Posted on 06/08/2018 12:01:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
If your contention is that President Donald Trump has the propensity to sound like a bully and an authoritarian, I'm with you. If you're arguing that Trump's rhetoric is sometimes coarse and unpresidential, I can't disagree. I'm often turned off by the aesthetic and tonal quality of his presidency. And, yes, Trump has an unhealthy tendency to push theories that exaggerate and embellish small truths to galvanize his fans for political gain. Those are all legitimate political concerns.
Yet the ubiquitous claim that Trump acts in a way that uniquely undermines the rule of law is, to this point, simply untrue.
At National Review, Victor Davis Hanson has it right when he argues that "elites" often seem more concerned about the "mellifluous" tone of leaders rather than their abuse of power. "Obama defies the Constitution but sounds 'presidential,'" he writes. "Trump follows it but sounds like a loudmouth from Queens."
But while former President Obama's agreeable tone had plenty to do with his lack of media scrutiny, many largely justified, and even cheered, his abuses because they furthered progressive causes. Not only did liberals often ignore the rule of law when it was ideologically convenient for them; they now want the new president to play by a set of rules that doesn't even exist.
Partisans tend to conflate their own policy preferences with the rule of law, or democracy or patriotism. But the pervasive claim that the Trump administration has uniquely undermined the law, a claim that dominates coverage, typically amounts to concerns regarding how he comports himself. For example, entering into international treaties without the Senate or creating fiscal subsidizes without Congress are the types of things that corrode the rule of law. Firing (or threatening to fire) your subordinates at the Justice Department, on the other hand, is well within the purview of presidential powers.
Trump, as far as I know, hasn't shut down a single investigation into himself or anyone in his administration or campaign, despite evidence that a special counsel's creation was based on politically motivated information.
Though he may be wrong, it's not an attack on the rule of law for the president to claim privilege. Nor is a president undermining the rule of law if he pushes back against an investigation into Russian collusion. Now, Trump might not have a wingman running the Justice Department, but nothing in the Constitution stipulates that he has to prostrate himself in front of prosecutors, much less prosecutors who have veered far from their initial charge. The intelligence community is not sacred. Americans have no patriotic duty to respect former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper or former CIA Director John Brennan. The president is free to accuse them of partisanship. Doing so is not an attack on the rule of law any more than the reverse.
Considering the amount of politically motivated leaking and false accusations that have been made over the past year, it seems absurd to expect anything different. The Clintons pushed back against Ken Starr, and Trump pushes back against Robert Mueller. Democrats shouldn't have boxed themselves in by convincing their constituents that some incontrovertible proof of illicit or seditious behavior was just waiting to be uncovered.
Nor does Trump undermine the rule of law when offering presidential commutations and pardons (nor would he even, perhaps, if he were to pardon himself). If Americans are displeased, they have recourse. Unlike presidents who pardon, say, personal campaign financers or terrorists near the end of their terms to avoid fallout, nothing stops today's voters from electing representatives to impeach and remove Trump if they desire. That is the mechanism in place to stop the president.
Nor does Trump undermine the rule of law when he rolls back the previous administration's unilateral abuses on immigration and bogus treaties. In many ways, Trump has strengthened the checks and balances that were broken by the rhetorically soothing President Obama. Mock it if you like, "but Gorsuch" will likely do more to curb the state's overreach than any justice the left would ever put on any bench.
Now, any defense of the Trump administration will, of course, meet charges of sycophancy and "anti-anti-Trumpism." But none of this is to argue that the Trump administration is a paragon of lawfulness. It's far from it. So stop exaggerating. The astoundingly terrible and hypocritical arguments of the president's detractors often make it imperative to defend neutral principles and process.
You don't get to fabricate a new Constitution every time there's a president you dislike. American patriotism isn't predicated on pretending that Russia can flip our election with some Facebook ads, but it is certainly grounded in the idea that we all hold consistent constitutional principles.
We've tried "playing nice" with them. It's only sunk us deeper into their BS.
Trump's "gruffness" is actually a breath of fresh air in the political world.
As for the opinions of the left and their Pravda machine, fugg'em. d:^)
Um, okay. Can this author give us a few examples of lawlessness in the Trump administration? No? How about just one example? No? Then how about not making such statements?
Authors who write articles like this, who make claims that feed into liberal propaganda are irresponsible.
It could be a legitimate typo, thanks to rather bizarre “autocorrect” functions. I have had “autocorrect” turn my sentences into gibberish, when I had typed everything correctly. Once, I typed “fake news” and the device turned it into “cake news.” Since that could have been a typo, I checked by typing “fake news” again, and watched the “f” turn into a “c.” I have since figured out how to turn off autocorrect.
