On the recordDecember 17, 2015
today I would like to propose a thought experiment. Imagine if President Trump has been propelled into the White House with 300 electoral votes, having won mainly by the force of his personality, by calling BS on this town, and by his promise to ``get things done'' by acting unilaterally. The first 100 days are huge. He signs an order to turn the Peace Corps into stone masons to build a southern wall. He shutters the Department of Education, and by Executive order, he turns the Department of Interior into the classiest oil company the world has ever known. What happens next? Would those who have stayed silent about Executive overreach over the last 7 years suddenly find religion? After years of legislative atrophy, would Congress spring into action and remember its supposed power of the purse? And what about the Republicans? After having raged against a supposedly lawless President, would they suddenly find that they are OK with a strongman President, so long as he is wearing the same color jersey they are? He may be a lawless son of a gun, some would say, but he is our lawless son of a gun. Would the end justify the means? The way Congress thinks and talks about Executive power over the last few years has almost been this sophomoric. It has been based overwhelmingly on the party tag of whoever happens to sit in the Oval Office at any given moment.…
