructing a criminal investigation by lying under oath several times. Yet the politically savvy Democrat leader of the House will not move forward because the selfsame Republicans that impeached Bill Clinton for lying under oath in an unrelated civil case against him for sexual harassment won’t act. To ultimately remove a President it needs a two thirds majority vote in the Senate. 

The upshot of this all is that a minority elected President and Congress with a minority of the population voting for them are thwarting the intent of the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

THE JUDICIARY

A third branch of Government was added to the other two as yet another check on unconstitutional actions. Trump in his nominations to the Supreme Court and attack on Judges who disagree with him has made it quite clear that he expects the Courts to back him up. Trump dispassionately discussing the legal trajectory of one of his illegal actions on the Southern Border claimed whatever some or other Federal Judge rules it will go to the “disgraceful” Ninth Circuit of Appeals that would rule against him and then finally to The Supreme Court where he will get "a fair shake". 

His scathing criticisms of the Ninth Circuit of Appeals  have been what could be expected from a despot.

      “That’s not the law. Every case that gets filed in the Ninth Circuit we get beaten. It’s a disgrace. I tell you what this is not how it is going to go anymore”. 

Trump usually claims when rulings go against him that the Judge is an “Obama Judge” whether it is or isn’t. 

In fairness to Trump the Supreme Court in the past two decades has acted to put it most kindly in a “controversial” manner which has had the effect of aiding the minority of Republicans to maintain and gain power. The most bizarre decision was in 2000 in the case Bush versus Gore which decided the Presidency in favor of Bush. The issue was the right of a State to decide on how to run its election procedures. Electoral procedures are constitutionally the province of the States. In an historic ruling by five votes to four the Federal Supreme Court reversed the Florida Supreme Court’s injunction to perform a manual recount of the votes which would have afforded Gore the victory and Presidency. 

Then during the Obama Presidency the Court reversed an Act of Congress which limited campaign spending by companies. In what became known as The Citizen’s United case, the latter being a conservative organization, the court strangely designated companies as “individuals”. In addition the majority of Judges agreed that the corporations could spend as much as they liked as money was akin to free speech protected under the First Amendment. The conservative court, narrowly, in a five to four ruling, gave this astonishing interpretation of the Constitution. 

Recently the Supreme Court, now with their Trump nominees, shone the green light to States to gerrymander electoral districts for Federal elections. While considered less controversial by jurists their backing of the Trump decision to utilize money that Congress had allocated for other functions to help build his "beautiful wall" raised eyebrows. The reason for the concern is that the decision flies in the teeth of Congress’s power to control the purse.

Chief Justice Roberts, who unprecedentedly criticized the POTUS for labelling judges according to who nominated them, has done very little else to convince Jay H. Ell that he has a desire to become the swing judge in order to reverse the partisan reputation the Court has been labelled with.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The Irony is that the Founders’ biggest fear that there would be tyranny of the majority has resulted in their system creating a tyranny of the minority. Furthermore their checks and balances have been unable to prevent a minority elected President assuming the mantle of a monarch. 

At the end of the day the American leader and their elected representatives have to be in sync with the value system which was at the base of the Republic’s establishment:    “That we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”