Today I find myself thinking about an episode of "The West Wing". Christopher Lloyd plays a fictionalized Lawrence Lessig (#lessig4scotus) who is consulting with a group of Belarusians on drafting a constitution.

The Belarusians are convinced they need a strong set of "Emergency Powers" in their constitution and Toby is trying to explain to them that is dangerous. Sure your president is a good man, "He needs strong security authority like the American president." Toby explains to them you have to draft a constitution for the guy who isn't. As April 20 approaches, we see the president using "War" powers to intern people in gulags and fuck up the global economy, I find myself thinking about how shitty our Constitution really is.

I have joked about Parliament envy. We can't ever have more than two parties in the US, because the winner take all presidency proscribes the idea of a coalition government. we have 250 years of shitty "wartime" laws and we can't just "Liz Truss" these people. We are buckled in.