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“Democrats’ #Resistance is creating a genuine constitutional crisis”

“Democrats’ #Resistance is creating a genuine constitutional crisis”

Georgetown Law Prof. Randy Barnett: “…. in which governmental power is not allowed by them to be peacefully transferred after a lawful election”

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/01/politics/trump-inauguration-gigapixel/

Georgetown Law Professor Randy Barnett had a tweet on December 5, 2017, that I’ve been meaning to write about.

It reflects a subject I, and others, have been focusing on since election night — the refusal of Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans to accept the outcome of the election not just emotionally, but as to the transfer of power that continues to this day, over a year since the 2016 election.

Here is Prof. Barnett’s tweet, referencing the attempt by outgoing CFPB Director Richard Cordray preemptively to install Leandra English as Interim Director over the objections of the Trump administration.

The tweet references a separate tweet from law professor Josh Blackman about attempts of the CFPB bureaucracy to subvert the authority of Mick Mulvaney, the Interim Director appointed by Trump:

Democrats’ #Resistance is creating a genuine constitutional crisis in which governmental power is not allowed by them to be peacefully transferred after a lawful election. The potential for escalation is very very dangerous.

https://twitter.com/RandyEBarnett/status/938255818742468609

I think this is right.

The peaceful transition of power is fundamental to our constitutional system. The attempt, which still in the courts, to prevent the Trump administration from appointing an Interim Director of the CFPB is not even the most stark such example.

In a post on December 12, 2016, about the attempt to undermine the Electoral College, I wrote The one thing you must understand about the unfolding media-Democrat Electoral College coup attempt:

We are witnessing nothing short of an attempt to steal the election by some Democrats and a very supportive mainstream and leftwing media, by causing Electors in the Electoral College to go rogue and vote for Hillary, or at least not vote for Trump….

These are not, with few exceptions, people who actually believe that something has changed so dramatically since the election that the Electors need to intervene. Rather, this is a pure power play to undermine the electoral system by people who never thought Trump was fit for office for reasons unrelated to Russia, who now are using the Russian “hack” as an excuse.

Do you really think that Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, an Elector demanding a CIA briefing to vet the accusations against Trump, actually and honestly believes anything other than that she never wanted Trump to be president?

It’s one thing to say that allegations of foreign tampering should be thoroughly investigated. They should. But it’s quite a different thing to use that alleged tampering to overturn elections.

And so it continues, with

  • the apparent set-up of the incoming administration on a phony Logan Act violation,
  • the Mueller investigation that obviously has strayed far from alleged Russian interference in the election to post-election political strategy of the incoming Trump administration,
  • the unprecedented delay in confirming nominees that Dems didn’t even object to for the sake of depriving Trump of the ability to control the bureaucracy,
  • the rogue elements in the intelligence community and FBI leaking information (assuming news reports are not completely lying about their sourcing),
  • and so on and so on.

There has been a never-ending attempt not just to oppose Trump and Republican legislative and policy initiatives, which is legitimate politics, but to prevent the transfer of power. It is, as I wrote last August, a Slow-Motion Coup d’Etat, and it’s dangerous.

Which is why anti-anti-Trumpism is a legitimate pro-constitutional form of resistance to the slow motion coup:

You don’t need to be pro-Trump to be against those who collectively are a greater threat to our liberty than Trump.

Being anti-anti-Trump is no vice, at least not now.

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Comments

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | December 12, 2017 at 2:38 pm

Never Fear – Trump has this.

Randy Barnett is a novice at management.

As far as coups go, I continue to notice that Trump is surrounded in key positions by Marines. Including Secret Service.

I’m concerned. Obama had 8 years to organize a permanent government.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Abu Nudnik. | December 12, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    And that Big Zero – Whiner FAILED!

    Brian Richard Allen in reply to Abu Nudnik. | December 13, 2017 at 8:29 am

    +Abu Nudnik: …. I’m concerned. Obama had 8 years to organize a permanent government ….

