Regardless of where you came down on the issue of the border wall a few years ago, you can’t deny Trump’s abuse of executive power when he issued a constitutionally questionable national emergency declaration to build it, nor can you deny that doing so essentially gave the green light for Biden and future presidents to do the same to advance their agenda.
This usurpation of Congress laid the groundwork for the destruction of what little remains of the separation of powers and the role of Congress as the representatives of the people, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Democrats at the time.
In an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) — he was running against Biden at the time for the Democrat nomination for president — was asked about Trump’s emergency declaration for border security. In response, Inslee warned Republicans that this abuse of executive power would greenlight a new standard by which Democrats would govern on issues like so-called climate change.
“Republicans ought to stand up on their hind legs, because they took an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump, and reverse this decision.
“But if there are new rules, the Republicans have to understand that Democrats will play by whatever the rules are, particularly when it comes to climate change.”
Inslee’s suggestion that climate change could be the next national emergency shouldn’t be taken lightly.
When you consider that every major candidate running for the 2020 Democrat nomination adopted most, if not all, of the AOC’s Green New Deal as a part of their platforms, it’s easy to see how Trump’s abuse of power could serve as a greenlight for Biden to do the same by issuing a national emergency declaration to advance the far-left’s climate change agenda
And it could be about to happen.
One of Biden’s first appointments to his administration was making John Kerry his “climate czar.” As Obama’s secretary of state, Kerry believed air conditioners and refrigerators were a bigger threat than ISIS.
In an appearance on the world stage prior to Biden’s inauguration, Kerry told a gathering at the World Economic Forum that he and Biden were committed to the New World Order plan known as the Great Reset to address climate issues, and he reminded those in attendance of Joe Biden’s commitment to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, and his plans for imposing carbon-dioxide restrictions.
On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement as a first major action in what will likely be many addressing global warming, but that did little more than put America back where she was when Obama left office.
What Biden really needs to do is play the Trump card: Abuse executive power and issue a national emergency declaration, at least that’s what new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Rachel Maddow in a recent interview.
“It might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency.
“He can do many, many things under the emergency powers … that he could do without legislation.
“Trump used this emergency [power] for a stupid wall, which wasn’t an emergency. But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one.”
Ironically, Sen. Marco Rubio essentially predicted that Trump’s abuse of executive power would greenlight Biden’s to do the same in the name of fighting climate change. In a CNBC interview following Trump’s emergency declaration, the Florida Republican issued the following warning:
“We have to be careful about endorsing broad uses of executive power.
“If today, the national emergency is border security … tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change.”
Of course, Rubio and the rest of the spineless GOP did nothing to stop Trump’s abuse of executive power, so…
By the way, if Biden and the Democrats go down this road, global warming isn’t likely to the only area targeted using the precedent Trump and the Republican Party have established.
When Republicans were busy working on their excuses for Trump’s abuse of executive power, Nancy Pelosi informed her Republican colleagues that Democrat president could use a national emergency to advance other far-left goals such as the Democrats’ anti-gun agenda.
“A Democratic president can declare emergencies, as well. So, the precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans.
“Let’s talk about today: The one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America. That’s a national emergency. Why don’t you declare that emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would.
“But a Democratic president can do that.”
In support of the Democrat Party’s warning about how Trump’s abuse of executive power will come back to bite him and the Trumpist Republicans supporting him, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) tweeted his own list of Far-Left issues he thinks need to be addressed using a “national emergency” declaration.
Gun violence is a national emergency
Climate Change is a national emergency
Income inequality is a national emergency
Access to healthcare is a national emergency
Building a wall on the southern border is not.
— Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (@repcleaver) February 14, 2019
It has become a game of sorts for Republicans to ridicule the far-left agenda of the Democrats as simply too extreme to be a serious threat, but I remember how they how they ridiculed healthcare reform when Democrats first proposed Obamacare.
Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrat leadership and the socialists running the party have been setting the agenda for the Party, and they shouldn’t be dismissed as the rhetorical rantings of extremists. Nor should we assume they will fail to advance that agenda, particularly in light of the noticeable shift to the left by Trumpist Republicans who have abandoned conservatism and embraced nationalist ideology to create what I’ve come to call “conservative socialism.”
Trump abused his executive power when he declared a national emergency to build his long-promised wall. And since Republicans let him get away with it, all bets are off.
Our constitutionally protected God-given rights are essentially null and void, and our great republic continues to move ever closer to extinction.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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