Lost in the circus maximus of Donald Trump’s Candidacy for President of the United States—it’s still impossible to write that and not believe that I’m living in an X-Men comic from the eighties, with a demagogue candidate running for president on an anti-mutant platform.  And, me not buying the story because it’s not believable.  Our politics has moved beyond basic verisimilitude.

Lost in all this, is that Trump’s candidacy is an ideal vehicle for certain elements of the Republican Party to complete their decades-long project of destroying the federal government. Grover Norquist once famously said that he wanted to shrink the federal government to a size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. That hasn’t happened, but that which can’t be made smaller, can be broken beyond repair.

We take our institutions of government for granted.  No matter how much we gripe about them or laugh at comedians who ridicule them, through war and peace, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches have continued doing the nation’s business.

Until recently.  It’s well documented that the Republicans have broken the legislative branch, and I’ll probably do a longer post on this. The House is run by a so-called “Freedom caucus” that’s only agenda is to stop the government from functioning.

Breaking the senate required a series of maneuvers.  The senate only functions with the unanimous consent of its members. Legislation only moves forward without the objection of a single senator. When you read accounts of how the senate worked in the twentieth century, it’s remarkable that senators from both parties routinely provided unanimous consent to allow legislation that they opposed to move to the floor. It was a professional courtesy and an acknowledgement that the senate can’t function otherwise.

Republicans, desperate to stop Obama, abandoned unanimous consent without regard to the harm it would do to the institution of the senate.

This year, the GOP broke the Supreme Court. This week, the court declined to hear an important case that involved contraception under Obamacare. They sent it back to the lower courts because there was no point in a 4-4 divided court hearing the case. Expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing.

We will have a full year without a functioning Supreme Court.  Gee, what happens if this year’s presidential election ends up in front of the court?  Like Bush v Gore did?  Unlikely, but not impossible. What happens then?

It’s likely that Hillary wins the presidency and the Republicans narrowly retain the senate. Scalia’s seat needs to be filled. And we will enter the next four years with three justices over eighty-years old. At least one and probably more will need to be replaced. But, why would a Republican congress approve any justice that Hillary proposes?  What stops them from just refusing to approve or even meet with anyone she nominates? Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kennedy will likely have to stay on the job until they expire. Think William O. Douglas post-stroke being wheeled into the chamber.

So, legislative branch:  wrecked. Judicial branch: wreckage in process.

Executive branch:  Mr. Trump, enter, stage right.