    The fascist traitor, Franklin Milhous not-a-typo Roosevelt – in comparison with whom the sail-eared simpleton is a puny piker – had 12 years and 42 days, used every second of his reign to America’s detriment — and his evil lives on!

“…the refusal of Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans to accept the outcome of the election not just emotionally, but as to the transfer of power that continues to this day, over a year since the 2016 election.”

I think the Professor highlights a very good point, but I think #Resistance isn’t creating a Constitutional crisis. It’s revealing it. This crisis has smoldered a very long time within the perpetual bureaucracy of the Executive Branch, regardless of the administration.

It burrows deep down with its loyal army beholding to government. It’s prime directive is to perpetuate itself, so it clings to the levers of policy power, and refuses to let go.

Former Pres. Lie All the Time was their ally, and emboldened them. The CFPB was an unaccountable, bureaucratic wet dream for them come true

In contrast, Trump and his chain saw management style is an existential threat to their power & growth, and the perpetual bureaucracy hates him for that.

This fight will go on long after Trump is gone – unless he sufficiently prunes back the hive mind of the perpetual burueacracy.

    Remember Trump’s Inauguration when the media kept saying that we were witnessing a peaceful transfer of power?

    Guess that has turned out to be Fake News over time.

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to MattMusson. | December 12, 2017 at 4:56 pm

      Why would the Dinosaur Media talk that way unless they were already actively doing evil that was the opposite of that?

      Like my mama said, if you got to tell me you’re a nice person, then guess what? You’re not!

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to locomotivebreath1901. | December 12, 2017 at 4:55 pm

    You speak absolute truth Locomotivebreath1901, and it’s been really, really bad that way since at least 1961.

It doesn’t help that the Left’s greatest enablers are Republicans.

Subotai Bahadur | December 12, 2017 at 3:43 pm

Since the primaries, the incidence of organized violence by the Left, protected by Democrat controlled police departments, has been growing. We have had an attempt by a Democrat to commit mass assassination of Republicans elected to Congress to overturn the 2016 election. Democrat controlled polities are engaged in massive nullification of Federal law akin to South Carolina in 1832 and 1860.

Taken together with the attempted overthrow of the Executive Branch election of 2016 by the Democrats in the Executive Branch, by the Democrats in Congress, and openly aided and abetted by the Republican Party in both Houses of Congress; we are closer to open civil violence than we have been in over a century and a half.

I cite the assassination of Jose Calvo-Sotelo in Spain in 1936 by the security forces of the elected Marxist “Popular Front” government. Calvo-Sotelo was the elected leader of the Parliamentary opposition to the Reds, and his crime that caused his assassination was out-debating the Red Prime Minister in Parliament.

That was one of the factors that led General Francisco Franco to bring the Spanish Army of Africa home to resist the Red coup. The assassination helped trigger the Spanish Civil War.

We are on a knife edge. Any incident may trigger it. If say, Judge Roy Moore wins in Alabama today . . . what if a Democrat decides that in the name of Intersectional Feminism that Moore has to die and assassinates him? Or McConnell decides that for his personal power, that Moore has to be prevented from being seated at all costs? Does anybody have any confidence in the legal system to catch and punish those behind it?

Does anybody believe that any such incident, involving Judge Moore or anybody who becomes the UniParty’s Emmanuel-Goldstein-of-the-day will always go unanswered in like kind?

If we do not publicly demonstrate that there is a rule of law covering everybody, things might get downright kinetic at any time.

Petrushka mentioned that Trump is surrounded by Marines and Secret Service. Does anybody really trust Obama’s Secret Service to protect Trump?

If the Left and UniParty try a coup d’etat, real or slow motion, it will trigger real resistance. What will come out of that is unknown, but it is not going to be pleasant.

    Absolutely correct. Is it any wonder that gun sales are through the roof?

