The second coming of the Age of Trump has all but ended government as we have known it.
What he had absolutely no ability to do in his first term – he is a businessman not a government man – his second term began with direction from the Heritage Foundation specifying every action he has made since reentering the White House.
(Please note: we are talking about actions, about reams of prepared Executive Orders, about an endless series of actions one after the other so that no opposition could keep up, and about a staff which would follow orders without thought or complaint – not about Trump’s narcissistic attitudes or about making speeches or interviews randomly given, or the writing of Truth Social commentary, or the endless get even retribution in so much of Trump’s mentality.
The most obvious, overwhelming and specific result of the Foundation’s work has been the absence of any genuine, regular action by the Senate and the House of Representatives. One wonders in disbelief at the absolute silence by both. What used to be an American government led by the three branches of government – the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary – has become a one man authoritarian band with one endless voice with scripts available at all times.
Yes, we’ve heard on occasion from the Supreme Court and its decisions to allow the Executive to essentially do what it wants to do – but the Legislative branch is mute, seemingly gone.
The selection of staff to head certain select agencies – like Homeland Security, the Departments of Defense and Judiciary – mistakenly given to military personnel in the first term was clearly reordered in the second – where loyalty became paramount no matter what failures were found in talent and ability. One Foundation directive after another in an endless stream was far better than Steve Bannon telling a questioning Trump (“What the hell do I do? and hearing “Anything you want to do, you are the President” as he was literally entering the White House for the first time.
(It reminded the writer what his Mom used to tell him when he wondered aloud what he would do after college “You can do anything you want to do” which was no direction at all.)
In the Senate, both parties have leaders who speak out every now and then to show that they still exist.
Now in all fairness to the Heritage Foundation, there are grander reasons for this change.
The Democratic Party has lost its audience.
Democrats spent almost eighty years as the party of the working (blue) class and then in the Clinton and Obama years lost that audience as it began receiving money and votes from the “educated” class of Americans. And from friends on Wall Street.
Suddenly, their work as fighters for working class Americans seemed lost and unimportant to Democratic leadership – their emphasis shifted and so many of those votes ended up in Mr. Trump’s column in his second try at the Presidency.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans in Congress were suddenly faced with the Heritage Foundation’s influence supporting MAGA – an idea with loud mouths, red hats and initials.
A Republican office holder who did not support the actions and attitudes of its President, was warned and threatened with a primary at election time – with their opposition chosen by Trump and his cohorts from MAGA.
Such outspoken Republican luminaries as Majorie Taylor Green and Elise Stefanik quit rather than face candidates chosen by Trump to oppose them in Republican primaries.
Given this super-charged movement away from the traditional and constitutional relationship between the Executive and Legislature, several Democratic and Republican legislators have decided to retire from government in the next year.
These resignations will do nothing to stop the steady movement toward authoritarian government encouraged by the Heritage Foundation, working for just such a result since 1973.
The Foundation’s perfect front man couldn’t be more delighted or comfortable with the movement and its seeming success so far.
ANOTHER WAY
As we enter the 250th year of America’s existence, it is time we seriously recognize a hole in the bucket of that existence which becomes larger every day.
That hole is the reality that while most political offices in local and State governments have term limits, those in the Senate and House of Representatives do not.
Although there is nothing in the Constitution which prevents a citizen from having a lifetime political career if he or she should manage to become a Senator or a Congress person, it has been obvious for years that such a career often contains too many opportunities for problems that would not exist if those jobs had term limits making such a political career impossible.
When your well-paying job is on the line, you will do everything possible to keep it. And politicians do.
Simply put, if the President of the United States is limited to two four year terms, why shouldn’t Congress and the Senate have term limits?
The amendment was proposed in March, 1947 and finally approved by two-thirds of the States in February, 1951.
Term limits for the House and Senate would have to be to be introduced at a Constitutional Convention called for by Congress itself. Few believe that will ever happen because a political career is at stake and those involved don’t vote to put themselves out of work.
But just suppose that Congress approves the idea that the term limit does not include current members of Congress but begins with the election of new Congress people. Those in office now would have limits on their service at the time of their next re-election but not before.
While the limits would exist from that moment on, a sitting Congressperson would still have additional years of service ahead if they could be reelected one more time; following that last term they would step away.
In time, all of Congress would become term-limited and America would be led by an ever-changing House and Senate which could better reflect the needs and desires of its population as years and challenges progress and change.
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS
We are seeing now how the failure to educate our young people who seem lost and out of touch, is leading to a deeply troubled nation watching an aging businessman change his mind every few days, seeming to make things up as he goes along while personally making billions of dollars “on the side,” openly ignoring the stated powers of a silent Congress without any opposition from it, until government-permitted murder in the streets of Minneapolis, which may be making the public and politicians wake up.
We are not going to fix the education system’s failures for many years because change will be vigorously fought from within the system.
But we can take steps to adjust our political system to improve standards and perhaps performance, if we take away those elements which lead us to weakness rather than strength.
Term limits, long discussed but ignored, would be such a step.
Those Americans who look to Donald Trump with admiration do so because they feel strongly that he will put those “damned crooked politicians who never do anything for us” in their place.
Good idea. Wrong man.
This evaluation of the state of the current federal government seems accurate and timely. Might Congressional term limits be a solution? Rather than copy the text of the 22nd Amendment limiting presidential terms for life, such an amendment might limit consecutive terms, allowing re-elections after a one term hiatus.
One thing requiring change are powers Congress gave to the president at times when more benign presidents were in office. By unilaterally declaring emergencies, it seems the president is given quasi-dictatorial powers. A tighter Congressional leash is in order.