From the border to impeachment to the courts, gridlock reigns in Washington

The government of the most powerful country on earth is no longer functioning.

Every attempt to do just about anything ends up in flames.

This happens regularly in capital cities built on divided governments established by the Founders. But when you combine that with the highly partisan atmosphere that is currently embedded in our culture in the backdrop of an important presidential election, things start to look more dysfunctional than ever.

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Neither side trusts the other. What is most worrisome is the shifting of blame, with the opposition parties always bearing the brunt when the situation collapses.

At the same time, two major lawsuits, including one heard by the Supreme Court today, will shape the 2024 election in previously unthinkable ways.

The Trump campaign will try to convince the high court that Maine and Colorado acted illegally when they excluded the former president from their ballots. The appeals court’s decision, which must be appealed to SCOTUS by Monday, says Donald Trump cannot escape prosecution with unlimited immunity, especially after he leaves office.

Who would have imagined that such a battle would take place for the first time in American history? Again, the former president has never been charged with criminal wrongdoing in four separate indictments. And there’s an added twist that analysts agree the accusations have boosted Trump’s campaign among the majority of Republicans who see him as being unfairly persecuted. .

The long-running battle over the southern border is similarly polarized. There is no doubt that this is a major responsibility for President Biden, who has failed to stop the record influx of illegal immigrants for more than three years.

It’s hard to understand why he hasn’t done more about an issue that even big-city Democratic mayors say is harmful. After all, this is the key issue that helped propel Trump to victory in 2016.

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So both parties, at least in the Senate, did their best to put together a resolution.

After four long months, they finally settled on a compromise that included asylum, parole, and other thorny issues. Biden made more concessions than most expected, including the power to close the border if more than 5,000 people enter the country illegally in a day (although this still appears to be quite a lot). Border Patrol unions also supported the measure, as did the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

And it’s not just immigrants who are at risk. Foreign policy had to be incorporated into the cake. The president saw the move as a tradeoff against border security jeopardizing the long-stalled military aid to Israel and Ukraine.

(John Moore/Getty Images)

But Trump, the undisputed leader of the party, opposed the bill, saying it would be a death sentence for Republicans and urging it to be delayed until he takes office. President Trump invited them to “blame me.” Biden said his opponent probably wants campaign issues more than solutions.

Once the bill’s text was released, Republicans began abandoning it en masse. There was little question that Trump was the driving force behind it. He is the undisputed leader of the party and is on the verge of being nominated.

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It all ended when Mitch McConnell, a strong supporter of U.S. aid to Ukraine, admitted that the bill could not pass. Ted Cruz called for McConnell to be ousted as minority leader.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been in office for a few months, does not want aid to Ukraine, but has introduced his own measure on the floor that would provide billions of dollars to Israel. It failed by a wide margin. Now there are rumors that Johnson may suffer the same fate as Kevin McCarthy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) criticized the Senate’s bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid package after the deal was released. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Additionally, Johnson has revived efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This is the first attempt to expel a cabinet minister in 150 years. Both the media and the people on The Hill thought it would be a huge success.

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But the effort failed by a two-vote margin, with three Republican opponents arguing that it would be unfair to impeach Mayorkas for carrying out Biden’s policies. In other words, even the scapegoat exercise failed. He would not have been convicted by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

There is a long way to go between now and November, both in Congress and in the courts. But now Washington is paralyzed.