President Donald Trump is unleashing a flurry of public policy shifts with his liberal use of Executive Orders and other Presidential powers. Given Trump’s heavy criticism of President Obama for “governing by Executive Order,” he is both guilty of Presidential overreach and hypocrisy. What Obama did and what Trump is doing, however, is nothing new. Presidents have long utilized Executive powers to intentionally circumvent the legislative process and the direct input of Congress, which has weakened the influence of Congress and strengthened the influence of the Executive Branch. The fear is, of course, that expanded Presidential powers make it far easier for an authoritarian regime to take root. On the other hand, there is a very compelling reason most Presidents have unilaterally expanded their own authority or sought added authority from a willing Congress.
Where President Obama faced unprecedented obstructionism from Republicans, President Trump faces unprecedented obstructionism from Democrats. Although this escalating cycle of bipartisan obstructionism defines a new era of extreme dysfunction for democratic governance, it is precisely the inability of Congress to respond to issues within a timely manner with effective legislation that pushed Congress to cede its own power to the President. The responsibility of the Executive Branch is to execute the will of Congress and the responsibility of the President is to be the top representative for all Americans. It is the President’s job to serve the interests of US citizens; whereas, members of Congress have the responsibility to represent the interests of their own constituents when crafting public policies for the good of the whole country. Because members of Congress became too interested in bending the legislative process to serve their constituents, i.e. pork, Congress steadily lost the ability to function and had to rely on the President to act.
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Democrats are poised to follow in the footsteps of their Republican colleagues as obstructionists. Where Congressional Republicans hampered President Obama's efforts to initiative change on key issues, Democrats will seek to deny President Trump, who also faces Republican opposition on numerous issues, any successes. They intend to prevent him from implementing his preferred policies. In turn, a vast network of political groups will guarantee the Trump A ministration, as well as Trump and his associates as individuals, will face crippling legal challenges to any and all questionable policies he adopts. Given the success of Republican obstructionism in terms of electoral and legislative victories, along with the often populous-oriented policies of Democrats, Democrats are likely to make Donald Trump a lame-duck President from the start.
Regrettably, the Democrats are perpetuating the dysfunctional governance that Republicans embraced in pursuit of their own power and agenda, which is transforming the US government into a bad example of how a country should be governed. Libertarian-leaning individuals may prefer divided and frozen government, but they will soon realize their dream come true is a nightmare. Broken government is not proper government. With that in mind, it is helpful to recognize that the obstructionist agendas of both Democrats and Republicans actual target the influence of the President and the political parties. In other words, the mutual goal is to cripple the President and neutralize the power of the political parties, not necessarily cripple government. In recognizing this, there is an opportunity for moderates to retake the US government from the extremes of both parties and make government work for average Americans. |
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April 2020
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