Virginia Heffernan: It's not Ft. Sumter yet, but Trumpian snidery is tipping us into a constitutional crisis
What is a constitutional crisis?
At its most elementary, it's a government emergency in which some of a nation's citizens - generally with political power, an arsenal, or both - decide that the republic's fundamental principles are not binding on them. They're above the law.
Bent on nullification, anarchy or megalomania, the group resolves that, damn the torpedoes, they're going to defy the mechanisms that limit power in government.
These mechanisms, of course, are designed to protect the citizenry against tyranny and chaos.
A constitutional
