(ThyBlackMan.com) “When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, possessed of considerable talents… despotic in his ordinary demeanor – known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty – when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity… to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & to bring it under suspicion – to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the day – It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.” Alexander Hamilton
While we were inundated this past month with news of the Senate impeachment trial, several what would have otherwise been major news stories escaped wide-spread attention. Some examples:
- The Trump administration added six new countries to the travel (Muslim) ban, including Nigeria;
- Justice Department lawyers asked the Supreme Court not to rule on its request to overturn the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) until after the election;
- GDP growth for 2019 was 2.3%, far below the 4% promised with passage of the tax cuts;
- For the first time during a peace-time economy, in 2020 the budget deficit will surpass one trillion dollars;
- Visas will no longer be issued for persons deemed a “public charge”, meaning “tired, poor and huddled masses” no longer need apply for American citizenship;
- Despite earlier claims there were no casualties from the Iranian retaliatory attack for the assassination of General Soleimani, the Pentagon has reported 50 soldiers sustained traumatic brain injuries; and
- Seeking congressional approval to return the Secret Service to the Treasury Department from the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mnuchin refused to divulge how much the country has spent on the president’s personal travel and security costs, until after the election.
Hamilton’s prescience over two centuries ago was remarkable in portraying the consequences of the rise to power of someone like the current occupant of the White House. What even Hamilton could not foresee however was the complete abdication of Congress’ responsibility to act as a check on the Executive, as the Constitution he was part of devising intended.
What we have just witnessed on the floor of the U.S. Senate, the vote to deny the American people full knowledge of what happened in the Ukrainian scandal (“he did it, but so what”), was both shameful and shameless at the same time; a difficult feat to accomplish. The effects of which will reverberate throughout our political process and system of government in ways we cannot yet imagine.
And so, welcome to 2020. A year which portends to be as consequential as any in American history – think 1860, 1968 or 2001 to name but a few. The Republicans didn’t just change the rules, they changed the game. They have unleashed the whirlwind, and as the Senate Chaplin intoned in his opening prayer that day, “we shall reap what we have sown”.
Staff Writer; Harry Sewell