On Sunday, Thom Hartmann had an article posted over at Salon.com where he described that the characteristics of our Republic are showing the signs of it becoming an oligarchy. In the article, Hartmann describes the similarities between the US and the Roman Empire. He blames what he refers to as “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court for allowing the rich to control the political system. He also continued and described that Senate Republicans and the President are at fault for not working with Congressional Democrats.
Issues with the effectiveness of Congress started long before President Trump and the Republicans gained control of the Senate in the current 116th Congress. Govtrack.us keeps track of legislation and the effectiveness of Congress has continued to be on the decline over the past nearly 30 years. Control of the legislative branches and executive branches has swapped power many times during that period, so it’s really hard to place the blame on one single party. He did mention one thing that I think is worth noting in his article.
Hartmann brought up the justices on the Supreme Court and how they were allowing ownership of the political system by their rulings. One of the big issues we face that does threaten our Republic is political activism invading our courts. The Daily Caller has an article describing a justice in Utah who had his sentence upheld due to anti-Trump comments on social media and in the courtroom.
Another article posted over at the Washington Examiner describes a justice made a decision on Trump policy that was appointed by and donated to the Obama campaign. In both instances, justices who are sworn to be impartial have either crossed the line into an area of or in being accused of being partial.
So how do we secure a legal system without partiality when justices are openly supporting political parties and are political activists. Certainly you cannot impede on the rights of someone to speak openly and actively. I’m not saying that I have the answer to the situation, but I think it’s worth bringing up the issue. Where do you draw the line that will help maintain the integrity of the legal system?
The justice system and it remaining impartial will continue to become more and more important since the effectiveness of Congress continues to decrease. Congress refusing to work toward legislating (either party included) will continue to push America towards a political system where Presidents continue to work without Congress. We’ve seen this over the last couple of administrations where Obama was unable to work with Republicans and now Trump with Democrats. Executive orders continue to be the way changes occur. Even Kamala Harris suggested that she would lead through the same manner if elected and Congress refused to act.
So the problem is not necessarily one party or the other that is refusing to work together. It’s all politicians refusing to work together to legislate. Both parties are so focused on hating each other and finding a way to put the other party down, that simple agreements cannot be reached. Just a few days ago I wrote about Trump being upset at Democrats and refusing to meet to work on infrastructure legislation. It should have been an easy area of common ground, but it highlights the big issue we have of an ineffective Congress.
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