Pro forma. Good order. Rules. Procedures. To which Trump and Musk and the rest respond with a derisive laugh before jumping in their steamrollers.
One setting that has sort of survived this scorched earth mentality is the confirmation hearings for the cast of characters who are either already running departments or soon will be. Of course, these drip with partisanship and a certain inevitability, the Dems often talking to the hand while railing against the craven incompetence and danger posed by Vought and Patel and RFK, Jr., etc., and the Republicans finding the picks “refreshing” and “what the country needs right now.”
It most often ends up looking and feeling like a foregone conclusion, a formality, the panels of Senators and House members merely playing their parts, all leading to votes along party lines. So, a more ornate and elaborate steamrolling.
Imagine how unsavory Matt Gaetz must have been to have not survived the process!
3 Cents' 