Not long ago there was an "establishment" able enough to stabilize a rogue administration. This happened much more recently than Watergate, though impeachment is once again a thinkable outcome for our current scandalous presidency.
When national security elements (not just Oliver North and Fawn Hall) were selling arms to Iran for the finance of terror, torture, rape, and murder in Nicaragua, they had the collusion of a senescent, disengaged President Reagan.
With solid support from Democrats, a Republican "establishment" moved in. Among other (informal) measures, they installed Howard Baker (his credentials well burnished by the Watergate hearings) as White House Chief of Staff. The "grown-ups" were back in control, and torture, rape, murder, and terror in Central America could continue as they had at least since Truman and on through the Carter administration. But, at least, the "grown-ups" were back in control.
The current shambles is just as likely to provoke an invocation of Article 4 of the 25th Amendment as it is to "climax" with an impeachment trial. But this time the "grown-ups" will have re-exerted their "control" over a society that's crackling apart like an attenuated glacier perched on a seething lava flow.
The system is not working.
Is there a way to decapitate this administration and then provide strong moorings to "noose canons" like Pense and Ryan? It's pretty hard to see. And it's mostly dependent on the next Congressional elections which have had a pathetic record in terms of democratic participation and citizen engagement.
It's easier to "reign in" an illegitimate administration than an idiot elite (0.1%).
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