Trump Trial Also A Referendum On Authoritarianism In America
A conviction would send a message that Republicans believe that elections and the rule of law are foundational, but so far, leaders prefer to avoid the issue.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a rally protesting the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden as president on Jan. 6, 2021.
WASHINGTON As the Senate readies for yet another Donald Trump impeachment trial and prepares to judge the former president’s conduct, senators also may be voting on a much bigger question: American democracy versus American authoritarianism.
Because, while Trump is charged specifically with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his and his allies’ and supporters’ own words show that the assault was the culmination of a monthslong attempt to overturn the election he lost and included a discussion of invoking martial law.
Impeachment Trial: American Democracy vs. GQP Authoritarianism
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Impeachment Trial: American Democracy vs. GQP Authoritarianism
my edits):
As the Senate readies for yet another Donald Trump impeachment trial and prepares to judge the former president’s conduct,
senators also may be voting on a much bigger question: American democracy versus
GQP authoritarianism.
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Because, while Trump is charged specifically with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol,
his and his allies’ and supporters’ own words show that the assault was the culmination of a months-long attempt to overturn the election he lost and included a discussion of invoking martial law.
The apparent sweep of a pair of Georgia U.S. Senate races opens the door for Democrats to eliminate a host of regulations passed by the Donald Trump administration.
In particular, the Department of Labor passed several rules that might not survive. The vehicle to erase rules is the Congressional Review Act. In an ironic twist, the CRA had been a little-used legislative tool until Trump was elected in 2016.
Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel noted the potential for Democrats to deliver payback:
The CRA gives Congress a short window to review and overturn federal rules. From 1996 to 2017, the act was used once, to overturn the Clinton administration’s workplace ergonomics rule in 2001. In the first months of 2017, however, a Republican-led Congress joined the Trump administration to nullify 16 rules issued at the end of the Obama administration.
Biden healthcare order set to unravel Trump s legal fight over Medicaid Print this article
President Biden s Thursday executive order on healthcare is set to unravel a Trump-era legal fight over Medicaid. There s nothing new that we re doing here, other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president, Biden said before he signed the order, charging Trump with making the two more inaccessible, more expensive, and more difficult for people to qualify.
The order, which the Biden administration touted as an effort to reverse attacks on President Barack Obama s signature achievement, instructs the Health and Human Services Department to open a special coronavirus-era enrollment period for people to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. But it also compels other federal agencies to reexamine Trump-era policies regarding both the ACA and Medicaid, with the end goal of it being easier for more people to e