    I, for one, never imagined that I would ever own a fire arm. But after Øbama got re-elected, I realized that it was game on.

    I now have several firearms, and I am trained in their use. I also have, shall I say, an adequate supply of ammunition. The revolution will not be televised.

    For 60 years, I had no need for guns but I started buying the year of Obummer’s first election. Now have guns and ammo for a war, and lawfully carry a pistol.

    Don’t donate to your Republican representative, buy more ammo.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | December 12, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    “Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit sayth the Lord.”

    Just added to the stock of ammunition this afternoon.

    jringo1508 in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | December 12, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    Trump’s Secret Service detail is… interesting.

    Go back and look at the faces (and bodies and postures) of Obama’s. Then look at Trump’s.

    What happened was Trump simply wasn’t willing to go with the poor quality that had built up under Obama’s administration.

    FBI SRT (Special Response and Tactics) had been referred to, for years, as ‘the retirement home for Delta.’ After some really bad bungling by what was then HRT (Hostage Rescue Team which, well, never actually managed that) it was more or less coopted by Delta and became SRT.

    Delta CAGs (Combat Activities Group, the sleepy eyed killer guys) who were having ‘home-life issues’ or getting pushed by ‘up or out’ would get out and be almost immediately snapped up by SRT. Most already had a college education, would go through the Quantico course (they were a major reason that the shoot training actually entered the latter 20th-21st century), get their badge, spend a few months as ‘agents’ then go into SRT. To a lesser extent the same thing would occur with DevGroup (‘Seal Team Six’) and MARSOC. (‘Force Recon’)

    When Trump was a CANDIDATE he quickly started sacking the ‘usual suspects’ that he’d been ladled with from Secret Service. (Remember the two drunk supervisors. Or the people who repeatedly jumped the fence and ran into the White House.)
    Even before he’d taken office he dipped into SRT, pulled them over to Secret Service and THEY took charge of ‘The Detail.’

    So instead of ‘the usual suspects’ of drunks and lay-abouts he brought in the world’s stoniest killers.

    Think I’m wrong. Watch some of the old Obama video where you see the Detail compared to Trump’s.

    You can get through these guys, but you’re going to have to WORK at it. Reagan’s crew dog-piled Hinkley.

    This crew? They’d be much more likely to riddle him. And not hit a single reporter. (CAG is one of the few groups that never uses a safety. And when they’re doing target shooting they nonchalantly walk down range to change targets while active shooters are on adjacent lanes. Because you have to be THAT DAMNED GOOD to be shooting on a CAG lane.)

      Subotai Bahadur in reply to jringo1508. | December 12, 2017 at 10:24 pm

      If you are . . . how shall I put this . . . “Centurion connected”, then indeed it would be well worth the effort to do that checking out, because you know whereof you speak.

      Do you have any links you care to share? (You just sent me on a futile half hour search. All I see is agents moving around, one team same as the other, and one of Trumps men with an apparent fake hand.)

I’ve called both of my senators today saying that if Moore wins and the Senate refuses to seat him or try to send him to the ethics committee for 40 year old accusations, then they will be open to the same problem. One of my senator was the head of a Baptist camp, so it would be easy to find some people willing to lie about touching or whatever.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Liz. | December 12, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Oh my!

    But I don’t think they would have to lie do you?

    Snark.

    Paul in reply to Liz. | December 12, 2017 at 5:38 pm

    I know somebody who said they talked to someone who saw your Senator dancing.

      Edward in reply to Paul. | December 12, 2017 at 11:03 pm

      They got that wrong, it was standing intercourse, not dancing.

      For the non-Southern among us: The old joke is why Southern Baptists don’t engage in intercourse standing up – people will think they are dancing.

    DemosthenesVW in reply to Liz. | December 13, 2017 at 5:45 am

    Based on your comment, I’m guessing you live in Oklahoma.

    And based on the results last night, I’m guessing Lankford doesn’t have to be afraid of your threat. For now, anyway.

