Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Chief Justice John Roberts must be really proud now of the decision that he wrote for the SCOTUS supermajority granting The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America presidential immunity in Trump v. United States.  Chief Justice Roberts, along with the five other Republican Justices voted to give then presidential candidate Trump presidential immunity: they threw him a lifeline to become president again!  Now that Trump is serving his second term in the Oval Office and is already wreaking havoc by breaking virtually every governmental norm, and some critics even say breaking the law, these Justices must be brimming with pride over their contribution to this unprecedented phenomenon.

Prior to his first term, just like this term, Trump’s election to become The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America was fueled by those who felt like they could control him and get the best out of him while ignoring the irrational rest that is an innate part of him.  America knows how that turned out; “It’s Alive”!; but Americans obviously did not learn.  The “It’s Alive” link is provided as an aside for your reading pleasure, in case you might be interested.  It will link you to a related article that I posted to this site on November 19, 2022.  It incorporates a bit of levity but who couldn’t use a bit of that with the way that Trump’s second term as The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America is impacting on Americans now.

These SCOTUS Republican Justices are intelligent people.  Yet, although they were warned by the three dissenting Democratic Justices that this was a bad decision, which one dissenting Justice said was a 5-alarm fire, the Republican supermajority was obviously comfortable with it.  Will the stench from that decision – coupled with what Trump and his administration are now doing to dismantle the government and, what appears to be, destroy the American democracy impact them in a way that will cause them to correct their course?  It remains to be seen.  Trump is brazenly thumbing his nose at the Judicial branch of government by ignoring rulings by federal judges.  And he is doing this while he, via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by billionaire Elon Musk, quickly and steadily dismantles America’s governmental systems and calls for the impeachment of judges who make rulings that he does not like.  Will this be enough to cause the supermajority Justices to cease being, as he has called them, his judges, and publicly state the same?

As mentioned immediately above, these SCOTUS Republican Justices are intelligent people so they must know that if Trump is willing to ignore the rulings of lower court judges and attack them when they make rulings that he disagrees with that he will have no qualms about doing the same to them if they do not remain, as he sees it, in line.  The question is, how will they respond, not if but, when that time comes.  Because there is no way that over the remainder of his current term one or more of them will not do or say something that is out of line with what he thinks they should do or say.  Will they kowtow to him and toe the line like the entire Republican congress and his cabinet are doing now or will they honor their oath of office?  The fact that Trump is challenging judges and ignoring their rulings while showing no concern about the consequences of his actions should terrify every American.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that the Supreme Court at times issues controversial decisions and he can understand that some people will be angry about them.  He went on to say that this has nothing to do with confidence in the Court or its credibility.  What!  Sometimes very smart people are so smart that there seems to be no room left for common sense.  Chief Justice Roberts wrote the ruling for the supermajority that granted Trump presidential immunity; the ruling on a request for presidential immunity that many great legal minds had predicted would be quickly denied and, based on how quickly it was denied, be equivalent to being laughed out of the Court.

One would think that, coupled with Trump referring to these six SCOTUS Republican justices as “my judges”, many well-respected legal minds predicting that Trump’s request for presidential immunity did not stand a chance of being granted, the request receiving a favorable ruling along ideological lines, and the SCOTUS slow walking the decision to accept the case, all of which favored Trump, that Chief Justice Roberts would see that this, and other controversial decisions that favored Trump had everything to do with confidence in the Court and its credibility.  Further, the visual of Trump shaking Chief Justice John Robert’s hand and saying “thank you, I won’t forget it,” after his speech to a joint session of congress did not help to boost Americans’ sense of confidence in the Court or reinforce their perception of the Court’s credibility.

Americans really want to believe that the SCOTUS is an honorable and fair arbiter of interpreting U.S. laws, especially since it is the final arbiter of these laws.  However, under these current circumstances it is reasonable to see why many Americans might question whether it truly is.  Hopefully, Chief Justice Roberts and all the other SCOTUS justices can understand this.  Whether they do, of course, is important but even if they do understand it, at this point, it seems necessary for the U.S. government to figure out a way to place effective checks and balances on the SCOTUS so that if it somehow becomes corrupt, it can be reined in and held to account while the problem is addressed and fixed.  Under the current administration, it is unlikely that any thought will be given to a potential situation such as this.  Even if this is the case, as demoralizing as it might be, we the people must remain in the fight if we want to help assure that America will remain a democracy.  Each of us can do this by way of our vote.

So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop; Operation Rubik’s Cube, and Living Between The Line

Politics; this is just a four-letter word times two when compared to words like honor, principles. and oath.  And at this point in American history, it might be fair, and perhaps even reasonable, to say it is synonymous with the word coward.  And, especially with the way that politicians have been hiding behind it lately, that it can arguably be used as a substitute for words like bulls**t or even the slang version of the word coitus.   Because politics times two is what elected Republicans are doing to America and the American people in real-time.  They use the word “politics” to keep things clean and avoid using the word that truly describes what is being perpetrated upon America and its people.  It sounds much better to them and makes it easier for them to look at themselves in the mirror and sleep at night if they say to themselves that they are politicking America rather than using the profane word that in fact describes what they are doing.

