Yesterday’s senate vote in opposition to the president’s national emergency declaration should not distract us from the craven capitulation to Donald Trump that is rampant within the Republican Party.
As self-proclaimed “originalists” Republicans have proudly displayed their constitutional conservatism on their sleeves. Their fealty to the constitution, the rule of law, co-equal branches of government and the separation of powers was never in question. Yet when faced with a brazen power grab by a president who clearly favors autocracy over Madisonian democracy, all but twelve abandoned their defense of the constitution and bent their knee to the wood be king.
In the weeks proceeding his party’s historic capitulation to the president, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post opining on the dangers of an executive branch run amok of constitutional norms. In the hours preceding the vote, Tillis took to the senate floor to lecture his colleagues about the dangers of setting aside their constitutional responsibilities as a keepers of a co-equal branch of government. Then he draped himself in hypocrisy and voted with he president.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is a fierce defender of the constitution. He has written books about the tenants of democracy outlined in our founding document. Yet when the president demanded that Sasse relinquish the powers that he staunchly defended throughout his career, Sasse meekly complied.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz spent the entire eight years of the Obama administration railing against what he perceived as Obama’s abuse of executive power. Cruz found Obama’s executive order on DACA particularly galling. Time after time Cruz could be found on the senate floor demanding that the “imperialist president” adhere to the constitution and govern in the manner in which the Founders intended. He too relinquished his sword when the president demanded his compliance.
And let us not award to much praise to the twelve courageous souls who stood bravely in defense of the constitution and opposed the president’s overreach. Of the twelve one is retiring and ten are not running for re-election this cycle. Only Maine Senator Susan Collins was willing to risk a primary challenge in defiance of this president.
The Founders foresaw that an autocrat might one day assume the mantle of power. Accordingly they set in place a system of checks and balances to hold such an individual in check. The Founders could never have imagined that the officials elected by the people to protect their interests would relinquish their constitutional responsibilities in self-serving fealty to a would be king.
