I think rather than pointing to the lawlessness of Trump and his administration, it would be more useful and accurate to point to the lawlessness of the REPUBLICAN party. Afterall none of what the Trump administration says or does would be possible if the Republicans in Congress upheld THEIR constitutional duty. I agree with everything Katherine Stewart says, I would just add that it's time for journalists and pundits to hold the ENTIRE REPUBLICAN party accountable.
You have raised a good point. Journalists have been focusing on Trump while ignoring the Republican congress people. They are more vulnerable than Trump as they face reelection in 2026.
no, he told them he would make them winners...now they are bigger losers than the losers they were when they fell for trumps crap... waiting for when they will run raging, trampling through the rose garden, breaking through the windows and french doors of the white house, looking for trump.....
Exactly. THis would be solved if few republicans in Congress had the moral to defend the Constitution .Where are they, in the land of the free and home of the brave?
Do not forget all the actors in the cabinet and the newly appointed heads and directors carrying out the illegal orders. Especially the VP, Vought, and Miller. They are as guilty as Trump and do not have immunity.
Many people want to “blame” MAGA voters for their votes for Trump. They are actually only about 30% of the Republican Party. The working class MAGA, although not innocent with their racist and homophobia, they have good reasons to be seriously pissed off at both parties. 40 years of stagnant wage growth and decline of the safety net. The voters who knew what trump is and knew what project 2025 would do, but voted for him anyway because they thought their pocket books, or guns, or whatever their single issue was, but mostly their pocket books, would be safe under Trump, THEY are the ones you should be mad at. They knew and they voted anyway for him. All the middle road Republicans men and women white mostly, but also colored, just could not vote for a black woman. They are the ones who you are justified to be mad at. They knew and they voted for him anyway because they thought they would be safe from his crazy. Let’s lose the blame game. But if we can’t, let’s at least know where the responsibility truly lies.
He alone has done more damage to this country than many other radical republicons combined.
First, through his theft of two Supreme Court seats.
Second, through refusal to recommend a vote for conviction of the orange felon in at least the second impeachment, even though his lengthy and totally useless statement on the matter left absolutely no doubt that he thought him guilty.
A relative was put in the position of having to deal with Mitch. Whay she says about him is unprimtible. He has no values for anything except for himself.
The Felon could never have done all of this had it not been for the six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court. These six have made precedence and the Constitution non-existent. It started with the Roe decision which, as Kavanaugh said, was precedence on precedence. It continued with the unconstitutional (and completely antithetical to the Founder's beliefs/writings) decision on presidential immunity. To the current rulings of the courts can't direct the President in his presidential actions even though such actions are unconstitutional (I give you shipping citizens and non-citizens out of the Country without due process and the Court's response: please, pretty please bring them back); the ruling concerning the ban on transgender person from the military; and the ruling of the cake maker allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ persons for "religious liberty" (inferring religious liberty over all other individual rights, even freedom from religion).
These six religious fanatics have enabled the Felon in his making of the United States into an authoritarian theocracy (Putin's Russia).
I appreciated this essay, but I fear it still stops short of reckoning with where we actually are. The Trump coalition is no longer “becoming” authoritarian—it already governs as such. February 5, 2020—the day the Senate refused to hear new evidence in Trump’s first impeachment—marked the moment the Constitution was effectively set aside by one political party. January 6 and the fake electors plot were not mere breaches of norms; they were open violations of law—and they were rewarded, not punished.
The mistake the opposition keeps making is treating each new scandal as an isolated event, rather than as evidence of a completed regime shift. We need a strategic retreat in mindset: admit that our constitutional order has already been lost. Create space to catch our breath and plan for a constitutional renaissance that begins from the bottom up. It’s time to stop relying on Democratic Party leaders. If they rise to the moment, great—but we can’t afford to keep waiting for them to do so.
"... we must not give up on our determination to hold them to account."
Easier said than done, apparently. While I have not given up that could happen, I continue to be amazed that none of the trump tribe has been held accountable for openly and repeatedly breaking the law, much less for doing things that an American democracy simply would not do.
"The strategy here is to break the law in the open, over and over, until the law itself appears broken, ineffectual, and incapable of delivering consequences."
IS the "law itself broken, ineffectual, and incapable of delivering consequences?" Court cases are being won. Consensus among a conceivable majority of Americans suggests that what the trump administration is doing is unconstitutional. What is our strategy for imposing penalties?
Loud voices starting to be heard. I just listened to Jasmine Crockett who is campaigning to be ranking member on the Oversight Committee. She is vowing to start investigations of everything Trump is doing. The current leadership needs to let her lead! Contact Hakeem Jeffries and support her for this role.
I agree with this article but IMO it falls short of telling us specifically what we can do. We call, we email, we protest but the regime continues. Yes, courts have paused or blocked items but what can we do now? Specifically?
My personal experience living in MAGAtville, USA, is that these people don’t understand democracy enough to care. They are brainwashed by Fox et al., no one seems to care to stop the propaganda firehose, and we’re losing decency in our citizenry by the minute. I’ve always said until disinformation and propaganda is against the law in media, we’re all just going in circles.
