Calvinball

In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, there's a game called Calvinball. The only rule is that the person with the ball makes up new rules as they go. Whatever helps them win becomes the rule. That's American politics now. Democrats follow the rules. Republicans change them whenever they want. And Democrats keep losing because they're playing a game that no longer exists.

Let's start with the Supreme Court. When Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, President Obama picked Merrick Garland on March 16. That was 237 days before the election. Mitch McConnell said no. His reason was "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice" (Hulse, 2020). He claimed there was a rule: no Supreme Court picks in an election year. Republicans refused to even hold a hearing. For 293 days.

Four years later, Justice Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020. That was 46 days before the election. McConnell rushed through Amy Coney Barrett in eight days before the election (Fandos, 2020). Suddenly the "rule" vanished. Remember Lindsey Graham. In 2016, he literally said "use my words against me" if Republicans ever did this. Then he voted for Barrett anyway (Montanaro, 2020).

Wisconsin, 2018. Democrats won every statewide race. Before the new governor took office, Republicans called a lame duck session. In 22 hours, they stripped the incoming Democratic governor of his powers (Stern, 2019). The Assembly Speaker admitted it plainly: "We are going to have a very liberal governor who is going to enact policies that are in direct contrast to what many of us believe in" (Stern, 2019). Translation: Democrats won, so we're changing the rules.

Money tells the same story. During Obama's presidency, McConnell called the deficit "the transcendent issue of our era" (Bolton, 2013). Obama inherited a $1.4 trillion deficit. He cut it to $665 billion (Treasury Department, 2013). Then Republicans took over in 2017. First thing they did was pass a tax cut that added $1.9 trillion to the debt (Tax Policy Center, 2024). Trump added $7.8 trillion to the debt in just four years (CRFB, 2024). When Biden was president the deficits mattered again.

Impeachment standards shift the same way. Republicans impeached Clinton for lying about sex. Lindsey Graham said using your office "in a way that hurts people" was enough to remove a president (Evon, 2019). Then Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden. He incited January 6th. Graham called both impeachments a "sad, ridiculous sham" (Williams, 2019). Lying about sex was impeachable. Trying to overthrow an election was presidential privilege.

Mail voting might be the most brazen flip. Florida Republicans invented modern mail voting. In 1988, Connie Mack won a Senate race because absentee ballots went 3-to-1 for him (Gardner & Dawsey, 2021). For thirty years, Republicans made mail voting easier. Then Trump lost. Suddenly: "Republicans: BAN MAIL-IN VOTING!!!" (Rodriguez, 2025). Since 2020, 21 states have passed 33 laws making it harder to vote by mail (Brennan Center for Justice, 2024).

Texas showed us how creative they can get. Their 2021 abortion law lets any random person sue anyone who helps with an abortion for $10,000 plus legal fees (Texas Legislature, 2021). This structure meant courts couldn't block the law since there's no officials to stop it. Even when judges said it was unconstitutional, clinics stayed closed. The law says if you provide abortions while fighting in court and lose later, you owe money for every procedure (Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson, 2021). Oklahoma and Idaho copied this trick.

Republicans have a significant advantage: it's easier to destroy existing structures than build new ones.

by Christopher Armitage, The Existential Republic | Read more:
Image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Politico
[ed. Sorry for another political post. Everything's going to hell so fast, sometimes it's hard to connect the dots (especially when you don't pay much attention or get most of your news from tv - especially Fox). When history gets written and we finally know how this all goes down I hope those complicit are forever remembered and shamed for their role in destroying this country's potential (and looting its riches). But if history is any guide, they won't be.]

Fascism is a cancer of the body politic. The ideas that form its foundation as a philosophy are there in every society, and each culture manages them the way most bodies contain pre-cancerous cells that will never metastasize because the body is healthy enough to maintain itself despite its underlying flaws. The far more interesting question than “who”, for me, is “what”? What are the conditions and triggers that cause the cancer of fascism to overwhelm the counterbalancing philosophies. To fester, grow, and ultimately become terminal to a healthy society.