The people on the cable news channels that I watch regularly and all the other reporters who report the news, talk easily and smoothly about politics, and seem to accept that it is a word that fairly describes what Republicans are doing and makes what they are doing reasonable.  All of them likely understand “politics” a lot better than I do and are simply reporting what is happening using the most applicable word available for the situation.  Or, maybe some of them have a different feeling about the meaning and application of this word but are remaining unbiased and just reporting what is happening.  Anyway, I thought that I understood “politics” and, although I understood and begrudgingly accepted that it involved a lot of posturing and some lying (those who “really know” politics seem to view lying as acceptable in politics) at times by politicians, there was a Rubicon for all politicians if any threat to democracy was involved; let alone an existential threat!  Post Trump, that warm and fuzzy feeling that I held about a line that would not be crossed by any politician is no more.  That bubble has been burst.

I believe that there are plenty of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, who feel as I do that America must remain a democracy and it is shameful what elected Republicans are allowing to happen to America!  Although in the past I would disagree with Republicans point of view and become angry when Democrats and Republicans would do battle about how America should be run and which direction she should take moving forward, that anger could be fairly defined as righteous indignation.  For elected Democrats to do battle with the likes of former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and the late Senator John McCain, who obviously had a Rubicon when honor, principles, and oath were involved, was a privilege.  I felt that it was even a privilege for me even though I was involved only as someone whom these elected officials were representing.

Prominent senators like Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Tommy Tuberville, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Tom Cotton, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, Bill Cassidy, John Kennedy, Josh Hawley, Tom Tillis, James Lankford, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson:  And Representatives like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Jim Jordan, Majorie Taylor Greene, Byron Donalds, Elise Stefanik (Soon to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations), and James Comer need to be called out.  Although there are many other Republican senators and representatives in the Senate and House, these senators and representatives get the bulk of publicity when things are going well for Republicans so they should get it as well when things are going badly.

The fact at this point is that Trump, his Republican Party, and his Supreme Court are trouncing Democrats.  They are certainly breaking almost all the norms in government that the American people have become accustomed to and many critics believe they are breaking many of America’s laws.  Democrats are leaderless and without a rudder while Trump is attempting to remake America and reset the world order.  American voters put Trump and the Republican Party in charge of all three branches of government in the 2024 election and many of them like what he is doing even if it means that America is marching towards a dictatorship.  But it is reasonable to believe that the majority of Americans do not feel this way.  I am an American and I want America to remain a democracy and the leader of the free world!  I hope that I am a part of the majority and that this change that Trump envisions for America and the world will not occur.

As DOGE storms its way through virtually every department in the federal government while spouting words about savings through the elimination of fraud and waste, many regular Americans are beginning to feel the pain.  They are mounting protests.  Whether this will apply enough pressure on Republicans in congress to cause them to reverse course remains to be seen.  So far, however, although privately Republicans may be grumbling and showing signs of revolt, they are continuing to throw their support behind Trump in public.  They are defending his actions to their constituents who are bitterly complaining about what is happening to them and demanding that those that they elected represent them and give them a voice in Washington.  Since Democrats are aware that Republican senators and representatives are doing this, it is hard to understand why Democrats, rather than strongly and regularly condemning Republicans for their mealy-mouthed public responses despite what they are saying in private, are coddling them.

Democrats are saying things like, “some of my Republican colleagues, like Lisa Murkowski and Tom Tillis are publicly calling Putin out for who he is; a murderous dictator and war criminal, and saying that the U.S. should get right with Ukraine.  If Democrats are going to defend Republicans at all, they should be saying things more along the line of what former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill said.  Former senator McCaskill said, and I paraphrase, “We should be asking these few Republicans, “what else are you doing instead of occasionally disagreeing with Trump and criticizing Putin in public?”  During Trump’s speech to congress on March 4^th, almost every Republican in attendance gave Trump multiple standing ovations no matter how ridiculous the things he said, even his comments about acquiring Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal, and acquiring Greenland “one way or another.”  Based on how Republicans reacted to Trump’s speech, former Senator McCaskill was right!  Democrats must find a way, real soon, to go on offense if democracy is to have any chance to survive.

My takeaway from Democrats’ response by Senator Elissa Slotkin to Trump’s speech is that democracy is at times messy but it is, without doubt, worth fighting for.  Freedom is not free; it comes at a price and we the people must be willing to fight for it.  In addition to my agreement with what former Senator McCaskill said about how Democrats should deal with Republicans’ mealy-mouthed responses about whether they agree with the things that Trump is doing, I also agree with Democratic Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the young representative from Florda.  Representative Frost said, and once again, I paraphrase, “we can be the minority Party or we can be the opposition Party.  An authoritarian can take hold when it is just a minority but when it’s a strong opposition we can fight back and come back stronger than ever.”  The overall takeaway for me from both Senator Slotkin and Representative Frost is that we can’t do everything so we should pick one thing that we are passionate about and work that issue.  So, pick one and let’s get to work!

While we are working, though, we must not lose sight of the upcoming midterm elections.  Just like the American people put Republicans in charge of all three branches of government in the 2024 presidential election, voters can begin to change this in the midterm elections and completely clean it up by the close of voting in the 2028 presidential election.  So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis – author, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop, Operation Rubik’s Cube, and Living Between The Line