On Lacovara's point, I tend to believe that the six Supreme Court conservatives are operating on the same dysfunctional rocket fuel that drives the rest of the right: Resentment, mulish obstinacy, and a hyper-focus on the flaws of their critics.
When John Roberts hears critics like Lacovara state that Trump is behaving like a monarch and trashing the Constitution, Roberts immediately interprets it as the rant of a liberal with "sour grapes" for "losing elections", channels it through the brain-filter he apparently installed in his head when he served in the Reagan administration, and hears only a Charlie-Brown-like "Waw waw, waw waw, waw waw waw."
Roberts lives in tony suburban Washington and most of his friends and neighbors are tony Republicans. They tend, especially after his near-assassination last year, to think of Trump as a "victim" in all things and a "sovereign" that the American people have entrusted with absolute authority in all things. Who are we to gainsay the American people, rationalizes Roberts.
And let's be clear: Roberts would never, ever grant such authority to any other president, Republican or Democrat.
The more rank and vile a tyrant Trump turns out to be, the more mulishly determined Roberts and company are to justify him, and regard even their own misgivings about his violations of the Constitution as so much "liberal bellyaching".
Everything will be fine, thinks Roberts to himself. If there's anyone with no respect for the Constitution, it's critiquing articles like this one, hating on his Very Well Considered Decisions.
In slight disagreement with Lacovara. JVL and HCR are jointly discussing the proposition that what we've reached in the Trump era is inherent in conservatism. I am very friendly to that notion but note that many conservatives are not Trumpers and most MAGA are not conservative the way I define it (a hopeless project at that). What we see sitting on the SCOTUS bench and what the unitary executive theory is all about are so ancient we lose sight of how endemic to human society it is, viz. The Big Man (tribal). Big Daddy (the South), the Boss (the Mafia), the head honcho, nobody to mess with, the Khan (I'm reading about the Mongols now), etc. This has the effect of making our democracy at once a wonderful accomplishment and as fragile as a snow-flake; if you hold it in your hand it melts away and if you let it flourish it floats off. Name any place or time that had what we've enjoyed.... well, not everyone got to enjoy it, but not even The Rights of Englishmen or the Greek Polis can compare to what can only be described, as it so often is, as an experiment, a Poly-Scientific experiment (let me acknowledge that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others that are close [India, Ghana] can be described as democratic). The upshot? We are just holding the fort and it is time to make a sally.
This is off topic but relevant to the situation in the US today. Post WWII the US forged a world where Japan and Germany were incorporated into The West. From the ruins of the war all of the countries in the US orbit created societies that in many respects were better for their citizens than the US was for its citizens That is definitely the case now. The current jokers who run our government need to be ousted
Hidden away in Overtime: Sen. Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin) spoke at a 9/11 truther conference this week. Ron 'Q Anon' Johnson who never met a conspiracy he couldn't get behind is an embarrassment to this state. Wisconsin desperately needs an alternative.
My comment is going to be slightly off topic but it does eventually get around to the Supreme Court.
I’m pissed. In Brazil in Oct 2022 Jair Bolsonaro lost reelection. On Jan 3, 2023 Bolsonaro attempted a coup in an effort to stay in power. By Nov 2024 police investigations had revealed enough to warrant formal charges. On Sept 11, 2025, following an eight day trial, the Brazilian Supreme Court found Bolsonaro guilty and sentenced him to prison.
In Nov 2020 Trump was rejected, on Jan 6, 2021 he attempted a coup. What did we do? We had an impeachment thwarted by cowards. We got a Merrick Garland slow walk until Nov 18, 2022, when Garland passed the hot potato to Jack Smith, Jack Smith didn’t have enough time to negotiate a court system with sand and molasses in its gears. And we got a compliant Supreme Court.
The Sept 11 conviction of Bolsonaro has been lost in the news cycle, but I am pissed. I’m pissed at the cowards and there are a lot of them, I’m pissed at Garland and at the Supreme Court, but most of all I’m pissed at us that we don’t demand better.
SCOTUS conservatives have an unconscious like the rest of us. What's in theirs we cannot know unless they tell us. All we can do is speculate from what they say and write. Their lockstep decisions sure look and feel more harmful than previous "conservative" opinions. It looks and feels as if they want to not only uphold previous patriarchal, sexist, and authoritarian values, but also to further them. Scary (understatement) b/c they erode the separation of church and state, voting rights for all citizens regardless of color or nationality, and support the practice of medicine by politicians and clergy. They appear to me to unwittingly erode the Constitution while purporting to uphold it.
The Roberts court largely lacks integrity. Our 'conservative' justices are more committed to Project 2025 than they are to the U.S. Constitution. Labeling them conservative gives them legitimacy they have not earned.
No one has mentioned the century of political violence known as Jim Crow when hundreds of black and brown men became strange fruit hanging from southern trees.
For me my refuge has been historical research, I started in earnest when I thought Trump would be re elected last fall and have picked up more and more ever since. End goal is a book (though I don’t know why) a biography of a home state senator and governor from the 1920s-30s named John Blaine, his name is associated with the 21st amendment that ended prohibition but he had a rich career before that as well. It has been enlightening to see how much our politics has changed and it’s been a mental refuge so to speak, escaping into the past for hours at a time. Not for everyone but it helps me and maybe it will amount to a small contribution to our shared civic knowledge.
I discovered that I was exercising too much. When I cut back, I felt so much better. This is age-related. I am having difficulty coming to terms with my limitations as a senior.
On Lacovara's point, I tend to believe that the six Supreme Court conservatives are operating on the same dysfunctional rocket fuel that drives the rest of the right: Resentment, mulish obstinacy, and a hyper-focus on the flaws of their critics.