The critical, nagging question remains - How do the facts of laws broken and damage done reach the average American with enough energy to move them into the streets on a scale sufficient to stop the Trump nightmare and save democracy? Thank goodness for the informed and privileged who are fighting back, but it may not be enough.
Ms. Stewart says it best about the cynical, open contempt this administration shows for law: "But these moves also suggest they want you to succumb to cynicism. Because if we all stop believing that the law can stop them, then the law will not cease to be regarded as an obstacle to their actions...This is why it is so urgently important for those of us who still hold out hope for the idea of America not to give up on democracy or its language."
Ms. Katherine, this essay was excellent! You’ve nailed the result of all his lawlessness, believing it’s no good or no use. It’s all we have right now are laws and judges. Congress isn’t even there. By you sure called it out very well.
There seems to be endless repetition of much we already know and looking at the past. Yes, we can and must learn from history and the immediate past. However, what are we doing at the grassroots level to hold Republicans responsible? Also our own Dems? Are we creating community and open to those who realize they’ve been duped? How are we supporting one another beyond the Contrarian which I greatly respect. Each of us needs to ask what is mine to do with others in the resistance. I’m calling myself to account also. Blaming and scapegoating doesn’t help. POSITIVE ACTION WITH WISDOM DOES! We are in this together together to make the change we want. FORWARD WISCONSIN!
Agree with BosPhotoGuy! Need to remind/educate voters it's the whole Republican Party that is guilty of this lawlessness.
Further, The Dems need to be speaking to how/what they would and could be doing to improve people's lives rather than only focusing on the atrocities that happen each and every day.
How/what can they do to correct/rectify the course we've all been taken on? How can we assure it will not happen again? We need majorities in both houses. People need to be educated that many are voting against their own self interests with the GOP (The Problem with Kansas).
I think rather than pointing to the lawlessness of Trump and his administration, it would be more useful and accurate to point to the lawlessness of the REPUBLICAN party. Afterall none of what the Trump administration says or does would be possible if the Republicans in Congress upheld THEIR constitutional duty. I agree with everything Katherine Stewart says, I would just add that it's time for journalists and pundits to hold the ENTIRE REPUBLICAN party accountable.
You have raised a good point. Journalists have been focusing on Trump while ignoring the Republican congress people. They are more vulnerable than Trump as they face reelection in 2026.
Not only the Republican party. Hold accountable voters who elected trump while they KNEW what he wanted to do.
they got exactly what they wanted....
Except the leopard is eating their faces, too.
no, he told them he would make them winners...now they are bigger losers than the losers they were when they fell for trumps crap... waiting for when they will run raging, trampling through the rose garden, breaking through the windows and french doors of the white house, looking for trump.....
Exactly. THis would be solved if few republicans in Congress had the moral to defend the Constitution .Where are they, in the land of the free and home of the brave?
Do not forget all the actors in the cabinet and the newly appointed heads and directors carrying out the illegal orders. Especially the VP, Vought, and Miller. They are as guilty as Trump and do not have immunity.
Many people want to “blame” MAGA voters for their votes for Trump. They are actually only about 30% of the Republican Party. The working class MAGA, although not innocent with their racist and homophobia, they have good reasons to be seriously pissed off at both parties. 40 years of stagnant wage growth and decline of the safety net. The voters who knew what trump is and knew what project 2025 would do, but voted for him anyway because they thought their pocket books, or guns, or whatever their single issue was, but mostly their pocket books, would be safe under Trump, THEY are the ones you should be mad at. They knew and they voted anyway for him. All the middle road Republicans men and women white mostly, but also colored, just could not vote for a black woman. They are the ones who you are justified to be mad at. They knew and they voted for him anyway because they thought they would be safe from his crazy. Let’s lose the blame game. But if we can’t, let’s at least know where the responsibility truly lies.
And let us never forget whom we have to thank for this unprecedented worst time in the non-war related history of these United States:
ADDISON MITCHELL MCCONNELL - aka Mitch McTurtle, aka Moscow Mitch.
He alone has done more damage to this country than many other radical republicons combined.
First, through his theft of two Supreme Court seats.
Second, through refusal to recommend a vote for conviction of the orange felon in at least the second impeachment, even though his lengthy and totally useless statement on the matter left absolutely no doubt that he thought him guilty.
I agree, there is a place in hell waiting for Mitch to die
A relative was put in the position of having to deal with Mitch. Whay she says about him is unprimtible. He has no values for anything except for himself.
The Felon could never have done all of this had it not been for the six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court. These six have made precedence and the Constitution non-existent. It started with the Roe decision which, as Kavanaugh said, was precedence on precedence. It continued with the unconstitutional (and completely antithetical to the Founder's beliefs/writings) decision on presidential immunity. To the current rulings of the courts can't direct the President in his presidential actions even though such actions are unconstitutional (I give you shipping citizens and non-citizens out of the Country without due process and the Court's response: please, pretty please bring them back); the ruling concerning the ban on transgender person from the military; and the ruling of the cake maker allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ persons for "religious liberty" (inferring religious liberty over all other individual rights, even freedom from religion).
