So I\u2019m not a bowler;\u00a0I play about once a decade. I have some fun, drink a beer or two, and hope to have one game approaching 200, and no games under 100.\u00a0\u00a0I haven\u2019t tried to play since getting the \u201c$6 million shoulder\u201d (you need to be of a \u201ccertain age\u201d to understand that reference).\u00a0\u00a0My whole left arm might now detach and fly down the alley, or I might be a\u00a0\u00a0candidate for the senior Professional Bowlers Association.\u00a0\u00a0I haven\u2019t had the chance to try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you aren\u2019t a bowler (or played one on TV), you may not know the ultimate humiliation of bowling.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s when your ball falls off the side of the alley and into the gutter.\u00a0\u00a0The gutter leads it to pass harmlessly by the pins.\u00a0\u00a0That is the base minimum standard of bowling. If you can\u2019t keep the ball in the alley, then you can\u2019t score.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for beginners and little kids, some alleys have \u201cgutter bumpers\u201d; big blow up cushions that inflate in the gutter and keeps the ball from falling in. With bumpers, you are almost guaranteed to knock some pins down, no matter how badly you bowl. That is, unless your ball doesn\u2019t have enough impetus, and stops halfway up the alley. Or, you are so out of control you throw into the next lane! With those guards in place, it\u2019s called \u201cbumper bowling\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
American politics and government normally has bumpers, guards that protect the political process from going completely in the gutter.\u00a0\u00a0Historically, we depended on those bumpers to knock the \u201cAmerican ball\u201d back into the alley of \u201cnormal\u201d government.\u00a0\u00a0Some of those bumpers are actual laws. But most of the \u201cguard rails\u201d in American government are \u201cnorms\u201d; accepted and historic practices and traditions, but not necessarily in \u201cBlack Letter Law\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was listening to the wonderful funeral ceremony for Jimmy Carter yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0Two of the eulogizers\u00a0\u00a0were \u201cproxies\u201d; sons of fathers who promised Carter to speak, but didn\u2019t live long enough to do so.\u00a0\u00a0It was comforting to hear the words of Gerald Ford and Walter Mondale, praising the 39th<\/sup> President.\u00a0\u00a0In one of those speeches, it was mentioned how Carter shepherded laws through to protect Americans from the extreme abuses of the Watergate era.\u00a0\u00a0They erected \u201cbumpers\u201d, to keep the Presidency, no matter who was elected, in the alley and out of the gutters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first Trump Administration ignored the norms, and violated the laws. But for their own ineptness in governing (and in fomenting insurrection), they might have ended the American experiment in democracy right there. But enough of the \u201cbumpers\u201d held, particularly in the Courts. And when, on January 6th<\/sup> 2021, Trump tried to throw his ball over the bumpers and into the next alley, the determination of the Congress to stay \u201cin the lane\u201d narrowly prevented what would have been a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Joe Biden became President, it was clear that one of his major goals was to return the Nation to \u201cNormalcy\u201d. He wanted an American government that respected the laws and norms that kept it \u201cin the alley\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0He appointed a \u201cneutral arbiter\u201d as the Attorney General, Judge Merrick Garland, a man who, by definition, was straight down the middle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Garland\u2019s absolute adherence to the norms and laws would have been laudable, had it worked.\u00a0\u00a0But instead, it allowed the MAGA adherents to \u201cwork the courts\u201d. They delayed and denied justice, and convinced the American people that they were the \u201cvictims\u201d rather than the perpetrators.\u00a0\u00a0Biden did fix the laws he could, but was blocked from erecting bigger bumpers.\u00a0\u00a0And so, here we are, ten days before a second Trump Administration takes over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest failures of the Biden\/Garland Justice Department was failing to hold the leaders of the Insurrection accountable.\u00a0\u00a0Justice was delayed (and as the saying goes, denied), both by the investigators themselves, and by the Federal Courts.\u00a0\u00a0The biggest MAGA co-conspirators were the three Trump appointees on the Supreme Court, in conjunction with two (and sometimes three) other Justices.\u00a0\u00a0They created a whole new American \u201cnorm\u201d, a citizen who by elected office, is literally above the law:\u00a0\u00a0the President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0With his absolute immunity for \u201cofficial acts\u201d, the bumpers are completely gone.\u00a0\u00a0Under their standard, Richard Nixon leading a felony coverup would be \u201cOK\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It was shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Courts are no longer bumpers, than what is left to protect America? The answer is, not much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here we are, ten days before the second Trump ascendancy, with no bumpers in place. Where\u2019s the hope? Well, there is a glimmer, a faint possibility of \u201cbumpers\u201d being placed once again. It\u2019s not a sure thing by any means, but here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the President-Elect will be sentenced for committing thirty-four felonies in the State of New York. There will be no prison sentence, no \u201cperp-walk\u201d, no handcuffs or orange jump suits. But, for one shining moment, the American justice system will hold Donald Trump accountable. For a hazy instant, all Americans will be equal in the eyes of the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the biggest surprise is that the US Supreme Court is allowed it.\u00a0\u00a0After declaring the President immune from prosecution, after doing all that was possible to delay and deny Federal justice, after allowing one of their judges in Florida to put more than a thumb on the scale for Trump, five Justices said that Trump must answer in Manhattan Court today.\u00a0\u00a0We are all anxiously awaiting his appearance, and for Judge Marchan to declare his guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps it\u2019s simply a mirage of the past, the last gasp of the American \u201cbumpers\u201d. Or maybe it\u2019s a harbinger of the role American Courts will play in the future, even if they failed so desperately in the past four years. The glass may be three-quarters empty, or one-quarter full. <\/p>\n\n\n\nToo Soon for Normal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Accountable<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bowl a Strike<\/h3>\n\n\n\n