When John Roberts hears critics like Lacovara state that Trump is behaving like a monarch and trashing the Constitution, Roberts immediately interprets it as the rant of a liberal with "sour grapes" for "losing elections", channels it through the brain-filter he apparently installed in his head when he served in the Reagan administration, and hears only a Charlie-Brown-like "Waw waw, waw waw, waw waw waw."
Roberts lives in tony suburban Washington and most of his friends and neighbors are tony Republicans. They tend, especially after his near-assassination last year, to think of Trump as a "victim" in all things and a "sovereign" that the American people have entrusted with absolute authority in all things. Who are we to gainsay the American people, rationalizes Roberts.
And let's be clear: Roberts would never, ever grant such authority to any other president, Republican or Democrat.
The more rank and vile a tyrant Trump turns out to be, the more mulishly determined Roberts and company are to justify him, and regard even their own misgivings about his violations of the Constitution as so much "liberal bellyaching".
Everything will be fine, thinks Roberts to himself. If there's anyone with no respect for the Constitution, it's critiquing articles like this one, hating on his Very Well Considered Decisions.
So he thinks. Insists on, really.
In slight disagreement with Lacovara. JVL and HCR are jointly discussing the proposition that what we've reached in the Trump era is inherent in conservatism. I am very friendly to that notion but note that many conservatives are not Trumpers and most MAGA are not conservative the way I define it (a hopeless project at that). What we see sitting on the SCOTUS bench and what the unitary executive theory is all about are so ancient we lose sight of how endemic to human society it is, viz. The Big Man (tribal). Big Daddy (the South), the Boss (the Mafia), the head honcho, nobody to mess with, the Khan (I'm reading about the Mongols now), etc. This has the effect of making our democracy at once a wonderful accomplishment and as fragile as a snow-flake; if you hold it in your hand it melts away and if you let it flourish it floats off. Name any place or time that had what we've enjoyed.... well, not everyone got to enjoy it, but not even The Rights of Englishmen or the Greek Polis can compare to what can only be described, as it so often is, as an experiment, a Poly-Scientific experiment (let me acknowledge that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others that are close [India, Ghana] can be described as democratic). The upshot? We are just holding the fort and it is time to make a sally.
This is off topic but relevant to the situation in the US today. Post WWII the US forged a world where Japan and Germany were incorporated into The West. From the ruins of the war all of the countries in the US orbit created societies that in many respects were better for their citizens than the US was for its citizens That is definitely the case now. The current jokers who run our government need to be ousted
Hidden away in Overtime: Sen. Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin) spoke at a 9/11 truther conference this week. Ron 'Q Anon' Johnson who never met a conspiracy he couldn't get behind is an embarrassment to this state. Wisconsin desperately needs an alternative.
My comment is going to be slightly off topic but it does eventually get around to the Supreme Court.
I’m pissed. In Brazil in Oct 2022 Jair Bolsonaro lost reelection. On Jan 3, 2023 Bolsonaro attempted a coup in an effort to stay in power. By Nov 2024 police investigations had revealed enough to warrant formal charges. On Sept 11, 2025, following an eight day trial, the Brazilian Supreme Court found Bolsonaro guilty and sentenced him to prison.
In Nov 2020 Trump was rejected, on Jan 6, 2021 he attempted a coup. What did we do? We had an impeachment thwarted by cowards. We got a Merrick Garland slow walk until Nov 18, 2022, when Garland passed the hot potato to Jack Smith, Jack Smith didn’t have enough time to negotiate a court system with sand and molasses in its gears. And we got a compliant Supreme Court.
The Sept 11 conviction of Bolsonaro has been lost in the news cycle, but I am pissed. I’m pissed at the cowards and there are a lot of them, I’m pissed at Garland and at the Supreme Court, but most of all I’m pissed at us that we don’t demand better.
Good, easy to understand, analysis by Mr. Lacavora. Impressive credentials.
SCOTUS conservatives have an unconscious like the rest of us. What's in theirs we cannot know unless they tell us. All we can do is speculate from what they say and write. Their lockstep decisions sure look and feel more harmful than previous "conservative" opinions. It looks and feels as if they want to not only uphold previous patriarchal, sexist, and authoritarian values, but also to further them. Scary (understatement) b/c they erode the separation of church and state, voting rights for all citizens regardless of color or nationality, and support the practice of medicine by politicians and clergy. They appear to me to unwittingly erode the Constitution while purporting to uphold it.
The Roberts court largely lacks integrity. Our 'conservative' justices are more committed to Project 2025 than they are to the U.S. Constitution. Labeling them conservative gives them legitimacy they have not earned.
No one has mentioned the century of political violence known as Jim Crow when hundreds of black and brown men became strange fruit hanging from southern trees.
Trump and his White Nationalist minions want to erase the uncomfortable truths of American History.
For me my refuge has been historical research, I started in earnest when I thought Trump would be re elected last fall and have picked up more and more ever since. End goal is a book (though I don’t know why) a biography of a home state senator and governor from the 1920s-30s named John Blaine, his name is associated with the 21st amendment that ended prohibition but he had a rich career before that as well. It has been enlightening to see how much our politics has changed and it’s been a mental refuge so to speak, escaping into the past for hours at a time. Not for everyone but it helps me and maybe it will amount to a small contribution to our shared civic knowledge.
I discovered that I was exercising too much. When I cut back, I felt so much better. This is age-related. I am having difficulty coming to terms with my limitations as a senior.
I’ve had to lower my expectations bar on what I can “safely” achieve. Just keep moving is a win.
Sounds about right to me. Thanks for that.
Excellent, thank you!