It's No Joke

There was once a time, not so long ago, when a Supreme Court ruling meant something, when it actually carried some weight. The recent ruling by the Roberts Court against the Trump administration's efforts to include a question on citizenship in the 2020 census was the right one. Among other things, it called the administration's rationale for including the question "contrived."

What a perfect description of the Trump administration for nearly the past 3 years - contrived:

• the faux populism used to cover up the massive giveaways to the wealthiest 1 percent; 
• the righteous claims to drain the swamp in Washington, only to carry out some of the most brazen, systematic corruption we've seen since the Teapot Dome scandal a century ago; 
• the effort to bring back the coal industry as a justification for rolling back the U.S.'s incremental baby steps towards addressing global climate change; and 
• the fact-free claims of protecting national security to impose a Muslim ban.

So when the Trump administration claimed that it was adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, you just knew something stinky just had to be there, festering not too far below the surface. Sure enough, first an estranged daughter turned over her deceased father's hard drives with troves of evidence of the GOP strategy to undercount people of color in the 2020 census. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration's Cracker Jack communications team began losing message discipline with different administration officials backing different rationales. And finally, once the Supreme Court ruling was issued, there was the President himself, babbling about the need to have the question to better demarcate Congressional districts and allocate appropriations. Oopsy!

One might have reasonably thought that this palm-smacking display of incompetence and dishonesty combined with the Supreme Court ruling would have deep-sixed this poorly planned and even more poorly executed ploy. With normal presidencies, yes, but as we all know by now, the only thing normal about the Trump presidency is the setting on the White House washing machine.

Nope. The deranged day-glo orange crotch-grabber at 1600 Penn Avenue wasn't about to let the rule of law get in his way. What Donny wants, Donny gets, all the while making a public spectacle to rile up his de-based basket of deplorables. It's his census survey, by golly, and he'll put whatever dad gum question in there he wants. Why he'll even be happy to to door-to-door himself, knocking on doors while his jack-booted ICE agents go knocking a few heads in the much anticipated round up and separation of immigrant families. It all has a familiar, frightening ring to it. So if you hear a knock at your door, be careful answering it. You never know who might be on the other side...and whatever you do, DON'T ask any questions.