This afternoon I have been watching the legislature of Tennessee give America yet another object lesson in Constitutional Hardball. Such lessons are not new, but they have become more frequent. In recent years we have had the following examples:
- Refusing to bring SCOTUS candidates to a Senate vote based on bullshit explanations that apply only to the minority party’s nominees.
- Using the filibuster to block legislation even when it has bipartisan support.
- Using blue slips to block judicial appointments.
- Court packing by the majority party
- Using the power of the pardon to shield majority party partisans from justice, and
- Other examples you yourself can cite wherein the majority uses an extreme of constitutionally legal behavior to subvert the will of the people.
Scholars of history and political theory have argued that the use of constitutional hardball is how democracies die. Hardball replaces thoughtful discussion and compromise with the unfettered use of power. It is not surprising that those who believe themselves to be morally superior (by dint of religious ideology most often) are easily convinced that might equals right. After all, they know the mind of their Almighty. How could they possibly be wrong?
In Tennessee, this afternoon we witnessed a Republican supermajority in that statehouse oust Democratic representatives who violated floor rules by peacefully demonstrating in support of gun safety measures that could redress the murders of three elementary school children and three of their school staff. The irony is not lost on me. Those who dare speak the truth are the ones most likely to be silenced by those who do not.
Where do we go from here? I expect similar events in other states and perhaps even in the House of Congress. The thing about blowing behavioral norms to shit is that the very act creates new norms that then justify incivility and the raw exercise of power. It becomes acceptable to use any rule, procedure, or law as a cudgel against the enemy – the enemy, of course, is anyone whose voice is in the minority – a political party, a demographic, a gender or gender identity, etc.
I see revenge in our future; it is a very human response to injustice. And through revenge, democracy itself will unravel. Alas!