Republican critics of Obama’s overreach somersault to justify Trump’s abuse of power

Again we are asking: Will this be the wake-up call that motivates the GOP to take a stand and say enough is enough?

By declaring a national emergency after failing to get Congress to meet his demands for wall funding, President Donald Trump has circumvented Congress in the same way decried by many conservatives when President Barack Obama used executive authority to ram through protections for illegal immigrants (DACA and DAPA) when Congress would not bend to his will.

Some who called Obama’s actions a threat to our democracy are doing politically expedient gymnastics to justify Trump’s action, or, as one conservative commentator put it, “being forced to eat a manure sandwich.”

While I have been and remain a strong supporter of tighter immigration measures such as strategic barriers, mandatory eVerify and ending chain migration, the president puts Republicans in an untenable position with his petulant action designed to placate his base.

The declaration of a national emergency was unwise and unnecessary. His own rambling words confirmed as much when he said there were other pots of money he could tap and that he didn’t really need to do this. I can only imagine the face palming at the Justice Department as the president gave the opening argument for the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge of his action. Congressional consumers of dung-on-a-bun will now be forced to vote on a resolution condemning the emergency declaration, coming from the House of Representatives, placing many in a precarious position, especially those facing tough re-elections in 2020.

From a legal perspective this national emergency declaration is debatable but from a political perspective it was malpractice and unnecessarily jeopardizes Republican-held seats. If there were other areas of revenue as proclaimed, why create the political chaos that was sure to follow?

Warning signs of this executive overreach have been coming like flares in the night, but Republican leadership has ignored them. When the administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports with the declaration of a national security threat through section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the political gymnastics kicked off. While a few Republicans had the temerity to call this a sham, those that did were rebuffed in their attempts to rein in this abuse of authority and told not to poke the bear.

Declaring imports of steel and aluminum from Canada a national security threat was an obvious subversion of Congress (we export more metals to Canada than we import). The Commerce Department, whose mission is to “create the condition for economic growth and opportunity,” made the threat determination while the Defense Department was conspicuously silent and Trump undercut his own security rationale by tweeting that “Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products.” Fortunately, the GOP leaders didn’t do cartwheels with this one and try to spin cheese curds into gave security threats.

It’s become increasingly clear that the Republican Party is being splintered and at some point will face a choice between core principles and ideology or populism and policy based on the anger de jour. If we surrender to the latter, we will continue to careen in chaos rather than move forward. While that may be entertaining for some and help cable TV ratings, it does nothing to advance the conservative cause and that is truly what’s at stake here. Enough is enough.

Ronald J Vissing is a Lexington business owner and political activist.