On Feb. 11, six Republican House members remembered their oaths of office and joined all 213 Democratic representatives to support a resolution designed to end President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada.
The oath, required by Article VI, Clause 3, says in part that they “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”
Article I, Section 8, of said U.S. founding document opens: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
A further clause gives Congress the power “To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes.”
Thus, as supine Republicans – including the entire Oklahoma delegation – have forfeited their power [and duty] to regulate foreign trade and levy tariffs that tax U.S. consumers to Trump, they have also made themselves liars by breaking their vows.
Trump has wielded tariffs and threats of tariffs as if a billy club to try to force other nations to acknowledge him as an equal of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping though he continually proves himself a bush-leaguer on the big league stage.
On Feb. 20, six Supreme Court justices actually read the Constitution with comprehension and said the presidential tariffs were not allowed. That’s a right step toward the three-branch government our founders intended.
That six Republicans – roundly condemned by Trump – have preferred the laws of this nation over Trump’s authoritarianism might bode well later in the year when Trump tries to declare martial law, cancel the midterm elections and make his dictatorial dreams a reality.
Leftist rhetoric?
How many times does Trump have to say that “some people would like a dictatorship” before strict constructionist Republicans realize who he has in mind for that position and what his plans are for the Constitution and the country?
On Feb. 2, Trump – still smarting from losing to Joe Biden – made his intentions crystal clear – and determinedly dark.
In an interview with podcaster Dan Bongino, a former FBI director, Trump, realizing his unpopular policies were behind recent Republican defeats in deep red districts, repeated his loser’s lie about massive illegal voting and then proclaimed:
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting … in at least many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”
Corporate media mouths have spun this as “nationalizing” the elections. Not so. It is clear that Trump wants Republicans – and Republicans only – to run national elections. He envisions a one-party system akin to those autocracies he admires.
He reinforced this sentiment during preparations for the meetings of the National Governors Association in Washington. The White House invited only Republican governors to a business meeting.
After a public brouhaha during which the White House first relented to the concept of common interests and then reinstituted a ban on some Democrat governors, the NGA stayed away.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, chair of the NGA, had earlier stated: “We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us.”
Standing in the way of Trump’s one-party rule – if Congress has the courage – is the Constitution which states in the opening of Article I, Section 4:
“The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.”
That last phrase refers to the time when state legislatures chose senators. And again, it is Congress that has the sole power to “make or alter such regulations.”
Trump collaborators in the House on Feb. 11 did pass a Trump-backed plan to make it harder for us to vote – demanding proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate to vote in person and sending a copy of such documentation when requesting a mail-in ballot.
The fate of this bill in the Senate is less than certain, leading Trump to threaten to issue a Constitution-defying executive order to get his way.
But, thus far, Congressional Republicans have allowed Trump to trample their designated responsibilities, including making the U.S. navy a band of privateers, attacking Venezuela and kidnapping its president and his wife and also bombing other countries at whim.
This is supposed to be a checks-and-balances government. What we have is a Republican-controlled Congress giving a blank check to an unbalanced president.
One bit of Supreme Court sanity does not negate other of its rubber-stampings of Trump overreach.
