This is actually a very, VERY interesting and important event.
The governments of the European states and Russia claim sovereignty - absolute, total sovereignty - for their parliaments or assemblies by descent from monarchs. Their powers are taken or assumed, not granted by a sovereign people. China and Iran, of course, claim sovereignty for the revolutionary vanguard representing either the working class or Shia Islam.
It is no surprise, therefore, that those governments would recoil in horror from the representatives of the People of the United States in Congress assembled. Even worse is the idea that those representatives only wield the power granted to them by the States, or the People, who have retained substantial powers.
This is why, of course, 2/3 of the Senate (and not the House) must ratify a treaty - because any treaty with a foreign power implicates the sovereignty of the 50 states, whose ambassadors sit in the Senate.
The first job of a would-be despot in America is, therefore, to neutralize Congress (not hard with Boehner and McConnell, of course).
But the real power to ratify treaties still belongs to the States (as represented), and the real power to legislate still belongs to the People (as represented). This is incomprehensible to Europe, Russia, and China, so they are pleased to collaborate with “Obama” in his pretense of a unitary government in America, with himself as (temporary) sovereign.
Vote for fast track on Obama trade but tell your constituents that you are opposed to it because you voted no on final passage.
Vote to turn advise and consent of the Senate on its head for the Iranian deal and tell your constituents that you are against it because you voted no on final passage.
How many times will Rino legislators get away with this ploy?
Every time, evidently.
