I’ve gotten some rather heated responses to today’s Backchannel. The one point which I think merits a response is people saying that I’m not proposing any alternative. I saw that as implicit. But fair enough. Some say I’m just saying shut things down permanently. That latter claim isn’t true. But the first point is fair so let me address it.
Donald Trump is currently governing far outside the constitutional order. We’re operating in a constitutional interregnum. The constitutional order may and I think will come back into force. But right now we’re operating far, far outside of it. The president has seized the power of the purse from Congress. He is depriving states of their sovereignty and liberties by invading them with the U.S. military. He is threatening budgetary cutoffs to assert policy control over areas of governance the president has zero authority over. I could list 10 other forms of extra-constitutional rule and I would still leave many out.
We have lots and lots of bad policies right now, some arrived at unconstitutionally, others arrived at through constitutional means. But the national crisis is the extra-constitutional rule itself. Every elected official swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution and maintain allegiance to it. I think Democrats should use this moment of leverage to meaningfully bring Donald Trump back into obedience to the Constitution. Can they do all of it? Almost certainly not. But they should focus on making real progress on that front. This is not only an imperative of their oath, it’s also good politics.
What can they do? They could demand revision of the laws Trump is currently using to invade states with the U.S. military (the National Guard is the U.S. military). They could insist on binding guarantees against further rescissions. They could insist that Trump follow the Constitution and get Congress’s approval for his tariff regime. That’s absolutely what the Constitution requires and, again, it’s also extremely good politics. They could seek to enforce these points by insisting on backing only short-term continuing resolutions.
Again, I could list 10 other things and that wouldn’t exhaust the list. But I think my general point is clear: they should use this substantial leverage to push Trump back toward constitutional governance. That’s both good on the merits and will energize the opposition to Trump. They should of course also insist that Trump have Congress restore the health care of the millions of Americans they took it away from earlier this year. But that’s something Republicans should do. Democrats shouldn’t surrender their only leverage in exchange for Republicans doing what they should do on their own.
