Hello and happy Tuesday. 125 days until the election and we are scared.

I call this the “Humpty Dumpty” version because the debate and the recent Supreme Court decision have shattered our democracy and left us with the big question: can we ever build it again?

Guys, I'm here to be your beacon of hope, of sorts. Grab your glue and let's get started.

The King Makes No Mistakes

You've probably already heard that the Supreme Court ruled in President Trump's immunity case. How bad is that really?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, coming on as the new RBG, wrote the lead dissent, and my goodness, the woman is furious. There's not much I can add that she didn't say.

“The President will have immunity from prosecution for any exercise of public power for any purpose, even the most corrupt. This sounds good, but it's really bad,” she wrote.

And, “In all exercises of civil power, the President is now a king above the law.”

But there's more:

“Today's decision to grant immunity to a former president is a sea change for the presidency. It makes a mockery of the fundamental principle underlying our Constitution and political system: that no man is above the law.”

Ashish BhagwatThe University of California, Davis professor and constitutional law expert told me that none of that is an exaggeration: The presidency has now been weaponized for personal use — so long as the president can claim any official connection.

He invoked Trump's famous line: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters, OK?”

“After this decision, if he implements it, he will be in trouble,” Bhagwat said. “But if he orders the army to do it, he will be exonerated.”

Kings Make No Mistakes: Part II

If that doesn't scare you yet, let me tell you about another Supreme Court decision from last week, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

For 40 years, case law has largely given federal agencies the power to decide how best to regulate industries that are reluctant to regulate but that Congress has ordered them to oversee.

The Supreme Court overturned that precedent, saying that unless Congress spells out in minute detail what constitutes, for example, contamination of a water source, the agencies in question cannot decide on their own.

Essentially, the bill would gut federal regulation entirely and leave it up to court interpretation — a long-held dream of ultra-conservatives closely associated with Trump.Project 2025 He threatened to fire civil servants if elected.

That means little things like how Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs are run, how clean air and water regulations are enforced, how tobacco sales are regulated — all of these little things are up for debate, and if the industry doesn't like it, it just needs to find a judge who thinks like it.

A president who can do whatever he wants and new powers for corporations to do whatever they want. What could go wrong?

Bhagwat said he was not as worried as I am as the courts are good at taking note of such issues.

But he has a bigger concern: Over the past decade, he says, there has been a series of court decisions that have given the executive branch more power over the federal bureaucracy.

Combine this increased power with today's immunity ruling, plus Trump's promised purge of civil servants if elected (the last line of defense for anyone who debates with him), and we are a democracy in name only.

A national nervous breakdown

Hence the argument for what some call a national nervous breakdown. Watching Biden stumble and fumble was not only painful, but also traumatizing to the soul of all of us who love democracy. If we can't have clean water, can't we at least replace fluoride with Prozac?

Not surprisingly, Biden's dismal performance has led to constant calls for him to step aside and let another candidate take over. What's a little humorous about this is that Vice President Kamala Harris' name is only around fifth on most people's list of potential replacements, even though she's clearly the runner-up and is polling as well or better than the other candidates. More on this below.

And yet there are about 30 billion articles speculating on who might replace him: Michelle Obama, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer, and so on.

Biden's Weekend

But I want to tell you, Joe is not going to resign. Of course, I'm often wrong, and I may be wrong again. But there are some hard facts that point to him remaining as a candidate.

First of all, he said it. Even Trump understands it.

“If he doesn't want to get out, there's nothing they can do,” Trump said.

Secondly, no one else is doing better in the polls.

Third: Joe still has a chance to win, just like he did before the debate debacle.

At this point, you’re all probably shaking your head and thinking I’m an idiot, and I’m not arguing that I’m not, but let me ask you this: If you had to vote today, who would you vote for?

The truth is, the Democratic base, like the Trump base, is solidified. We know Joe is too old. We know he's not at his best. We wish he'd stepped down sooner. But Biden voters aren't suddenly going to go all Trump and decide to waste their vote on some dim-witted Robert Kennedy Jr.

Professor Bhagwat told me: “I agree with the majority of Americans that it is problematic to have a president who will be 86 when he leaves office.”

But when I asked him if he would still vote for Biden,

“Oh, sure,” he said. “Sure.”

The Royal Decision will only strengthen the resolve of sane people to vote for democracy at all costs.

That leaves us with exactly the same situation we had before the debate: All the decisions will be made by low-information voters (not stupid, just the political term for not paying attention) in battleground states who will get snippets of news on TikTok and Instagram, but likely won't make their actual decisions for months.

And that's still a long way off.

Once the Democrats finish their very understandable but pointless panic, they will have time to turn voters' attention to what Donald I will do.

Biden tried to do just that in his short but coherent remarks on Monday. No, he didn't wow us. But what he said made sense. It's an improvement.

He began by warning that the ruling sets a “dangerous precedent,” and concluded with, “May God help us protect our democracy.”

Guys, in this example, God is your cousin Eddie in Detroit.

No, I don't love Biden as a candidate, I respect his service to this country, and he's done a great job as President, but if I have to vote for Doddering Joe to protect the country I love, then so be it.

He's the last of the old guys, and if we can hold this place until 2028, I promise you, we'll have all the young candidates you want.

On the other hand, he may be arrogant, but he also has integrity. That's the era we live in.

So that's the little ray of hope I offer you: in the form of old people, who have their good days and their bad days, democracy still has a chance.

Must Read: Justice Sotomayor's dissenting opinion: “The President is now king above the law”
Victory for the Outcast: California blocks proposed CLEAR regulation at airports over loophole
LA Times SpecialGovernor Newsom and Democratic lawmakers unveil ballot measures to counter more conservative crime reforms

Stay golden,
Anita Chhabria

P.S. It's true that she faces racism. It's true that she faces misogyny. But there's also something unpleasant about Kamala Harris. Check out this BET Awards scene for proof.

You can watch it here.

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