1941

 No shit, Sherlock.

That leaves the courts. Perhaps more than a lot of fellow travelers, I think the courts will push back against a *lot* of what Trump is doing. But there are limits, sounding both in judicial capacity and in malicious conduct that isn't actually unlawful. 

The *real* sin is congressional abdication.

I am bemused by the takes on Twitter and BlueSky that Democrats and/or Congress should have “done something” by now.

Trump’s been in office, what, not even two weeks now? 

Last time I can remember (and only from history, not from lived memory) Congress moving rapidly was when they declared war on Japan: December 8, 1941. It took 3 more days to add Germany.

Bad as Trump U.S., he’s not Imperial Japan attacking the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor. And I’m not being glib when I say that.

The Constitution is written, as its first seven words provide, on behalf of "we the people of the United States." 

The people are sovereign. We elect 537 representatives to exercise our sovereignty in the federal government. The President is the most powerful of them, but he's not sovereign himself.

"The people are sovereign.” Not Trump. Not the GOP. Not even Congress. They work for us.

Trump is precisely what a POTUS shouldn’t be. Much of the power he’s exercising was given to the office by Congress (tariffs; during non-Civil Service employees). Much of it he’s just grabbing. Congress can restrain him, can tie his hands. Impeachment is not the answer (it never will be; history teaches us that, too). Legislation and overriding vetoes is. Congress alone has the authority to act, to restrain a mad king POTUS. We, the people, alone have the power to force Congress to act. Even if it means waiting until the mid-terms.

The whole point of the concept of “sin” is that it is behavior that is intolerable, behavior the community, the society, will not abide. If Congressional abdication of responsibility and authority is a sin, it is up to we, the people, to respond to it, to resist it, to correct it. History tells us that Congress moves when outside forces motivate it.

So what are we, the people, going to do about it? It won’t be immediate. It won’t be sudden. It won’t be thoroughly decisive.

But WWII wasn’t over by Xmas, 1941, either.