There’s this:
In response to a post on X from @maxwellfrost.bsky.social showing the effort to get into the Department of Education building this morning, Elon Musk replied, "No such department exists in the federal government"
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
There would be a fight in Congress if a bill shuttering the Department of Education were brought to the floor. But there wouldn’t be much of a fight over giving Israel more arms. No matter: the State Department just announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel, with no review.
Steve M proposes Democrats bring the following to the floor:
WHEREAS the majority of members of the party controlling both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate have concluded that Congress no longer needs to perform its duties as laid out in the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS these legislators have chosen to cede their power entirely to the Executive Branch; therefore, be it
Resolved, that the United States Congress is hereby disbanded.
I’m not so sure that Republicans wouldn’t vote for this. They wanted a king, they’re happy with what the king is doing, and if they could just quit and go home (with some kind of golden parachute, of course), they’d probably feel relieved that they don’t need to face their constituents in the next election.
Over the past, say, 30 years, Congress itself has hollowed out its authority because of the craven desire not to take tough votes. Everything is packed into massive omnibus bills so they have a ready-made excuse for voting for unpopular shit (“I had to fund the government!”), they never had the grit to rein in the Iraq War, and most of them don’t do much in the way of constituent services or visits in the home district (other than fundraising). My point here is that we have to recognize that this is one of those instances where our institutions have been on a long downward slide and Trump 2.0 pushed them over a cliff.
Steve M also has some other ideas for mischief in that post which some of you might enjoy.
Is this a serious proposal? Of course not, but finding a way to call the question when Republicans in Congress are running away from their sworn duty is one of the challenges of the current coup.
(If you want a more serious take on preserving the Constitution, Angus King’s floor speech is pretty good.)