As we expected, the upcoming sequel, “Trump II: The Return of the Killer Trump,” is shaping up to be a humdinger. If Donald Trump is good at one thing, it’s being a bull in the Washington china shop, and this time, not only has he (forgive me for the mixed metaphor) taken the gloves off, but he is also appointing people who never knew where the gloves were in the first place. He’s going to try to get a lot done, and he had better be planning on two things: a two-year window to get things done, as we can only be assured of a GOP-controlled House and Senate until the next election, and that Democrats are going to resist every step of the way.
Granted, that’s what the Democrats’ voters want them to do, and that, too, is part of what makes our constitutional republic work the way it does. But there is such a thing as taking it too far, and that’s what is happening, as some Democrat governors and members of the House and Senate are advocating for a “shadow government.”
That’s stepping right up to the line of open rebellion.
The speaker in this video is North Carolina Democrat Representative Wiley Nickel, who has not sought reelection because of redistricting. So why is he flapping his pie-hole about a shadow government? Because he has ambitions for the upper house in the mid-term elections.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel said Thursday he won’t seek reelection to Congress next year, the result of congressional redistricting by Republican state legislators this fall that’s likely to shift North Carolina’s delegation to the right. And Nickel said he is interested in a U.S. Senate bid in an election that is almost three years away.
But wait! There’s more! It’s not just Democrats in Congress who are treading the line of rebellion:
These governors, led by Colorado’s Jared Polis and Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker, appear to be establishing an interstate compact.
The governors of Illinois and Colorado, both Democrats, have announced the formation of a new alliance to resist President-elect Donald Trump’s policies, just weeks before he is set to assume office.
The alliance, named “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” (GSD), is being billed as a nonpartisan coalition of governors who will work together to prevent “authoritarianism” and the “undermining of democratic institutions,” including executive agencies, elections, and state courts, according to a Nov. 13 statement announcing the group.
Through the group, governors will leverage their “unique legislative, budgetary, executive, and administrative powers to deliver results for the American people,” the statement said.
The alliance will also develop “playbooks” to enable governors and their teams to “anticipate and swiftly respond to emerging threats,” according to the statement. The group did not specify what those threats were.
Because, we can be sure, there aren’t any threats other than “OMG, ORANGE MAN BAD.” Everything he has done so far is legal and constitutional. Indeed, President-elect Trump won’t even be in office for a couple of months, and people are already freaking out. There’s no longer even a pretense of sanity among the left. And, yes, it’s glorious.
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On X, a user named “RedDevil” (@Snakeeater36) makes an excellent point:
Something to also add. Shadow government is critical to insurgents organizations. Something to be protected, guarded and kept secret because of the risk those members take. Shadow governments win through subversion and delegitimization of the standing organization.
All this to say, announcing who you specifically plan to facilitate subversion is PROBABLY not the best idea. Telegraphing your intent, and specifically labelling those team members “shadow” is either 3d chess level big to take them off the field, or is so absurdly stupid it’s no wonder Republicans won.
He is talking about an actual insurgency. That carries some uncomfortable implications. Granted, I don’t expect members of Congress or state governors to take up arms in open rebellion, but this kind of rhetoric has already resulted in two — count ’em, two — assassination attempts before Donald Trump was even reelected. And the left doesn’t seem inclined to dial their rhetoric down any; now they are promoting rebellion.
So why are they making these loud pronouncements?
There is not only nothing in the Constitution allowing them to take any of these actions, but the formation of interstate compacts, as Governors Polis and Pritzker appear to be doing, are specifically prohibited. Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 states (emphasis mine:)
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
RedState’s own Susie Moore has some legal insight as to what precedent these governors might be leaning on:
Yeah, I doubt that precedent will fly in this case. Although it’s a fun play on words because “penumbra” means “a partial shadow,” there’s nothing partial about what these people are threatening to do. And what is that?
They are laying out plans to resist constitutionally established authority. There have been calls for several states, for instance, to defy federal authority where the deportation of illegal aliens is concerned, or to defy actions being taken to get the border closed. These are the same people who screamed about “federal authority” when border-state governors, out of frustration over inaction by Washington, took actions on their own to stem the flood of people swarming illegally into the country.
When worn on the other foot, the shoe pinches.
This is toeing the line of rebellion. What Representative Nickel is proposing is rebellion. The Constitution does not allow “shadow governments.” What the governors of Colorado and Illinois are proposing is rebellion. The Constitution prohibits interstate compacts absent congressional consent.
The worst part of all this is the precedent thus set. We knew on Election Night, when it became clear that Donald Trump had won the election, that the left would come unglued. But this is concerning. They are taking the nation in a very dangerous direction, threatening to ignore or even defy constitutionally established legal authority. If the positions were reversed and minority Republicans were threatening a shadow government, one would be able to hear the hue and cry from Tierra del Fuego. But the bad Orange Man is back and he’s making plans to stir things up — but, again, everything he’s planning and proposing is (so far) legal and constitutional. What the left is planning here is neither.
Maybe all this will prove to be nothing more than gaseous emissions. But if it is not, these people are proposing to send us down a very dark path indeed — one that might very well lead to violence.
