The legal mechanisms for acting out authoritarian political controls over government are disgusting. The game of tribal politics makes me want to vomit. Donald Trump declares a national emergency in order to circumvent representative government. Now, on the other side, Democrats want to use congressional mechanisms to implement what they are calling a “slow-bleed strategy” to put Trump on public trial in the House for months. It’s an authoritarian strategy aimed at bogging down the executive branch and drawing attention away from Trump’s policies in order to air out everything they can and do their best to portray him as a criminal.
The plan is to use a series of House congressional mechanisms that can force the President to attend public hearings on matters of the Democrats’ choosing. They believe they have enough such hearings available to last many months, the goal being to turn public opinion against Trump and bog down his ability to implement and voice his policies. They believe the media will squelch Trump’s voice, as well as the Republicans’, and overwhelm their efforts to speak to the electorate.
Regardless of what one thinks about Trump and his policies, these sorts of tactics demonstrate all that is wrong with political games and the current state of government. Trump’s policies should stand trial in the court of public opinion, but not in an orchestrated way to circumvent the normal processes of the checks and balances intended by the Constitution of the United States. Criticizing policy is one thing, but purposefully bogging down the executive in a big circus intended not to debate policy but to assassinate character, create artificial criminal proceedings, and generally practice political tribalism is just plain wrong. Time would be so far better served carrying out the business of reducing the burdens of government on humanity rather than using it to strengthen political power.
Trump using a declaration of emergency to build a costly and ineffective wall is an affront to the intended checks and balances of the US government, and so is this planned masquerade of a “slow-bleed.” Two wrongs don’t make a right, and in my opinion, the Democratic strategy is no less an authoritarian play on the system than Trump’s call for an emergency.
Only in one sense is this a good thing: It will probably exasperate the voting public even further in seeing just how bad the political duopoly has become in the US. Perhaps a larger portion of the public will get fed up enough to just opt out of all this absurdity.
Here we have two wonderful examples of both major political parties using loopholes and underhanded tactics to achieve consolidation in authoritarian control. Disagreement amongst representatives is the purpose of the processes of our constitutional order. The problem here is that these people just have entirely too much power.
Let’s all get fed up and leave this duopoly behind in order to demand that representatives strive to reduce their own powers. It’s a tall order to get people to serve against their own interests, but where there are enough people demanding it, there is less room to circumvent public insistence. One thing these politicians still desire over serving their own interests is staying in office. We just need more people willing to demand they do what we want, or fire them. We need a lot more people who demand representatives in government stop serving party over principle. It might sound like a dream, but if enough people share it, it can happen.
Danny Chabino
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