DICTATORSHIP [View all]

[Laelth]

Mark your calendar. This day, August 7, 2020, the 233-year-old republic known as the United States of America ceased to be a republic and transformed into a dictatorship.

OK. Perhaps that’s a little hyperbolic. Perhaps I am over-reacting. If so, please talk me down, but I see what I see, and it’s not good.

Using the breakdown in negotiations over a stimulus package as his excuse, President Trump has declared that he must AND WILL govern by executive order (fiat) in order to address the multiple emergencies that this nation now faces. My position is that he can actually do it if he has the backing of his cabinet and the Republican Party. I suspect he will try.

What happens if Trump orders Secretary Mnuchin to issue stimulus checks to the American people. Mnuchin has the power to do it. He’s the Secretary of the Treasury. That’s where all the stimulus money originates. If he does what he is told, Congress’ power over the purse will be cut. If he refuses on the basis that the President lacks the power to appropriate money, he could save the republic. Which way do you think Mnuchin is going to go? If he follows the President’s orders, we will be living in a dictatorship. Who needs Congress if the President can control the nation’s purse?

John Woo has been telling the President that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on DACA gives the President the right to craft law by executive order. Naturally, this is exactly what Trump wants to hear. Who needs Congress if the President can write laws? Trump declared today that he intended to address multiple, national emergencies via executive order. If his agents (members of the executive branch of the federal government) carry out those orders, which they might, without regard to Congress, then we will be living in a dictatorship. All the incentives for cabinet ministers, upper-level (political) bureaucrats, and Republicans, in general, favor backing and implementing executive orders that distribute stimulus money, extend housing moratoriums, provide supplemental unemployment insurance, and defer student loans.

Trump, it appears, intends to govern by fiat. He intends to blame recalcitrant Democrats for “forcing” him to do so. If his executive branch officials and the Republican Party (generally) back him in this dramatic seizure of power, I can not see what we could do to stop it.

I quote Benjamin Franklin. “Congratulations! It’s a republic, if you can keep it.” I suppose 233 years isn’t bad.



-Laelth