Americans can struggle to grasp the reasoning behind the writings of the Founding Fathers after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which is celebrated this weekend. The debates about individual rights and the roles of state and national government in the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights can seem hazy in textbooks or lecture halls.<\/p>\n
No such trouble now, as President Donald Trump\u2019s authoritarian decision-making, Congress\u2019 silence and the mixed decisions by the Supreme Court are providing real-time examples of the nation\u2019s extraordinary foundations. The actions and inactions should be fodder for debates in classrooms and on street corners, a reminder of the strengths of the American experiment that we believe the country will eventually return to.<\/p>\n
This week, the Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship, which Trump had hoped would end and reduce immigration numbers. Added to the Constitution originally to provide for those who had been enslaved and their offspring, it will continue. Days earlier, the court said \u201cyes\u201d to the president\u2019s ability to remove independent federal agency members without cause if their participation wasn\u2019t in line with the direction he was taking the country (the exception was members of the Federal Reserve, as the court clarified in a case involving Lisa Cook). Those members had been confirmed by the Senate and could only be removed for neglect of duty or malfeasance. The \u201cunitary theory of the executive\u201d in the Constitution was the court\u2019s justification.<\/p>\n
Previous presidents have taken the country to war without much consultation with Congress, as the Constitution requires, but using the U.S. military to obliterate the occupants of a couple dozen fast boats at sea ostensibly transporting drugs without consultation or reporting is a new extreme. That\u2019s murder, some critics say.<\/p>\n
Of greater significance is the president\u2019s desire to replace states\u2019 control of national elections with the federal government, despite no demonstrated need to change the current system. Gone would be mail-in balloting and the receipt of any ballots after Election Day, and the voter would have to appear on the national OK-to-vote list. The Supreme Court also ruled that states may count late-arriving postal ballots if they were postmarked by Election Day, rejecting the administration\u2019s push to block the practice. It\u2019s not hard to believe the president wants only his supporters to be able to vote.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the question of personal enrichment. This president\u2019s overseas initiatives include components that enrich his family members. A share of mineral extraction, capital for a crypto company, the green light for a resort development \u2013 all in exchange for U.S. support and funding. Threatening to link weapons support for Ukraine to tarring a Joe Biden family member, for which Trump was impeached by the House, seems so long ago; we soon learned it was only the beginning.<\/p>\n
What do the founding documents say about preventing the president from enriching himself? Read the Domestic Emoluments Clause and the Foreign Emoluments Clause. Was it expected subsequent presidents would be as restrained as George Washington?<\/p>\n
And how can Congress, both houses, repeatedly acquiesce to the president\u2019s lead in so many areas? He has refused to spend money that Congress has authorized and is spending money that it hasn\u2019t. There has been little mention of the country\u2019s debt, now approaching $40 trillion \u2013 about $3.2 trillion higher than when Trump took office \u2013 and funding is at the core of Congress\u2019 responsibilities. One of the three branches of government is not exercising its constitutional role.<\/p>\n
Habeas corpus is a defendant\u2019s right to hear from a judge what they are accused of. Seizing someone off the street because of their skin color or the language they\u2019re speaking and then holding them without notice is illegal and not supposed to happen. The Constitution, again.<\/p>\n
The list could go on. Some of what is taking place now may endure in practice, but the country\u2019s foundations of individual rights, an engaged Congress and an independent, honest judiciary remain strong enough to withstand it. What is taking place now is an example of what this country is not. Debate these issues to better understand what the Founding Fathers included in their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today\u2019s politics test the Founders\u2019 design<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6344,6345],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-137153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorials-2","category-editorials-2-opinion","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137410,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137153\/revisions\/137410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137153"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=137153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}