
A constitutional crisis occurs either when the constitution does not provide a clear answer for a specific situation, or when a government official or branch of the government willfully defies adherence to the constitution. A constitutional crisis is a big deal, and can sometimes result in impeachment, civil war or collapse of the government itself. With the release of the Nunes memo, there has been a lot of talk about whether this could lead to a constitutional crisis. There is no debate that the memo was prepared and released to the public to discredit the FBI. Congress and the White House working together to wage war against the nation’s primary law enforcement agency is bizarre, but if it can prove that the motive for releasing the memo was to obstruct or undermine the Russia/Mueller investigation, things could get out of control quickly. Key players are starting to signal their positions and sometimes in unpredictable ways. In what was a shock to many, Congressman Trey Gowdy, the Republican Congressman and Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, tweeted unfettered support for Robert Mueller on the day the memo was released. It looks like battle lines are being drawn, and the mother of all constitutional crises is now within sight.
Inflation has impacted all of us. The price of almost everything has spiked faster and harder than at any time since the 80s. Few things can obliterate a modern economy more than out-of-control inflation.
For most people, there is little upside to writing about the January 6th hearings, but as you probably know by now, I don’t worry about those things. We all must stand for something. The hearings have almost everyone taking sides before a single witness is called. Democrats believe that the events of January 6th were a calculated effort to undermine our democracy by demolishing two of the most sacred tenants of our nation, free elections, and the peaceful transition of power.
Most people consider themselves either a conservative or a liberal. I think if we forget political parties, which flip their positions on things all of the time, and instead focus on the actual definition of what it means to be a conservative and what it means to be a liberal, we might be able to temper the emotional reactions some of us have with political discourse.