Devolving

I watched the first five episodes of the ABC television show Designated Survivor back in fall 2016. Looking at its Wikipedia page, it appears my cessation coincided with the 2016 presidential election.

Those two dates may or may not have had a causal relationship. I remember being annoyed by the direction the plot was going, but Trump's election probably made the show seem trivial in comparison.

The reason I bring it up now is because its early episodes included a subplot about one of the states defying the federal government in the midst of the crisis that's the subject of the show (the Capitol was bombed during a State of the Union address, and all of the top leaders of the government were killed, with only the designated survivor remaining to become president). 

In that subplot, the governor of Michigan violates the civil rights of Muslims in his state, and the new president of the U.S. has to decide whether to enforce the Constitution in the face of what he sees as devolution or secessionist action. 

About three weeks before Trump was elected, the Designated Survivor president on T.V. ordered the fictional governor of Michigan arrested.

It was only a few months later that the first Trump administration tried to institute its Muslim ban. What a contrast!

And now in Trump 2, we have the almost totally normalized idea that the 14th Amendment doesn't mean what it plainly means and "mainstream" Republicans feel free to say that only Christians should be allowed to hold public office.

Yesterday's Pioneer Press ran two stories that spoke of this country's devolution. The first follows from many other examples of the Trump regime withholding tax dollars from disfavored states:



The other story may not be as well-known nationwide as it is here:


Texas Governor Greg Abbott is refusing to sign extradition papers for the ICE agent who shot a man through a door in Minneapolis in January, and lied about it. 

Even the feds acknowledge his actions were bad. Texas marshals took him in, and he's in a jail in Texas. But Abbott will not send him to Minnesota to stand trial, which is what the Constitution requires.

Both of the actions described in the news stories are signs of devolution, breakdown of the national compact. Lawsuits attempt to get money freed up from Trump's interference, and the mid-term elections may finally stop this illegal impoundment, if Democrats retake at least part of Congress. 

Right now Minnesota's attorney general is suing to get Abbott to sign the extradition under force of a court order. If a judge doesn't force him to do it, that will be an even more terrible sign.