Governments do explode from such stupidity. The manner would be a law played out just as you've indicated above, and then some high-profile situation arises on a law that has been struct down / re-passed / etc. Some powerful group, like a state, pushes one side against Congress with the Court's backing...
Governmance by law rather than arbitrary rule of people has always been a little illusory in my opinion, but the pretense has a lot of utility. I'd hate to see it break down on something like this.
Maybe Lewis is a crack-pot and this has no chance of passing and is just being done as part of a Republican show-boating effort during an election year about the evils of "judicial activism," but this guy has not been asked to resign. The drafting and sponsoring of this Act is not being taken as sufficient evidense of incompotence at the job of Congressman. What can be proposed semi-seriously for marketing purposes today can be law soon.
At least the executive power-grab in the Patriot Act had an expiration, and was putatively in response to an emergency. This is the most outrageous power-grab since the Civil War. And it has been six days since proposal... and no outcry.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-15 02:04 pm (UTC)Governmance by law rather than arbitrary rule of people has always been a little illusory in my opinion, but the pretense has a lot of utility. I'd hate to see it break down on something like this.
Maybe Lewis is a crack-pot and this has no chance of passing and is just being done as part of a Republican show-boating effort during an election year about the evils of "judicial activism," but this guy has not been asked to resign. The drafting and sponsoring of this Act is not being taken as sufficient evidense of incompotence at the job of Congressman. What can be proposed semi-seriously for marketing purposes today can be law soon.
At least the executive power-grab in the Patriot Act had an expiration, and was putatively in response to an emergency. This is the most outrageous power-grab since the Civil War. And it has been six days since proposal... and no outcry.
This scares me.