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Noah Berlatsky: Joni Ernst Chooses Fascism. Who needs Senate prerogatives when you can have whiteness instead?
Noah Berlatsky - Joni Ernst Chooses Fascism
Who needs Senate prerogatives when you can have whiteness instead?
Noah Berlatsky
Feb 10, 2025
As you’re probably aware at this point, Elon Musk is unilaterally, illegally, and unconstitutionally making massive cuts to federal programs. In doing so, he’s (again unilaterally, illegally, and unconstitutionally) seizing Congress’ appropriation power. Congress is supposed to vote on a budget and decides what programs and departments are funded. If the president—or the president’s billionaire sugar daddy and boss—ignores Congress and just makes spending decisions himself, then Congress is irrelevant, and we don’t have a democracy. We have a monarch (or a monarch and his orange stooge/front person.)
You’d think that Congress would be upset at having its constitutional prerogatives overridden; why go through the trouble of running for Senate just to be the lickspittle of some billionaire shithead? But so far, Congressional Republicans have seemed eager to lick and spittle at the boots, and the ass, of Elon Musk. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, for example, said she was happy to have Musk make budgetary decisions and overrule Congress and the Constitution. “If it’s expenditures that the majority of American people don’t agree with, that the president doesn’t agree with, we’re glad to see it gone.”
NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie responded on bluesky, “Someone tell Ernst that neither the president nor Musk embodies the American people and that if they want to cut funding they should work with congress to pass a bill.” Another blueskier was even more direct: “Republicans have abdicated the appropriations power because apparently they're too ignorant or too zonked out of their gourds to understand the situation that they're in.”
It's weird to see politicians rushing to divest themselves of power. It makes sense to think that politicians like Ernst simply don’t understand what they’re doing, and need their Constitutional powers and privileges explained to them.
I don’t think Republicans are exactly motivated by ignorance, though. Instead (and I doubt Bouie would disagree with this), Republicans have embraced an alternative theory of power and accountability that is radically at odds with the Constitution and with democracy. That theory of power and accountability can be succinctly summarized as “fascism.”
/snip
Who needs Senate prerogatives when you can have whiteness instead?
Noah Berlatsky
Feb 10, 2025
As you’re probably aware at this point, Elon Musk is unilaterally, illegally, and unconstitutionally making massive cuts to federal programs. In doing so, he’s (again unilaterally, illegally, and unconstitutionally) seizing Congress’ appropriation power. Congress is supposed to vote on a budget and decides what programs and departments are funded. If the president—or the president’s billionaire sugar daddy and boss—ignores Congress and just makes spending decisions himself, then Congress is irrelevant, and we don’t have a democracy. We have a monarch (or a monarch and his orange stooge/front person.)
You’d think that Congress would be upset at having its constitutional prerogatives overridden; why go through the trouble of running for Senate just to be the lickspittle of some billionaire shithead? But so far, Congressional Republicans have seemed eager to lick and spittle at the boots, and the ass, of Elon Musk. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, for example, said she was happy to have Musk make budgetary decisions and overrule Congress and the Constitution. “If it’s expenditures that the majority of American people don’t agree with, that the president doesn’t agree with, we’re glad to see it gone.”
NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie responded on bluesky, “Someone tell Ernst that neither the president nor Musk embodies the American people and that if they want to cut funding they should work with congress to pass a bill.” Another blueskier was even more direct: “Republicans have abdicated the appropriations power because apparently they're too ignorant or too zonked out of their gourds to understand the situation that they're in.”
It's weird to see politicians rushing to divest themselves of power. It makes sense to think that politicians like Ernst simply don’t understand what they’re doing, and need their Constitutional powers and privileges explained to them.
I don’t think Republicans are exactly motivated by ignorance, though. Instead (and I doubt Bouie would disagree with this), Republicans have embraced an alternative theory of power and accountability that is radically at odds with the Constitution and with democracy. That theory of power and accountability can be succinctly summarized as “fascism.”
/snip