The day accountability died

From elections to the rule of law, Republicans are trying remove checks on their power.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. Rioters, encouraged by the sitting President of the United States, stormed the building in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power. This morning, Joe Biden published an op-ed in the Washington Post reminding us that democracy prevailed and telling us to remember the day and its significance.

For me, the significance is the erosion of accountability. In other countries, members of the Trump administration would have been quickly arrested and Trump would have almost certainly have gone to trial. In the new America, Trump became the GOP nominee and was re-elected, vowing to take revenge on those who tried to hold him accountable.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Republican Senators and Members of Congress stepped up and called Trump out, blaming him for the assault. For a brief moment, it looked like the country would come together to reject such a blatant attempt to subvert the Constitution and upend our legacy of being governed by the rule of law, not the power of politicians. Instead, almost every Republican leader folded, showing the country and, most importantly, Donald Trump that their words meant nothing. His impeachment failed because Mitch McConnell put politics before country. Future-disgraced House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went to Mar-a-Lago to beg forgiveness and kick off the Trump rehabilitation campaign.

The refusal to hold Trump accountable for the January 6 insurrection is just one of the ways Republicans have steadily eroded accountability and checks and balances over the past decade or so. While gerrymandering may have been around since the beginning of the country, GOP excesses are unprecedented, leaving legislatures like the one here in North Carolina with little restraint on their extremism. On the contrary, they’ve encouraged a radical shift in the GOP by eliminating the competition which they once touted as the key to efficiency and accountability in their free-market philosophy.

Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court has steadily eroded accountability and trust in the judicial system. They’ve reversed decades of precedent in the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade. They gave their approval of extreme gerrymandering and its erosion of voting rights when they took a states’ rights stand on the issue. They gave presidents unchecked power when they ruled that almost any action of the Chief Executive could be an official act, no matter how egregious.

As for the justices themselves, nobody believes that they independent. All three Justices appointed by Trump were pushed by the Federalist Society, an organization with an unabashed agenda that prizes ideology over independence. They were appointed because they aren’t independent minded people. They have weakened the reputation of the Court while emboldening the most extreme elements of right.

In North Carolina, the state Supreme Court has followed suit. Under Chief Justice Paul Newby, it’s become a partisan body, rarely holding the GOP-controlled legislature in check while eroding the powers of the Democratic governors. They’ve broken with tradition by overturning rulings of the previous court indicating that the justices are motivated more by ideology than independence.

In our elections, accountability and rules are essentially gone. The Citizens United ruling gave free rein to money in politics. While rules are supposed to prevent coordination between big money entities and campaigns, those walls have fallen. Elon Musk and his platform were an essential part of the Trump campaign with no daylight between them. The Federal Elections Commission has become a toothless organization unable to impose restrictions or enforce regulations. The board, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, can’t make decisions in this partisan environment, leaving most significant cases in a stalemate. They rarely hold anyone accountable for campaign violations, something clearly noticed by the powerful entities that fund campaign operations but ignored by most of the public.

In North Carolina, Republicans no longer pretend to seek fair elections. When the GOP passed a bill to move the state board of elections from the governor’s office to auditor’s office, then-House Speaker Tim Moore said, “This action item today is going to be critical to making sure North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket.” They are currently trying to blatantly disenfranchise voters to steal a state supreme court seat that Republicans lost in the general election. The goal is to reduce any accountability for Republicans who control the legislature.

January 6 is a sad day to remember in our history. It’s made sadder by the fact that Republicans thwarted efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable. The GOP has systematically removed the guardrails that our constitutional order put in place to prevent concentrations of power. They no longer look for fairness or neutrality in institutions that provide checks and balances. They seek partisanship and ideological fervor to reduce any attempts to restrict their power. The rule of law has been the biggest casualty of Republican control.