Expansion of executive power has long been a tradition of the Democratic Party and the less savory elements of the Republican Party. From FDR’s abuse of the executive order system to the attempts at presidential immunity by the Nixon Administration, strong executive power has led to severe corruption for decades. The Johnson and George W. Bush administration both abused executive powers to worsen already prolonged foreign wars.
The recent declaration of emergency by the Trump Administration is yet another addition to this less-than-proud history.
President Donald Trump claims that there is a state of emergency at the southern border, precipitated by supposed crowds of violent criminals flooding border states, leaving a trail of “murders, murders, murders, killings, murders” in their wake, Trump said at a rally, according to Rolling Stone magazine. If this is true, then there must be exceedingly high figures for violent crime in the affected states.
This qualification is where the trouble begins for the Trump camp. Murder rates in Texas—the state that boasts the longest border with Mexico, are the 26th in the nation, lower than the median. In New Mexico and Arizona, rates are still lower than 11 and 15 other non-border states, respectively. California falls at 28th, the lowest of states with land south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
To be fair, the sixth highest murder rate does belong to a border state—Alaska, which shares a long border with Canada. Incidentally, there is no state of emergency there. No troops have been sent to the Alaska-Canada border to build a wall to stop the apparent caravan of violent Canadian immigrants.
Based simply upon statistics, the emperor has no clothes. President Trump’s attitude on executive power doesn’t fit within what we know from presidential history. His actions reflect King George III more than they do George Washington. He seeks to use the United States military to advance a political goal that the legislative body of the nation has made clear it won’t support.
This is more egregious to the position of the founding fathers than were the actions of Roosevelt, Johnson, Nixon and Bush. While their uses of executive power were still extreme overreach, their goal wasn’t primarily political. They sought to do what they felt was effective to lead the nation.
President Trump has used his executive power as a slap in the face to his political opponents and as a tool in his attempt to seize another term in the White House.
This country wasn’t founded by a golden king on the blessed ideal of “owning the libs.” It was founded, in fact, by a group of intellectuals and leaders that sought to unify the colonies that they inhabited against that very type of figure.