IS SAND IN THE WHEELS AMERICA'S BEST HOPE?

Were you as bummed as I this morning to learn that Todd Blanche had been confirmed?

Unfortunately, a win is a win in sports and politics. Nobody hands back the Lombardi Trophy because the Super Bowl was decided by one point. Nobody says, “Technically, Senator, you won 50–49, so please exercise only 50.5% of your enormous new powers.”

And let’s face it. These Senators are more interested in appearances than reality. It is not hard to see how Cassidy changes his vote so Susan Collins could look good, while still giving Trump is hatchet man.

And I seriously doubt the Trump administration looked at this squeaker and thought: Wow. America seems divided. Maybe we should govern with humility.

If humility suddenly breaks out in Washington, check the water supply.

My concern is what happens when Todd Blanche is asked to carry out Trump wishes that courts determine are illegal. Congress has demonstrated that some of its guardrails are now approximately the strength of the little chain they put across a hotel swimming pool after 10 PM. And SCOTUS? Let’s just say I’m not waiting for nine people in robes to descend from the heavens accompanied by trumpets and a constitutional choir.

Which increasingly leaves me looking toward the lower federal courts. Not as superheroes. Not as our robed Avengers. As sand in the wheels.

District and appellate courts can stop or delay unlawful actions, demand justification, require due process and make the government explain itself—which, apparently, has become a radical concept.

We got a wonderfully literal demonstration of this just this week. Trump wants his $400 million White House ballroom. A federal appeals court halted above-ground construction while the legal fight continues.

In judicial language: Hold everything.

In Chicago construction language: Not so fast, pal.

Will Trump appeal? Of course. Probably before the concrete mixer finishes its morning coffee. Could SCOTUS eventually let him proceed? Sure.

But that’s exactly my point.

SAND IN THE WHEELS.

Turn off the bulldozer. Call the lawyers. File the appeal. Wait.

Every injunction buys time. Every appeal buys time. Every requirement that the administration demonstrate it actually possesses the legal authority it claims buys time. And right now, time may be democracy’s best friend.

The lower courts don’t have to save America forever. They may simply have to keep enough sand in the wheels long enough for we the people to make a course correction.

And there are reasons this old optimist isn’t shopping for a bunker just yet. Trump’s poll numbers are down. More Americans are questioning whether the war with Iran was really the great victory they were sold. Turns out declaring victory and actually winning are two different things.

Who knew?

Then there’s Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan. Whatever you think of his democratic socialist politics, his win demonstrated something politicians, consultants and people writing enormous checks occasionally forget:

Voters still get a vote… for now if we can keep it.

Sometimes they even use it incorrectly, according to the people who spent millions telling them how to use it.

Maybe it really is darkest before the dawn. I’ve lived long enough to know that dawn rarely arrives with a brass band marching down Pennsylvania Avenue announcing: GOOD MORNING, AMERICA! YOUR CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN RESTORED!

Usually change starts quietly. A judge says no. Another says wait. A bulldozer stops. Poll numbers fall. Voters surprise everybody. People begin questioning whether the war they were told we’d won was actually won. An “unbeatable” political movement discovers that unbeatable has a surprisingly short shelf life.

Then comes another congressional election. Then another presidential election. Then another chance for Americans to make a course correction.

That’s why I’m grateful for every judge willing to enforce the law right now. They aren’t the cavalry. They’re the exhausted building inspector standing in front of the bulldozer with a clipboard saying:

“Sorry, Mr. President. You’re gonna need a permit for that.”

Sand in the wheels.

Keep the machinery from running over everything long enough for democracy to do what democracy does best:

Change drivers… if Trump’s DOJ and ICE don’t hijack the elections.

— Ken Sheetz
Seniors on Soapboxes

This article brought to you paywall free by CoolestTechEver.com.