By Tim Donner
It came off almost like a schoolyard taunt from a lame-duck president desperate to restore his tainted legacy. It featured vintage campaign rhetoric, but from a man whose 50-year career in politics is now all but over, expressed in a series of proposals replete with lofty ideals for radical reform that he knows will go nowhere. Indeed, in a cliché-ridden op-ed in Washington’s most prominent newspaper on July 29, followed up by a speech at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas, Joe Biden called for seismic reform: root-and-branch changes to the Supreme Court and a new constitutional amendment limiting executive authority.
If the 46th president had his way, he would end lifetime appointments to the High Court, limiting justices to 18-year terms, refresh the highest court in the land with new justices every two years, and institute a binding code of conduct. He also called for amending the constitution with what he amusingly calls the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment.” He left no doubt about his motivation when he added, “It would make clear that there is no (italics his) immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.” One would think that a career politician like Biden would have masked his Trump derangement more effectively than that.
While it is hardly worth the time to examine the specifics of Biden’s plans any further since they will serve as little more than click-bait and talking points, the emotions and strategy animating them are worthy of discussion.
First, let’s summarize the president’s agenda in plain language, shall we? Biden wants to upend the American constitutional system because he hates, fears, and envies Donald Trump.
We are already well aware of the president’s seething hatred for his predecessor and potential successor. But this op-ed revealed his........