    Seriously, I never thought I would see the day when Saul Alinsky was adopted by Oklahoma Republicans.

I don’t think I see a Constitutional crisis … or, rather, not one that we haven’t had more-or-less continuously since about 1800.

That was when John Adams began cementing Federalism into the government solely to annoy his Republican (what we’d now call Democrat) successor, Jefferson. What we’re seeing today isn’t greatly different, though actually a bit less noisy. Senators are no longer shooting at each other—unlike 1850—or attacking each other with dogs. So in at least that sense, things are improving. (Although, considering the quality of the modern Senate, a bit more rowdiness might actually improve things, because apparently nothing else will.)

The big problems I see have been festering for years, and are not closely related to the current Socialist assault on the country. Those are—

—The steadily increasing size of government, with no end in sight. The endgame is of course bankruptcy, the paralysis of society, and the extinction of liberty (in the sense that writers of the Founding era understood it). The fix is perhaps severe controls on spending, which Congress does not now have. The way Congress customarily works is not conducive to financial constraint, as legislators habitually bribe each other with their votes, and those votes almost invariably involve spending money … money which has long since exceeded the government’s ability to pay.

—The desire for everyone in government to fancy himself some sort of mini-legislature, from the abuse of Presidential executive orders to the arbitrary tyrannies of Federal judges. Much of the blame rests with the actual Legislature, which is too diffuse to recognize and act as its prerogatives are eroded.

Neither of these mega-problems are the sole fault of the Democrats or even of the Liberals, and neither are new, although both are growing worse with time.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to tom_swift. | December 12, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    RE: “The way Congress customarily works is not conducive to financial constraint, as legislators habitually bribe each other with their votes, and those votes almost invariably involve spending money … money which has long since exceeded the government’s ability to pay.”

    All the MORE reason to shrink the Federal Government to at least 1/100th or 1/1000th of its current size.

    DaveGinOly in reply to tom_swift. | December 12, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    Of fundamental importance to the constitutional government created by the Founders were the concepts of State sovereignty and limited federal authority with respect to the States. The States were defended (as nominally-sovereign geopolitical entities) against encroachment by the latter by their (the States’) representatives in the Senate.

    The Seventeenth Amendment must be repealed.

The entire government is corrupt. There are a few exceptions.

Pick a side. It is only going to get uglier as the corrupt cabal in the DOJ, FBI, and CIA are exposed.

The “Resistance” is merely the latest action to cause a Constitutional crisis.

With the exception of historians, few people today realize that this country was fundamentally changed by the Civil War. Prior to 1861, this nation was a voluntary federation of semi-independent states. These states had surrendered their authority to engage in treaties and to totally control their borders in exchange for a small, subordinate centralized government which would provide for common defense and would assist the states in interacting smoothly. Then several of the states seceded from the Union, something which was not prohibited under the Constitution. This forced the growing federalist faction to begin a war to force these states back into the Union. This was the death of state sovereignty and the rise of federal supremacy. This was the greatest Constitutional crisis in the history of this nation.

But, it was not the last. Federal power, which had been growing since Washington took office as the first President under the Constitution, was now in overdrive. The federal government continued to usurp more and more power. And, the elitist cabals which wanted to control this nation liked it that way. It is so much easier to have a few people in control of the country, most of whom can be bought for a few pieces of silver, than it is to have to control every single state government in the Union. These people became so powerful that a single man, who may very well not have been eligible for the highest office in the land was allowed to occupy that office without doing the simplest things to prove he was eligible for the position. Talk about a Constitutional Crisis. If Barack Obama is ever proven to have been ineligible to hold the Office of President of the United States of America every action that he took, including every bill he signed into law, is rendered null and void. 8 years thrown into a cocked hat. The current “resistance”is just a continuation of that.

