Dictator For a Day; Emperor for Life

R.I.P. American Democracy

The Imperial presidency

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The Supreme Court has just given Donald Trump a James Bond type of licence to kill. Not only does Donald Trump have absolute immunity for any "official acts" he committed whilst President and most importantly plotting to overthrow the government and deny the American people their democratically expressed choice but furthermore any future president will enjoy the same quasi absolute immunity - offering Donald Trump all the more incentive to get re-elected as president.

It is impossible to deny the importance of today's decision of the Supreme Court, kept silent until the very last day plus one of the current term. It is an eminently political decision from an extremist court, totally committed to a far-right agenda espoused by the Heritage Foundation and the deceptively bureaucratic sounding name of "Project 2025" and giving their champion former President Trump a momentous victory and a step-up to his being able to be at the very least a dictator for a day. One only has to have a look at Trump's "Truth Social" messages to understand the magnitude of the decision handed down today.

Herewith his quote (rendered in lowercase contrary to the original version:

"The supreme court decision is a much more powerful one than some had expected it to be. It is brilliantly written and wise, and clears the stench from the Biden trials and hoaxes, all of them, that have been used as an unfair attack on crooked Joe Biden’s political opponent, me. Many of these fake cases will now disappear, or wither into obscurity. God bless America!

The crux of the decision hangs on the definition of "official acts" vs. "unofficial acts". To add insult to injury, and to paraphrase one of his most memorable phrases from the recent debate : "I don't understand what he means, and I think he doesn't either."

This court will never allow Trump to be prosecuted for his grave offences committed around the events of January 6th, 2021 for all intent and purposes declaring his is above the law, which is anathema to the core, heart and soul of the Constitution, let alone all that the American revolution was fought for.

Lest anybody try to qualify the decision as balanced and taken purely after careful, non-partisan and balanced judicial review remember that two of the six Justices on the majority of this decision are clearly and openly in favour of Donald Trump and his political views and values; namely Justices Alito and Thomas who both personally and aided and abetted by their wives flew flags upside down on January 6th 2021 as a sign of distress and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars as gifts from arch-conservative donors.

Justice Sotomayor's scathing dissent is both dramatic and foreboding:

"The President is now a king above the law. (...) With fear for our democracy, I dissent".

The path is clear for Donald Trump, if he is re-elected, to implement any and all sinister plans he has, starting with the infamous "Project 2025". He once famously quipped that he would be "Dictator for a day". He will in fact be Emperor for life and be able to use and abuse the office of the President to put an end to American democracy just shy of its semiquintcentennial celebration.

The one and only way to prevent American democracy from disappearing under the cloak of Trumpian imperial splendour is for the American people to go to the polls and vote for Joe Biden, the only other name on the November ballot liable to be able to beat him, thus upholding the sacrosanct principle "we the people, for the people, by the people".

For all intent and purposes, all constitutional guardrails are now defunct and null and void. American democracy is moribund, virtually dead, and at best is a conditional democracy that will depend on the good nature and honourable character of its future presidents.

Today's's decision is partisan, reflecting the six-justice supermajority of the Supreme Court. All pretence of trying to find a consensus has been thrown out the window along with the corpse of American democracy. Under normal circumstances, such a partisan ruling is destined to be short-lived and would be reversed or modified by a future, more balanced court. The question is whether the American people will allow such a court to come into existence, as the next president will most likely be able to nominate two if not three new justices, cementing the set-up of the court for an entire generation.

The Imperial Presidency, courtesy of the Supreme Court

This past week has underlined just how high the stakes are in the upcoming election and has further injected raw, primal fear into the equation. But hope must prevail over despair as the future of the United States of America as we know it is in the hands of the American people and I for one, trust that the American people will do what is right.

If I am mistaken, then we have to be prepared to hear the future president proclaim, *My name is Trump, Donald Trump".