This is far from a novel thought. But it’s a timely one. We’re used to people who seem to think the 2nd Amendment is the whole Constitution. Others put the overriding focus on the 1st Amendment. But the one that deserves that focus is the 14th Amendment, the amendment which along with the groundbreaking but more straightforward 13th and 15th Amendments remakes the entire constitutional order. I remember in the late 1980s, I believe it was timed to the bicentennial of the federal constitution, then-Justice Thurgood Marshall gave a speech in which he argued that the original, pre-Civil War Constitution was a defective and even shameful instrument. It had, he argued, no claim on our respect or veneration. It’s only with the new founding in the post-Civil War settlement that we have a founding document that has a claim on our allegiance.

I had an interesting exchange with a TPM reader this week about President Trump’s takeover of the DC Metro Police Department and his conjoined decision to deploy National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. This reader’s argument was that it was a mistake to make a big deal of the DC decision, casting it as a dramatic and consequential abuse of power, because in fact Trump was acting within the statute that gives DC home rule. He said that what happened in Los Angeles this summer was different precisely because Trump had no legal right to do any of it. The reality — and this is true — is that DC is different. It’s not a state and it is in fact the domain of the federal government. Congress runs it. Congress decided to delegate that authority half a century ago to a local self-government. But the president can do these things. It’s right there in the Home Rule law. His justifications may be specious. But his actions in this case are likely unreviewable.

It was an interesting point and we went back and forth over it a few times. The opposition should save its mobilization and outrage, the reader argued, for when Trump crosses a line as he did in LA. DC is different.

A reminder: The Josh Marshall Podcast featuring Kate Riga is back next Wednesday, August 20th, and back to our normal weekly schedule going forward.

As you can see we hit our goal of raising $500,000 during this year’s drive. The drive will continue until later in the month. So if you didn’t get a chance to contribute, by all means the door remains very wide open. We can always put more dollars to good use. But $500,000 was the goal because that’s the number we need/needed to make good on our plans. So we’ll ramp back the reminders and pleas and so forth. We hit the finish line we needed to hit. We’re all set.

I’m writing this to thank you. One of our challenges running TPM is not treating things as routine even as they become in some sense factually routine. Our audience, you, just contributed half a million dollars in four weeks simply because we asked and said we would put it to good use. That’s amazing. And you’ve had our back, caught us in this organizational trust fall every time we’ve done this, which now goes back five years. It’s a testament to the trust you put in our team and the quality you see in their work. I’m thankful to them for doing that work. I’m thankful to you for recognizing it, for valuing it. This organization, this community has an extraordinary commerce in dedication and trust, passing those back and forth between the people who write the articles and those who read them. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be associated with all of it. Truly.

I’m mildly fascinated by this piece in New York Magazine’s Intelligencer section. It’s the review of a new biography of Andrew, Duke of York, by a guy named Andrew Lownie. (The piece appears to be free for a limited time.) What sparked my interest is the major if not central role of Ghislaine Maxwell and thus Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, the upshot of the whole thing is to make Maxwell much more central and dominating figure in the Epstein story than perhaps even Epstein himself, certainly in Andrew’s life and perhaps in Epstein’s as well.

At one level I could not care less about any of these people. As I’ve noted in my other Epstein posts, I’m interested in the story because of the way other people are interested in it — lots of people — and how that interest both intersects with our politics and in some material ways explains our politics.

Our drive is currently at $499,844. The assist is in motion. Come in for the slam dunk. Click here.

After Friday and Monday’s Backchannels, full of the ominous progress of the Trump White House, we can see again today the dual nature of Trumpism, both predatory and absurd, methodical and feckless. The key to grappling with Trumpism is recognizing that both are simultaneously true and neither reality invalidates the other. Trump’s federalization of the DC Metro police is a case in point. The President can take control of the DC police for up to 48 hours. With notification of relevant committees of Congress, the president can maintain that control for an additional 30 days. After that he requires Congress’s authorization to continue to control the DC police.

Can Trump clean up the DC crime hellscape in 32 days? It seems unlikely. Will Congress allow him to continue past 32 days? Possibly. But by no means certainly. Trump’s margins remain razor thin and it’s the kind of issue where at least a few Republicans might refuse. Will the President remained focused on becoming the DC police chief and mayor or will the whole effort go by the wayside? Was any of it more than an excuse for a news-cycle-driving press conference?

Today marks four weeks since we kicked off this year’s annual TPM Journalism Fund drive. You can help us meet our goal today. We’re currently at $483,504, just under $17,000 short of our goal of raising $500,000. Want to help push us over the top? Just click right here.

President Trump’s decision today to federalize the DC police and deploy National Guard troops to the city is a good reminder of the importance of what we discussed Friday: the necessity for the political opposition to narrate Trump’s abuses of power and the contents of the U.S. Constitution, to be crystal clear on what will be reversed when Democrats are back in control of the government and how they’ll provide civil and criminal accountability for those who have broken the law. It makes it even more relevant to review and remember the critical importance of the consent of the governed.

It’s part of American civic culture to marvel at the process of the peaceful transfer of power. We hold an election under a specific set of rules. The winners of those elections inherit a vast array of powers. The president gains control of the military and a vast federal bureaucracy. The president has a huge array of prerogative powers. What he or she says goes, in specific realms. Legislators make new laws. Judges make rulings on imprisonment, people’s redress of harms, etc. etc. The marvel is that a whole population of more than 340 million people freely accede to this power. We have ordinary criminal conduct which is policed and punished. But focus in on the fact of that free compliance. The vast majority of us never come into real contact with the coercive power of the state. And yet virtually everyone, even the most diehard opponents of this administration, recognize that this president has a whole bundle of legitimate powers and we will comply with them.

Why is this?

I want to let everyone know that The Josh Marshall Podcast will be returning on August 20th, back to our regular weekly schedule and excited to be back.