The Problem Is Legislative Overreach, Not Executive

In 1975, two years after Richard Nixon negotiated the Paris Accords and ended the war in the Vietnam, the Communist North Vietnamese reneged and invaded South Vietnam. Instead of defending the South as Nixon promised we would do in this event, President Gerald Ford looked on helplessly as the Democratic Congress would not permit it. At the same time, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and turned the country into a death camp. Because the Democrats hated Nixon and Republicans, and saw no political advantage to intervening, they permitted our allies to be slaughtered and enslaved.

A year later, in 1976, Ford signed the National Emergency Powers Act, which would allow special powers for the president should this kind of emergency arise and the legislature decides to play politics as people die or great injustices occur.

Trump Is Right on the Law and the Merits

President Trump’s recent decision to invoke this act and fund a border wall was in response to the Democrats in Congress refusing to cooperate. As a matter of course, Democrats have answered with a resolution against this use of funds, and many groups took legal action against the Trump Administration which will ultimately suspend progress on the wall for many months until the matter is brought to the Supreme Court.

Democrats, who supported a wall until Trump agreed with them, have no good argument against its construction now. Concerns over its effectiveness or cost are outrageously hypocritical in light of the endorsement of so many of the same people for the Green New Deal, which would cost trillions and do next to nothing for the environment (but still ruin the economy and monitor cow emissions). If it’s a choice between protecting Americans or sticking it to Trump, they will always pick the latter.