This is not about people not liking Trump. Or even Trump undoing the Progressive successes of the last 40 years. It is about what happens if the actions of the people in the Obama administration ever comes to light, starting with exactly who Barack Obama is. Call it “birther” delusion or whatever you will. If the people who have lost everything because of the actions of the 8 years of the previous administration ever discover that Obama was NOT qualified to be President, the backlash will be literally unimaginable. What little confidence is left in the federal government will be totally gone. That will be a REAL Constitutional crisis. And the results will make the American Civil War look tame.

    Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | December 12, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    Yuuuuup.

    Nutter.

      This your problem. You summarily dismiss things like the question of Obama’s qualification for the office that he held, without ever introducing even a single FACT to prove your statement. It is simply a total failure to even face the question, let alone answer it. And, this question NEEDED to be answered when it was first raised in 2009. Now, after 8 years of Obama as President, we have a REAL Constitutional crisis, if it ever comes to light that he was NOT eligible to hold that office.

      Some people dismiss the question because they believe that Obama was eligible. Some dismiss it because, at this point, if it is proven to be true, no one knows what will happen, only that it will not be pretty. And some dismiss the question because they strongly suspect the answer is that Obama was NOT eligible and are terrified of that fact. But, none of these people have ever offered any concrete evidence that the premise of the question is false. Obama could have done it by simply sending a letter to the Hawaiian authorities authorizing the release of a certified copy of his long form certificate of live birth. You are familiar with those. You have probably had to present one at least once during your lifetime and possibly multiple times. Yet, he refused to do so. The next question is, of course, why? Why refuse to release something that every single person in the US produces at least once in their lifetime? What is there in the document which is so bad that it can it can not be made public? Or, does it simply not exist? Someday, the truth will be revealed. It always is. And, the longer this situation continues, the more far reaching the effects will be, if Obama was not eligible for the office.

      I love this subject, because it such a clear-cut example of something being hidden for a reason and people in positions of power simply saying there is nothing to see here, go away, when all they have to do is show people a verified public document which every man, woman and child produces at some point in their lifetime. yet, they refuse to do so. Why?

        Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | December 13, 2017 at 9:01 am

        You’re just a really GASSY nutter. But a nutter at root.

          As usual, you offer ABSOLUTELY NO SUPPORT for your statement. And you wonder why everyone dismisses you. Nutter? I think we all know who that is.

          Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | December 13, 2017 at 9:32 pm

          You just want someone to play your lil’ Birther Game.

          You’re nuts, as are all your ilk. Even your man-crush left you poor boobs in the dust after he’d used you like a grab ’em starlet.

          I wouldn’t DREAM of wasting my time on you. Apparently, you do have some fellow nutters here.

          Not surprising. This place has become a shadow of what it once was.

          “I wouldn’t DREAM of wasting my time on you.”

          And yet, here you are. Taking the Obama side. Wasting time.

          Just another prog.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Mac45. | December 12, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    Right.

    Even the English subject/verb agreement used before the War Between the States reflected it was a voluntary association.

    Before the war, Americans said “The United States ARE doing so and so….”

It’s called “projection”, Rags. You have a real knack for it.
I thouhgt that only Demokratts did such. Hmmmmm! But then I realize, being a RINO is almost as good, huh?

    Ragspierre in reply to frankiefrank. | December 13, 2017 at 10:03 pm

    No, PussyPuss, you don’t “project” being a nutter on someone like Mac45.

    He shouts it from the mountain-tops. You’re too stupid to even know what the term means.

There he goes again. Oh well. We all suffer a little diminuition as we age. Some phisycal,some mental. Guess we gotta give him a break. Who knows, might have been a great mind is his prime.

OnTheLeftCoast | December 17, 2017 at 2:58 pm

Constitutional crisis? You say that like it’s a bad thing! The Constitution is a living document, and if it’s not saying what we like, we’ll make a crisis in order to not let the crisis go to waste.

The problem is it’s getting really hard to write satire these days.