As a political cartoonist, I know it’s part of some unwritten rule that I should just post some schmaltzy comic to “never forget” September 11th, and I am sensitive to that, but a week ago, we learned of an unelected shadow government running the country and we’re already forgetting THAT.
And I’m angry.
As far as I’m concerned, we learned pretty bluntly (that only the New York Times can really confirm, based on the identify of the author of the anonymous op-ed) that we’ve been living under a constitutional crisis since day one of this administration. I say this as bipartisan as I possibly can, the President of the United States is currently not in charge of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, and that should alarm everyone. So who is in charge? Who can be held accountable in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack? Are we to just trust that the “adults in the room,” who no one elected, will just take care of everything? Where is that written in Article II? Where’s Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here” plaque?
And because people just can’t resist comparing everything to Watergate, I’ve seen multiple comparisons to Mark Felt’s Deep Throat, as if a whistleblower who still carried out his appointed responsibilities of the office he held is somehow comparable to a team of people who are actively molding the government to whatever they think it should be and expect to be called “heroes” for their service. Did I somehow miss the calls for a full investigation into this?
Blame me for the hyperbole of this if you’d like, but although 9/11 took place 17 years ago, the attack on the very foundation of our democracy has finally reached the White House.
VP Pence has stated that he has never had discussions about the 25th Amendment. He is either lying or not doing his constitutional duties. I’m not saying that he should be actively working or plotting against the POTUS, but in light of certain things, he should at least be ready to assume his constitutional duties should the need arise.
No surprise here. Trump is supported by the McConnels and Ryans of this country so they could pass “tax relief” for the wealthy, erase Obama, and strengthen their legacy by installing the most conservative judiciary they can. They’re not even pretending any more.
So the bottom line is that the elected officials of the legislative branch are failing to do their job, so the civil service is on autopilot. However, one must assume that the writer of the op-ed is an appointee of the president, and therefore, not part of the “deep state” reviled by Trump and Co. Please keep this difference in mind.
The problem with the 25th amendment, as outlined by Brian in the ’toon, is that the very people who would need to implement it are complicit with and owe their positions to the very man who appears more and more out of touch and out of control each day!
Kind of like the Congress, also sitting by and refusing to impeach!
Of course, if you’re a Democrat, the prospects of a President Pence probably makes you want to sit this one out!
Maybe this shadow government realized that there was no chance the Mike Pence would utter a negative word about Mr. Trump and so the 25th could not have been used.
The comic is clear. Brian is crystal clear in his concern that there is a serious problem in the WH that is not Donald Trump. A Constitutional problem that would be a major crisis regardless of who sits on the chair.
If the Op-Ed is accurate, if a groups of appointed officials are conspiring to thwart the POTUS, REGARDLESS of their motivations, justifications or ideology, we are looking at a coup in action.
Despite this, some of the commenters here are complaining that elected officials are failing to declare Trump incompetent. Failing to impeach him. Complaining that Trump isn’t listening to his advisors. Essentially discounting the grave problem because if true, it serves their own anti-Trump agenda.
I have serious doubts about the accuracy of the Op-Ed. It is not unheard of for mid-level officials to attempt to impede a sitting POTUS. The best examples come from the State Department, where long serving “professionals” sometimes slow walk or impede the goals of a sitting POTUS. However, what is described in this Op-Ed, and what we are seeing in Woodwards book excerpts, is almost inconceivable.
If there is any truth to this situation, every one of you needs to set aside your partisanship, your ideology. If this can actually happen on the scale alleged here, we are in the midst of an existential crisis.
“Shadow government running the country”? Really, Brian?
I, for one, didn’t “learn” anything of the kind. Indeed, I considered the commentary piece sufficiently irrelevant that I didn’t even bother to hunt down its text when my local daily failed to republish it themselves – an editorial decision with which I agreed, coincidentally.
Far from making comparisons to Watergate, my concerns are greater with the similarities between a cry for “investigation” and the paranoid, anecdotal rantings of Sen. Joseph McCarthy about a conspiracy of communism.