These six religious fanatics have enabled the Felon in his making of the United States into an authoritarian theocracy (Putin's Russia).
I appreciated this essay, but I fear it still stops short of reckoning with where we actually are. The Trump coalition is no longer “becoming” authoritarian—it already governs as such. February 5, 2020—the day the Senate refused to hear new evidence in Trump’s first impeachment—marked the moment the Constitution was effectively set aside by one political party. January 6 and the fake electors plot were not mere breaches of norms; they were open violations of law—and they were rewarded, not punished.
The mistake the opposition keeps making is treating each new scandal as an isolated event, rather than as evidence of a completed regime shift. We need a strategic retreat in mindset: admit that our constitutional order has already been lost. Create space to catch our breath and plan for a constitutional renaissance that begins from the bottom up. It’s time to stop relying on Democratic Party leaders. If they rise to the moment, great—but we can’t afford to keep waiting for them to do so.
"... we must not give up on our determination to hold them to account."
Easier said than done, apparently. While I have not given up that could happen, I continue to be amazed that none of the trump tribe has been held accountable for openly and repeatedly breaking the law, much less for doing things that an American democracy simply would not do.
"The strategy here is to break the law in the open, over and over, until the law itself appears broken, ineffectual, and incapable of delivering consequences."
IS the "law itself broken, ineffectual, and incapable of delivering consequences?" Court cases are being won. Consensus among a conceivable majority of Americans suggests that what the trump administration is doing is unconstitutional. What is our strategy for imposing penalties?
Walking w/ a friend this AM who grew up in China (US citizen now) who said, "China is clapping it's hands w/ glee b/c USA is committing suicide."
So is Putain.
But Putin can't clap while his hands are busy puppeteering.
Actually he is controlling robots with a simple joystick. His acolytes are clapping, however.
Democracy is currently being replaced by autocratic Fascism. We continue to allow it to happen.
I'd say it's more like the Democratic leadership is allowing it to happen-has anyone seen or heard from them?
Check out Jamie Raskin, Chris van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Yes. my district and state has been fighting Trump and Co. Where are the rest of you?
There are some
Loud voices starting to be heard. I just listened to Jasmine Crockett who is campaigning to be ranking member on the Oversight Committee. She is vowing to start investigations of everything Trump is doing. The current leadership needs to let her lead! Contact Hakeem Jeffries and support her for this role.
I agree with this article but IMO it falls short of telling us specifically what we can do. We call, we email, we protest but the regime continues. Yes, courts have paused or blocked items but what can we do now? Specifically?
My question exactly!
My personal experience living in MAGAtville, USA, is that these people don’t understand democracy enough to care. They are brainwashed by Fox et al., no one seems to care to stop the propaganda firehose, and we’re losing decency in our citizenry by the minute. I’ve always said until disinformation and propaganda is against the law in media, we’re all just going in circles.
The critical, nagging question remains - How do the facts of laws broken and damage done reach the average American with enough energy to move them into the streets on a scale sufficient to stop the Trump nightmare and save democracy? Thank goodness for the informed and privileged who are fighting back, but it may not be enough.
Ms. Stewart says it best about the cynical, open contempt this administration shows for law: "But these moves also suggest they want you to succumb to cynicism. Because if we all stop believing that the law can stop them, then the law will not cease to be regarded as an obstacle to their actions...This is why it is so urgently important for those of us who still hold out hope for the idea of America not to give up on democracy or its language."
There is one very positive thing about the elected convicted felon and his gang of sycophants doing all this law breaking out in the open.
Sycophants being his "cabinet" fools, his "spoke persons" and practically 100% of the GOP "politicians".
When the day of reckoning, the day of settling non-paid invoices comes..... that day will come and I hope the convicted felon will still be alive.
No real lawyer will be able to deny all the proof of the corruption, lies, deceit of this bunch of know-nothing wannabe 'tough' guys.
Ms. Katherine, this essay was excellent! You’ve nailed the result of all his lawlessness, believing it’s no good or no use. It’s all we have right now are laws and judges. Congress isn’t even there. By you sure called it out very well.
There seems to be endless repetition of much we already know and looking at the past. Yes, we can and must learn from history and the immediate past. However, what are we doing at the grassroots level to hold Republicans responsible? Also our own Dems? Are we creating community and open to those who realize they’ve been duped? How are we supporting one another beyond the Contrarian which I greatly respect. Each of us needs to ask what is mine to do with others in the resistance. I’m calling myself to account also. Blaming and scapegoating doesn’t help. POSITIVE ACTION WITH WISDOM DOES! We are in this together together to make the change we want. FORWARD WISCONSIN!
Agree with BosPhotoGuy! Need to remind/educate voters it's the whole Republican Party that is guilty of this lawlessness.
Further, The Dems need to be speaking to how/what they would and could be doing to improve people's lives rather than only focusing on the atrocities that happen each and every day.
How/what can they do to correct/rectify the course we've all been taken on? How can we assure it will not happen again? We need majorities in both houses. People need to be educated that many are voting against their own self interests with the GOP (The Problem with Kansas).
Persistence is the best resistance!