This is the Tom Hartman program.

Well, happy impeachment day.

It's also Citizens United day.

This is today is the 10th anniversary of Citizens United and it's the day that the trial of Donald Trump starts in the Senate.

And I see a very clear connection between the two, because Citizens United and the two Supreme Court decisions that preceded at Buckley and

Bilotti those decisions 76 78 and 2010 basically completely transformed the Republican Party

into a complete shill party. I don't know how to describe beyond that. This shills for billionaires, shills for big

corporations. The Republican Party bought and sold as a result of the Supreme Court

legalizing that kind of behavior.

But let's talk about the impeachment.

While Donald Trump is on trial in the Senate,

many commentators are pointing out that the Senate is also at trial, but not a lot of people are

pointing out that democracy is on trial.

The American Republic is on trial.

The Constitution is on trial.

The idea of constitutionally limited separation. the Constitution

limited separations of power is on trial here.

The executive branch, the president and the legislative branch, Congress, are supposed to operate

as two separate spheres.

And when Mitch McConnell comes out and says, well, I'm working closely with the president and

we're going to basically rig this trial.

That's insanely destructive to democracy.

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