As Brooke Gladstone succinctly argued during last week’s episode of On the Media, the author of said revelation revealed next to nothing that hadn’t already been widely publicized by multiple reputable print news sources. It seemed to me, from what I heard quoted, that the open letter was little more than the vainglorious, self-important self-congratulations of someone far less concerned about her own integrity than she was ensuring her next several mortgage payments.
Governments, shadow or otherwise, don’t operate by individual acts of dissenting, disagreeable White House administrators. It takes well organized, coordinated effort to effect the operations of the Executive Branch. And I seriously doubt a single presidency has passed where there were not at least a few disgruntled aides close to the President who dragged their heels on some policy initiative, or passive-aggressively let an executive order slip under the file cabinet or couch to be conveniently overlooked for a time.
And besides, I know for a fact (because I saw it firsthand on television), Al Haig’s got our backs on this one.
I keep hearing people say, “OMG the President of the United States is being thwarted by unelected conspirators OMG!!!” But every one of those conspirators was appointed by the President of the United States. This seems to say more about Trump than about the people he appoints. He is the common factor. As fast as he fires people and hires new ones, he can’t seem to hire anyone who won’t conspire to thwart his most lunatic decisions.
The pity is they aren’t thwarting his (slightly) less lunatic decisions too.
Thank you, Brian, for your insightful commentary! Even if there are some people who disagree with the present Administration, employing underhanded tactics to effectively overthrow the elected government should be universally condemned. The people elected a Republican President and Congress because they were dissatisfied with the way the Democratic Party was running the country.
Brian Carroll creator over 5 years ago
As a political cartoonist, I know it’s part of some unwritten rule that I should just post some schmaltzy comic to “never forget” September 11th, and I am sensitive to that, but a week ago, we learned of an unelected shadow government running the country and we’re already forgetting THAT.
And I’m angry.
As far as I’m concerned, we learned pretty bluntly (that only the New York Times can really confirm, based on the identify of the author of the anonymous op-ed) that we’ve been living under a constitutional crisis since day one of this administration. I say this as bipartisan as I possibly can, the President of the United States is currently not in charge of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, and that should alarm everyone. So who is in charge? Who can be held accountable in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack? Are we to just trust that the “adults in the room,” who no one elected, will just take care of everything? Where is that written in Article II? Where’s Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here” plaque?
And because people just can’t resist comparing everything to Watergate, I’ve seen multiple comparisons to Mark Felt’s Deep Throat, as if a whistleblower who still carried out his appointed responsibilities of the office he held is somehow comparable to a team of people who are actively molding the government to whatever they think it should be and expect to be called “heroes” for their service. Did I somehow miss the calls for a full investigation into this?
Blame me for the hyperbole of this if you’d like, but although 9/11 took place 17 years ago, the attack on the very foundation of our democracy has finally reached the White House.
Dani Rice over 5 years ago
Amen to that! We seem to have fallen victim to that ancient Chinese curse; May you live in interesting times.
Znox11 over 5 years ago
VP Pence has stated that he has never had discussions about the 25th Amendment. He is either lying or not doing his constitutional duties. I’m not saying that he should be actively working or plotting against the POTUS, but in light of certain things, he should at least be ready to assume his constitutional duties should the need arise.
gerard.adelman over 5 years ago
You raise an excellent point that I had not considered.
ChristopherBurns over 5 years ago
No surprise here. Trump is supported by the McConnels and Ryans of this country so they could pass “tax relief” for the wealthy, erase Obama, and strengthen their legacy by installing the most conservative judiciary they can. They’re not even pretending any more.
martens over 5 years ago
So the bottom line is that the elected officials of the legislative branch are failing to do their job, so the civil service is on autopilot. However, one must assume that the writer of the op-ed is an appointee of the president, and therefore, not part of the “deep state” reviled by Trump and Co. Please keep this difference in mind.
Thanks from a retired Fed
Cheapskate0 over 5 years ago
The problem with the 25th amendment, as outlined by Brian in the ’toon, is that the very people who would need to implement it are complicit with and owe their positions to the very man who appears more and more out of touch and out of control each day!
Kind of like the Congress, also sitting by and refusing to impeach!
Of course, if you’re a Democrat, the prospects of a President Pence probably makes you want to sit this one out!
buckyteeth over 5 years ago
Maybe this shadow government realized that there was no chance the Mike Pence would utter a negative word about Mr. Trump and so the 25th could not have been used.