A number of folks here pissed that Trump follows the law - even though that’s why many of them voted for him......they fail to see their hypocrisy and act as if the Constitution has a “Noble Cause” clause...if it happens to their cause....
It does speak to the vanished art of proofreading.
“...nothing stops today’s voters from electing representatives to impeach and remove Trump if they desire. That is the mechanism in place to stop the president.”
..........
Sure, the left always tries to win elections to achieve their objectives. But since Democrats are not truly democratic - in the sense that they can not accept being defeated at the ballot box - then the must rely, more often than not, on non-democratic means of obtaining their objectives - hence the Deep/Administrative/Bureaucratic State, along with a complicit media and an army of lawyers and violent protesters aimed at pushing through their agenda even when they are out of office.
“This is not a legitimate typo. It is stupid or the writer changed his thought in the middle of the sentence then forgot.”
There seems to be a lot of that going on lately. I know I’m a grumpy old man but the quality of writing is falling off a cliff.
Some people are better than others at it.
At work, I sometimes pick up typos that our editor misses. I look at a page, and frequently, I see the mistakes before anything else. They just jump out at me.
“You follow them if the situation you see yourself in applies .... or not.”
..but only if it maintains or advances leftist politics, institutions, culture, etc.
He's in the game to get stuff done not to please the media darlings.
Name me one other GOP politician who would have still been standing after a year and a half of the barrage and incoming Trump has taken from the Left and his own GOPe? Just one. No one can name one.
We needed Trump right now because no one else would be able to cut the mustard like he does. The DC Swamp is infected with politicians and bureaucrats whose job it is to line their own pockets and push their liberal, globalist agenda. To hell with the American people's needs and wishes.
Trump is different for sure but he is very effective. Just what the doctor ordered.
You are exactly right, and the “real deal” is what attracted many voters to actually come out and vote for him. He has neither pontificated that he is morally pure, nor does he act like he is on the Dr Phil show needing begging to be told how to straighten out his life.
Significant numbers of people have been conditioned to accept how our elected (politicians) are to behave. They accept the fact that they put on masks, lie to you, etc. but speak so “intelligently” and use political correctness to control people, to take away their liberties. Trump has unmasked many of these elected, and their non-elected conspirators. He has taken on political correctness, and he is a threat to all that they have built for themselves and their buddies at the expense of the country.
I don’t kid myself. If Trump spoke in the terms of BO sweetness and their definition of presidential, if he wouldn’t tweet, Trump would be just as hated by them, reviled and subject to the same vitriol. But by being something he is not, he never would have been elected. God Bless America that we are not all the same.
In other words, Donald Trump is a man, talks like a man, acts like a man in the era of the wuss. . .like the guy who wrote this article!
Why would they be pissed that he follows the law when that was the reason they voted for him? It makes no sense
Here in northern Alberta, I saw Oregon plates yesterday morning going for a coffee at mcdees. I stood and looked at the two men getting out and walking to the store, and I confirmed they were from Oregon. I then said it was test time. As a patriot Albertan, it was my job to see if they were welcome. I asked them if they support Trump and they said hell Ya. I laughed and shook their hands and told them they are welcome here anytime and if they needed anything, to let us know heh.
True freedom loving people regardless of where they come from are a gift.
My very thought!
I’ve TRIED to “hear” this in Trump. I dont.
Hes President. The President is a LEADER.
Yes, of COURSE, hes gonna sound deliberate. This is real life, not Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.
Obama was a snarky little spiteful weasel when he spoke. He was like the acid tongue jerk in jr. High school who was safe to bully you cos he was surrounded by his thugs.
AND that hes half black and you touch him... you’re a racist...
The Democrats are concerned Trump is subverting the Constitution.
First, the democrats don’t know he constitution but will make you believe they know
“Name me one other GOP politician who would have still been standing after a year and a half of the barrage and incoming Trump has taken from the Left and his own GOPe? Just one. No one can name one.”
Not only standing, but then getting some important things done despite the RINOs who are in charge of Congress. I can’t think of anyone else from the GOP either.
Me, too. I can open a book to any page and the grammatical and spelling errors jump out at me. They are the first things I see. If there are more than a few I have difficulty reading the page.
Best thing about POTUS Donald J Trump is he can wind up the left into cackling hens in 140 characters or less.
We pick from A or B everyday, making decisions on how to go through our day.
The last election was no different. Pick A or B.
It was either the liberal, lying, corrupt, criminal, never-accomplished-anything-in-her-life, Hillary.
Or the imperfect, successful blowhard businessman who everybody loves to hate, Trump.
It's not a multiple choice question. Just pick one or the other. No other options.
Just think of the disaster we would have had if Hillary was pulling the levers of power now.
We made the right choice in electing Trump. He's not perfect but he is exceptional.
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