The coup rolls on, but we will prevail.

February 2, 2025

Although I usually do not publish a Sunday edition, I am making an exception given the emergency facing our democracy. I will focus on the most significant development—Musk’s seizure of the Treasury’s payment system with the blessing of newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Bessent. It took Bessent less than a week to place his loyalty to Trump above his loyalty to the Constitution and, derivatively, to the American people.

Before addressing the hostile takeover of the Treasury, I want to take a moment to repeat comments I made on the Substack livestream event on Saturday morning.

Let’s start with the positive framing of where we are: It is up to us. It always has been, and it always will be. Every generation faces a moment when it is called upon to redeem democracy from an existential threat. We must not bemoan the fact that we are playing our part in the long arc of redemption that has safely delivered us to this point. Our task is to serve as a bridge in the arc to the next generation. If all we do is hold back the forces of darkness, that will be enough. If all we do is endure and outlast the bastards, that will be enough. But I am confident that we can and will do much more.

In our lifetimes, we have overcome the trauma of the Civil Rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s, the political assassinations and campus protests of the 1960s, the Viet Nam war, Nixon and Watergate, the S&L collapses of the 1980s and 1990s, the internet bubble burst in the early 2000s, the terror attacks on 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Great Recession of 2008, the Covid pandemic, January 6, and more.

We will not only survive this challenge, we will prevail. That is not a close question. The specific path to victory is not yet clear, but Trump is breaking the guardrails of democracy and the fundamentals of the economy so quickly that some unseen calamity of his own creation will overtake his ham-fisted effort to install himself as a supreme dictator in violation of the basic precepts of our great charter.

But . . . despite confidence that we will win, it doesn’t feel great to be in the middle of chaos and uncertainty. In fact, it feels bad. Really bad. If you feel that way, welcome to a club that includes 200 million Americans. You are not alone.

This moment is particularly challenging because of the seeming impotence and cluelessness of Democrats in Congress, in state houses, and governors’ mansions across the nation. It feels like they do not understand the urgency of the situation. If they do, they are failing to communicate that urgency, mount a vigorous opposition, and inspire confidence in Americans yearning for leaders to lead.

We must demand that our elected officials stop acting like this situation is “politics as usual” or that “There is nothing we can do about it because we are in the minority.” Such excuses are unacceptable and unseemly. Elected officials ran for office to be leaders. So, don’t complain that leading is hard when the chips are down. We know that. That is why we elected you. Step it up, now!

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo captured the reasons for our discontent in his post on Saturday morning entitled, A Few Thoughts on Messages and Morale.

Josh writes,

The overarching thing that is missing from what Democratic leaders in Washington are saying right now is a clear statement that “This is bad, that it’s likely to get worse for a while. But we don’t accept this; we have power too. We’re going to fight this in the courts; we’re going to gum up the works in Congress; and more than anything we’re going to fight this in the court of public opinion. And we’re going to win. And to do that we need all of you to be on our side. And as we claw back power we’re going to repair the damage and hold the people who broke everything accountable and build something better.”

Josh makes an important point: Despite our anger at our elected leaders for their miserable performance to date, we must support them so that they can lead us to victory.

Marc Elias makes the same point in his post in Democracy Docket, Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy. The second thing we can do to support democracy is to “Help Democrats.” Marc writes, “Next time you want to attack a Democrat for being too much of this or too little of that, realize that you are only helping the GOP. Instead, find a Democrat you support and volunteer or contribute to their campaign.”

It is okay to be angry at our Democratic officials—in moderation. But they are not the problem. Trump is the problem. So, if you are thinking about how to allocate your emotional energy, devote 99% of it to resisting Trump and 1% to criticizing Democrats—which, to be clear, is a healthy and helpful thing to do.

If you are looking for someone to articulate and channel your outrage at feckless Democrats, I recommend this video by Politics Girl on YouTube, What The F***?! I found Leigh McGowan’s rant cathartic; you might also find some release in hearing her tell Democratic leaders to get off their behinds and start acting like they are in a fight for the future of democracy.

But in the end, we don’t have the luxury of waiting around for elected Democrats to start acting like we are in a five-alarm fire. It is up to us to act now to redeem democracy. It always has been. It always will be. Don’t regret or resent that fact. It is our sacred duty--both as a repayment of our debt to those who brought us to this moment and as an investment in future generations who will carry democracy forward long after our struggles are forgotten.

