While a nominee to the Supreme Court who could have a profound effect on what's left of American democracy skates by across the capital, we are forced to contend with The Anonymous Op-Ed. Some self-styled hero in the Trump administration penned a screed for The New York Times Wednesday suggesting they were part of a group inside the White House working to defend the nation against Donald Trump, American president. These unelected figures are doing this by...disregarding orders and instructions from the elected president. The author cast this as a solemn duty that separated him or her—a Good Republican who likes the president's policies but not how he behaves—from the president's authoritarian apparatchiks.

It's all nauseatingly absurd for a number of reasons, not least that the president is a natural endpoint for a Republican Party that has been sliding deeper into unreason, anarcho-capitalism, anti-democratic electioneering, and race-baiting for decades. Among all those Trumpian deficiencies, for instance, the Op-Ed Hero did not identify Trump's obvious public racism as a foible. This Good Republican has no pressing problem with that, or the way Trump's racist propaganda has translated into dangerous public policy.

But as former Secretary of State John Kerry illustrated as he made the rounds for a book tour last night, the op-ed—and other recent revelations about how White House officials are stealing things off the president's desk to prevent catastrophes—has more immediate and profound implications for American democracy.

Simply put, we've already entered a "constitutional crisis":

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Former Obama Secretary of State @JohnKerry: “We have a presidency which is off the rails… we have a President who is not capable of doing the job… doesn't know enough to be making many of the decisions he makes… This is a genuine constitutional crisis.” https://t.co/Yjemd6ehXX pic.twitter.com/plyYtLSNXb — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 6, 2018

This throws the absurdity of the op-ed's logic into sharp relief:

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

As some have pointed out already, it's not a "constitutional crisis" to use a provision of the Constitution—the 25th Amendment—to remedy a grave threat to the nation. What is a constitutional crisis is essentially having an absentee president who does not fulfill the duties of his office, leaving a void for unelected and faceless officials to make national policy without accountability. The person who wrote this is not a hero, they're a coward who wants to get another job in conservative politics when this whole thing blows over. In the meantime, they want to roll back regulations on their friends in, say, the coal industry.

AlexanderRamjing.com Getty Images

Even more to the point, Kerry zeroed in on the complete capitulation of Congress here. The Republican majorities have chosen greed, power, and cowardice over fulfilling their constitutional obligation to provide oversight and a check on the Executive Branch as a co-equal branch of government. Where are the hearings into the rampant corruption in the Trump administration? Where are the hearings, even into the basic question who the hell is really making policy in the White House now?

Instead, the best we can hope for is members headed for retirement simply admitting there is a problem:

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Senator Corker on the wild NYT Op-Ed: "This is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one... I understand this is the case and that’s why I think all of us encourage the good people around the President to stay. I thank General Mattis whenever I see him..." — Alan He (@alanhe) September 5, 2018

Bob Corker is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Perhaps he could look into who's making foreign policy, considering the president clearly spends a good deal of his time watching Fox News in his bedroom and, when he emerges, ranting about whatever Tucker Carlson had to say last night about South African farmers? He spent the morning crowing about how the North Korean dictator has "unwavering faith" in him. It seems like it might be in the public interest to look into all this, and Corker is—at least until he hightails it out of town immediately after having identified a grave threat to the country he loves—a public servant.

Meanwhile, the Vice President of the United States has issued a statement—through his office—denying that he wrote an anonymous op-ed suggesting his former running mate is nuts and they're trying to take the wheel from him.

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The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts. — Katie Miller (@VPComDir) September 6, 2018

This was in part a response to Internet Sleuths who obsessed over the choice of the word "lodestar" in the op-ed, which Pence has apparently used a handful of times in prior speeches. As all this was happening, Brett Kavanaugh was refusing to answer a question from Senator Kamala Harris about whether he'd discussed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe with anyone at the law firm founded by President Trump's personal lawyer. Kavanaugh may be asked to rule on aspects of the probe—including whether Trump can be subpoenaed to testify—if he takes a seat on the Supreme Court. But wait! Look over here! Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also denies writing The Mysterious Op-Ed.

None of these people will be flattered by their entries in the history books, assuming we make it that far. That includes whichever self-aggrandizing careerist wrote the thing, who we can safely assume will pop up un-anonymous in a year to announce It Was Me, and I'd Like a Book Deal Now Thank You. The president's staff, cabinet, vice president, congressional allies, and anyone else without Fox News poisoning knows that he isn't fit for the job and is doing serious damage to the country every minute he holds the office. None of them have done a damn thing, except those who have worked to prolong and deepen the crisis.

At root, the op-ed admits—just as Steve Bannon did during the election—that those around him have used Trump as a battering ram to unleash a racist, undemocratic anarcho-capitalist paradigm on the country, while the man himself obsessively hunts for headlines and cable-news chyrons featuring his name. It is a consummate national disgrace, and no one involved—even self-styled silent guardians—deserves an ounce of respect or admiration. More to the point, unless we grapple with the fact that the policies of Trump's presidency are exactly what the Republican Party has long sought, there will be no redemption for the nation, or an end to the crisis of democratic self-government in which we are now so firmly entrenched.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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