Emoluments

Senator Dan Sullivan and Trump

The emoluments clauses of the constitution are under attack is an understatement. The context is one in which almost all the protections inherent in legislative government have either been ignored or diminished. What about the separation of the executive and the judiciary. Todd Blanche recently described himself as Trump's lawyer. What's even more upsetting however is the willingness of the administration (under the Unitary Executive Theory) to openly defy courts. This has been demonstrated in numerous immigration cases as only one example. The ideologizing of The Supreme Court is perhaps the most disconcerting of all the abrogations, with Justices Alito and Thomas providing a rubber stamp on nearly every Trump filing. Notions like due process and a bill of rights, central to the democratic ideal are laid by the wayside on an almost daily basis. The Iran War, the Cuba embargo, the Venezuela coup, even the  renaming of the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, humorous sallies with a barely concealed threat, all make one fearful of how a possible Democratic victory in the midterms will  be treated. The DOJ has already filed a preemptive suit in Alaska perpetrating the. bizarre idea that the election results will only be bona fide if the Republican, Dan Sullivan, wins.