Musk succeeds in seizing control of the Treasury payment system

When I last wrote, Musk was attempting to seize control of the Treasury payment system. Late Friday, he succeeded in doing so. Treasury Secretary Bessent handed control over to Musk and privateers from Silicon Valley. Musk tweeted on Saturday suggesting that the move was necessary because the Treasury was strictly following the orders to pay the debts and obligations of the US as directed by Congress in budgets enacted as law and as implemented by agencies acting under the watchful eye of the OMB.

In Musk’s fantasy re-telling of the story, that stringent process results in the payment of funds to known fraudsters and terrorist organizations. Musk provided no evidence to support his outlandish claim.

To state the obvious, the role of the Treasury is to pay money as directed by Congress. If there are legal reasons that a congressional appropriation should be stopped, there are two routes: asking Congress to amend its appropriation bill or filing a lawsuit asking the judiciary to enjoin the payment to determine its legality.

But Musk wants to introduce a third way to challenge payments duly authorized by Congress: He gets to decide which payments are not “legitimate”—and then he presses the “delete” button on the computer that Secretary Bessent handed over to Musk.

The illegal, extra-constitutional takeover of the Treasury payment system is explained in detail in this article in the NYTimes (accessible to all): Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System.

I highly recommend reading the entire NYTimes article. You will be shocked. Elon Musk now has unfettered access to private information about your Social Security earnings and benefits, your tax refunds, and your bank accounts into which federal funds are deposited.

Remind me, who elected Elon Musk? When exactly did Trump say during his campaign that Musk would be given access to private data about nearly every American?

While the Times gets high marks for detail in its article, the Times continues to miss the story. The NY Times dutifully reports Musk’s social media claim that he needs access to the payment system to stop fraudulent payments and payments to terrorist groups.

That explanation is so bad it is not even wrong. As noted above, fraudulent payments and payments to terrorist organizations could be handled by the Secretary of the Treasury, Congress, and the courts. We do not need Elon Musk to swoop in to stop those payments—if they even exist.

The obvious story, the huge scandal, the constitutional crisis that is staring the NYTimes in the face is that Musk has seized control of the Treasury payments system so he and Trump can unilaterally enforce the draconian budget cuts to be proposed by DOGE.

Such budget cuts should require congressional approval—unless you control the check-writing function at the Treasury. Once you can “delete” any appropriation by simply refusing to write a check, Congress is an unnecessary appendage, a spectator to a coup.

The plan is transparent to even the most naïve and gullible among us—and should be mincemeat in the hands of seasoned NYTimes’ political reporters. But they do not mention the elephant in the room.

Why?

Because they are afraid. Because they are obeying in advance. Because they do not want to provoke the wrath of Trump.

As always, it is up to us. It always has been, and it always will be. Every generation faces a moment when it is called upon to redeem democracy from an existential threat. We must not bemoan the fact that we are playing our part in the long arc of redemption that has safely delivered us to this point. Our task is to serve as a bridge in the arc to the next generation. If all we do is hold back the forces of darkness, that will be enough. If all we do is endure and outlast the bastards, that will be enough. But I am confident that we can and will do much more.

And yes, I realize the preceding paragraph is repeated from the introduction to this edition. I thought it deserved to be emphasized.

Coda: The Wall Street Journal editorial board’s headline on Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico says it all: The Dumbest Trade War in History. (This should be a gift link.)

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Concluding Thoughts

Stay strong and maintain perspective. There is no doubt that we will make it through this difficult period--and prevail. Do not collapse the future into the present moment. The future comes at us one day at a time no matter how much we worry. The invariant pace of time gives us space and opportunity to plan, react, and adjust. Find community. Support others in distress. Lead by example, using words only when necessary.

Talk to you tomorrow!

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Daily Dose of Perspective

Here is a healthy dose of perspective: The Andromeda Galaxy is our nearest spiral galaxy neighbor. On a cosmic scale, it is roughly the same size as the Milky Way—about 800 billion solar masses packed into a galaxy roughly 150,000 light years in diameter.

That is the cosmic stage on which we are battling over the form of government on one small corner of a lonely planet orbiting one of those 800 billion stars. That thought should not diminish us or suggest that our struggles are meaningless. But it should engender a profound sense of awe, humility, and perspective about our place in the universe.

The bright spot in the middle of the Andromeda Galaxy is created by millions of stars attracted to a super-massive black hole, which is 140 million times the mass of our sun.