Andylit Premium Member over 5 years ago
The comic is clear. Brian is crystal clear in his concern that there is a serious problem in the WH that is not Donald Trump. A Constitutional problem that would be a major crisis regardless of who sits on the chair.
If the Op-Ed is accurate, if a groups of appointed officials are conspiring to thwart the POTUS, REGARDLESS of their motivations, justifications or ideology, we are looking at a coup in action.
Despite this, some of the commenters here are complaining that elected officials are failing to declare Trump incompetent. Failing to impeach him. Complaining that Trump isn’t listening to his advisors. Essentially discounting the grave problem because if true, it serves their own anti-Trump agenda.
I have serious doubts about the accuracy of the Op-Ed. It is not unheard of for mid-level officials to attempt to impede a sitting POTUS. The best examples come from the State Department, where long serving “professionals” sometimes slow walk or impede the goals of a sitting POTUS. However, what is described in this Op-Ed, and what we are seeing in Woodwards book excerpts, is almost inconceivable.
If there is any truth to this situation, every one of you needs to set aside your partisanship, your ideology. If this can actually happen on the scale alleged here, we are in the midst of an existential crisis.
Charlie Tuba over 5 years ago
The difference between George W. Bush and Donald Trump:
George W. Bush: He was born on Third Base and thinks he scored a Home Run.
Donald Trump: He was born on Third Base and thinks he scored a Field Goal.
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member over 5 years ago
So Brian, are you going to follow this up with a discussion of Mrs. Wilson?
Radish the wordsmith over 5 years ago
Steady State is used in cosmology.
Deep State are those people who profit off the wars they keep going that no one voted for and everyone else wants to end.
Radish the wordsmith over 5 years ago
Trump’s definition of deep state is anyone who disagrees with his insanity.
According to Fear, Trump has already tried to start WW III.
Andrew Sleeth over 5 years ago
“Shadow government running the country”? Really, Brian?
I, for one, didn’t “learn” anything of the kind. Indeed, I considered the commentary piece sufficiently irrelevant that I didn’t even bother to hunt down its text when my local daily failed to republish it themselves – an editorial decision with which I agreed, coincidentally.
Far from making comparisons to Watergate, my concerns are greater with the similarities between a cry for “investigation” and the paranoid, anecdotal rantings of Sen. Joseph McCarthy about a conspiracy of communism.
As Brooke Gladstone succinctly argued during last week’s episode of On the Media, the author of said revelation revealed next to nothing that hadn’t already been widely publicized by multiple reputable print news sources. It seemed to me, from what I heard quoted, that the open letter was little more than the vainglorious, self-important self-congratulations of someone far less concerned about her own integrity than she was ensuring her next several mortgage payments.
Governments, shadow or otherwise, don’t operate by individual acts of dissenting, disagreeable White House administrators. It takes well organized, coordinated effort to effect the operations of the Executive Branch. And I seriously doubt a single presidency has passed where there were not at least a few disgruntled aides close to the President who dragged their heels on some policy initiative, or passive-aggressively let an executive order slip under the file cabinet or couch to be conveniently overlooked for a time.
And besides, I know for a fact (because I saw it firsthand on television), Al Haig’s got our backs on this one.
CougarAllen over 5 years ago
I keep hearing people say, “OMG the President of the United States is being thwarted by unelected conspirators OMG!!!” But every one of those conspirators was appointed by the President of the United States. This seems to say more about Trump than about the people he appoints. He is the common factor. As fast as he fires people and hires new ones, he can’t seem to hire anyone who won’t conspire to thwart his most lunatic decisions.
The pity is they aren’t thwarting his (slightly) less lunatic decisions too.
Billy Yank over 5 years ago
Thank you, Brian, for your insightful commentary! Even if there are some people who disagree with the present Administration, employing underhanded tactics to effectively overthrow the elected government should be universally condemned. The people elected a Republican President and Congress because they were dissatisfied with the way the Democratic Party was running the country.
Mary over 5 years ago
Small point of semantics here: Should it be ‘invoking’ as opposed to ‘evoking’?