I’m very glad Donald Trump won the Presidency and so far, I can’t find much not to like with his administration. There is one thing that gives me pause though:
The Executive Orders.
For those of us on the right, contrary to popular leftist belief, our key complaint against Obama wasn’t his birth certificate – we never were with Her on that. We were more concerned with things like Obama’s rule by decree. We were right when we said Obama was wrong to bypass Congress with his Executive Orders. Are Donald Trump’s Executive Orders any different?
The natural temptation is to go through Trump’s orders, and identify which if any pertain exclusively to the Executive Branch. The case can be made that orders falling solely within the scope of Executive Departments or Agencies needn’t involve Congress. I’ll leave it up to others to determine which orders pertain to what. In any event, Trump’s Executive Orders carry the same fatal flaw found in Obama’s.
Whether in 2020, 2024, 2028, or whenever, chances are someone to the left of Trump will eventually be elected President. All it would take do wipe out the Trump agenda would be a President with a pen. That should bother everyone left and right of center.
If we have entered an era in which government is no longer dependent upon the legislative process but rather is implemented by Presidential order, then we’ve slipped away from the Republican form of government defined by our Constitution. Slipped into what I’m not sure but I’m absolutely sure it isn’t a good place. Not when a strong Executive Branch isn’t checked and balanced.
The best thing President Trump could do to repair our political dysfunction would be to seek Congressional legislation that would codify his Executive Orders as laws. Added benefit: a future Democratic President wouldn’t be able to change such laws without the help of a future Congress.
Image: Von Michael Vadon – Eigenes Werk, CC-BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42907051
