What was the last incident, before the last 30 days, that you would call a "constitutional crisis?" Not "this is unpleasant to go through but we have rules for it" (like impeachment) but something that tested then broke the system.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
George W. Bush and Cheney creating a torture facility and the entire Government moving to defend that decision. Trump’s entire last term where his cabinet & White House did not believe he was competent enough to be President so they ignored orders. Jan. 6 & Republicans response.
Basically anytime Republicans get into power and a little before in Reagan’s case there is a constitutional crisis but the majority of white Americans are not interested and do not try to hold their own government accountable despite having the most power to do so. That’s how we got here.
Great example of technically legal but, 'holy shit, democratic norms dude'. Looking back, that really seems the moment at which it became clear Nixon was prepared to do almost anything to stay in power.
Add to that Pence deployed the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan 6 and Milley assured Pelosi that there were safeguards against Trump using additional military options/nuclear weapons immediately afterwards
I’m still unclear why you think it was a counter-coup. The DC NG’s account makes it clear that Sec. Miller was responsible for finally deploying troops. Milley was present but neither he, Pence or Pelosi were in the chain of command for DC NG deployment.
Page 741 talks about Pence calling Sec. Miller, and although Miller and Milley disagree about whether or not Pence was issuing orders, but I think you should read that as a bit of ass covering from Miller. Regardless, you have the DC NG acting against the Trump’s mob while Trump is incommunicado
Agree 100% regarding trump and his refusal to act. He enjoyed watching it play out on TV while sipping his Diet Coke. I also know that the DC NG was very thorough in their investigation and completely savaged trump, Miller, Flynn etc… and rightly so. However Miller made the call to deploy troops.
Not punishing Bush era war criminals & the financiers responsible for the '08 financial crisis might not have been "constitutional crises" as you define it, but they definitely paved the way for the cynicism about the system that opened the door for this moment in our country.
I think you can argue that the GOP capture of the Supreme Court, in particular refusing to consider Garland and then later rushing ACB under the same circumstance, was a slow burn constitutional crisis in that it broke the judicial branch
Like a thousand Supreme Court cases, starting with bush v gore. Roberts court has been an endless line of being given the opportunity to connect rights with remedies and struck them down each time.
just leaving a supreme court seat open until a favorable election was won. it was “resolved” in the sense that the standoff ended once Trump won, but its success/lack of backlash means that we’re almost certainly going to have a multi year, potentially multi administration long vacancy at some point
off the dome:
Bush v Gore
Colin Powell at the UN
Bush abetting financialization
Obama bailing out financialization
the sphere
Kavanaugh
Trumpeachment
all merrick garland
lack of robust police reform and subsequent backlash after BLM
post j6 failures
Biden on Gaza
a bunch of other stuff
Nothing has broken the system (the Constitution still endures). Saturday Night Massacre on the executive power level. Federal troops being sent to force integration on a federalist system level.
Texas asserting federal rights to police an international border, which Congress & the executive branch mostly ignored. Overt gutting of the Voting Rights Act (by the SC).
I'm not sure this is what I think of a "Constitutional Crisis" as meaning. My definition would be closer to "a major actor tests the system" and I think by that definition it's Jan 6th.
Immunity. It’s the first thing that’s been broken that feels unfixable. I truly fear that it ultimately and inevitably will destroy the republic.
I do that though. Like— Trump will be responsible for US Debt default. He cannot really be the boss til he does this and is unhurt. Global devastation.
Obama threatening to default on the debt, although I know I’m alone in thinking that. And this is much worse. (My argument is Congress required that he spend, banned him from borrowing, and gave him the power to mint money and that by taking that off the table he was calling our debt into question)
McConnell refusing to consider Garland to the Supreme Court was a break-the-republic moment in my mind, even if it wasn’t covered like one at the time.
The lead up of Bush v Gore and how Florida was acting to shutdown counting, brooks brothers riots. Not the decision itself because Gore accepted so quickly and it revealed the naked partisanship, illegitimacy on the court.
For me, it was the blockade of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. There were no rules being violated, but something fundamental had changed and it was clear to me there was no going back.
I wonder how the country would be different if Obama just responded to McConnell refusing a hearing by saying “they have declined their role to advise on my nominee so Garland is now in the court” and see what happens. I feel like he probably would have gotten away with it.
Comments
The root cause is presidentialism
Hard cases make bad law
https://aelkus.github.io/politics/2021/01/08/pow.html
Add to that Pence deployed the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan 6 and Milley assured Pelosi that there were safeguards against Trump using additional military options/nuclear weapons immediately afterwards
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT-4-2.pdf
January 6th
Debt Ceiling Showdowns
Supreme Court gutting VRA
Bush v Gore
Colin Powell at the UN
Bush abetting financialization
Obama bailing out financialization
the sphere
Kavanaugh
Trumpeachment
all merrick garland
lack of robust police reform and subsequent backlash after BLM
post j6 failures
Biden on Gaza
a bunch of other stuff
The first steal.
I do that though. Like— Trump will be responsible for US Debt default. He cannot really be the boss til he does this and is unhurt. Global devastation.