The View from Right Field

Declaring a “National Emergency” to Build a Wall Is a Terrible Idea

President Trump has apparently decided to sign the budget bill and then declare a “national emergency” to build a wall on the border with Mexico.  I’ll be brief: This is an absolutely terrible idea.  Presidential power once stretched never returns to its prior limits.  A national emergency that lets President Trump build a wall, will let his successor do other things.  Even if you approve of the former, you may not approve of the latter.  And even if courts or Congress stop President Trump from doing this,¹ the mere fact that President Trump tried to use emergency powers in this way will be a precedent for future presidents to use their emergency powers in other ways.  This is a really bad idea.
--------
¹ It could be an interesting question as to who would have “standing” to challenge President Trump’s order in the courts.

Is Elizabeth Warren a Native American or an American Indian?

The answer, of course, is neither, as even Elizabeth Warren says now.  But what I found interesting about the Texas Bar registration card Senator Warren filled out in 1986 is not that she claimed be a race that she isn’t, but that she got the name wrong, at least to today’s standards.  Because she didn’t write “Native American.”  She wrote “American Indian.”  Which is I believe is now considered inappropriate and not sufficiently “woke.”¹

And which is yet another reason why it is so tiring to talk about issues today.  Not only do you have to get the answers right, you have to only use the most up-to-date terms when doing so.
----------
¹ I think that is the proper word, but I am not sure.  Because I definitely would not be considered sufficiently “woke.”

When Principles Are a Club, Instead of Principles

In contemplating the mess that is Virginia politics, it is perhaps most instructive to see how the calls for Governor Ralph Northam to resign have subsided as it became possible that the result of his resignation wouldn’t be just another Democrat as governor but a Republican.¹  In the meantime, at least from this distance, Virginia Republicans appear to be keeping fairly quiet because (i) they are checking their own yearbooks, (ii) they realize that, when the other side is shooting themselves in the foot, the best thing is to get out of the way, or (iii) they remember what the Senate Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh and they aren’t going to do the same (probably the least likely alternative).

In any case, maybe a few people are beginning to realize that we should pick our principles based on what is right and fair as opposed to either what we can beat the other side on the head with or what we have to do to protect our own people.  In this regard, consider the following from Megan McArdle on what can happen when you care more about protecting your own side:

Who Says One Vote Doesn’t Matter?

As you prepare to go to the polls in various elections this year and next, some people will tell you that it doesn’t matter; that your one vote doesn’t matter.  When it is pointed out that George W. Bush won Florida, and the presidency, in 2000 by 537 votes (out of almost six million votes in Florida and over 105 million votes nationally), people say that’s not one vote.

When I mention the village trustee race in River Forest, Illinois, that was decided by two votes, people again say, that’s still not one vote.

But now consider Virginia.  The current Governor is under fire for what was on his medical school yearbook page 35 years ago and for wearing blackface 30+ years ago, the Lieutenant Governor is under fire for allegedly assaulting a woman fifteen years ago, and the Attorney General is under fire for wearing blackface 40 years ago.   

Margaret Chase Smith: The First Woman to Run for a Major Party Presidential Nomination

When Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif) announced her bid for the Democratic nomination for president last month, newspapers starting looking for other women and African-Americans who have run for president.  The problem is they just can’t seem to get even simple things like this right.

For example, yesterday, the print edition of the Chicago Tribune had an article¹ saying that, in January of 1972, Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) became the first woman and first African-American to run for the presidential nomination of a major party.  The latter may be true, but the former most definitely is not. 

Because, in 1964, eight years before Rep. Chisholm’s run, Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine ran for the Republican presidential nomination.  Senator Smith announced her candidacy on January 27, 1964.  She competed in every primary that year, even winning 25% of the vote in Illinois.

Farewell to Paul Ryan. And “Auf Wiedersehen.”

I wrote about Paul Ryan retiring back in April, when he announced he would not be running for reelection to the House of Representatives.  With Speaker Ryan’s term ending January 2, let me add a few final thoughts. 

If you want to know why Paul Ryan is leaving, I would refer you to two things.  First, a column by Megan McArdle at the end of November:

“‘It’s such a depressing time for people like you and me,’ said my dinner companion on Thursday. I raised a querying eyebrow.

‘We’re policy people,’ he explained. ‘And policy is dead.’

When the Nixons Joined the Eisenhowers - for Life

Today is the 50th wedding anniversary of Julie and David Eisenhower.  The grandson of a President marrying the daughter of a President (President-elect, at that point).  They were married on December 22, 1968, at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale presiding.  The Richard Nixon Foundation has a special on-line exhibit on the courtship and wedding of Julie and David Eisenhower here.

Instead of More Politicians Like George H.W. Bush, We Need More People Like George H.W. Bush

On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune had an editorial entitled “Humility and civility: More pols, please, like George H.W. Bush.”  The editorial concluded:

“If enough politicians and others in the public sphere would take a lesson from the former president’s honorable conduct, Americans would have more respect for their governments – and for each other.”

While I agree that our politicians should take a decency lesson from George H.W. Bush, it would be even better if all of us took a lesson from former President Bush.  If we would act honorably.  If we would have more respect for those who disagree with us.  If we would post on social media, only things that we are willing to say to somebody in person.

If we want our politicians to be more decent and more honorable (which is something to keep in mind when we go to the polls), the first thing we need is to be more decent and more honorable ourselves.

George H.W. Bush, RIP

I have written a lot about George Herbert Walker Bush over the years, and while I am saddened by his passing, I am sure that he, and his family, are glad he is with Barbara once again.  Our longest presidential marriage is an example for us all.  As was his sense of duty, honor, and decency, something that is too often missing in politics today.

But George H.W. Bush was more than a good man.  He was a good president.  Many of the obituaries talk about how President Bush went back on his pledge at the 1988 Republican Convention: “Read my lips, no new taxes.”  What they didn’t mention is why President Bush felt he needed to agree to a tax increase in the fall of 1990.  In October of 1990, there was a short government shutdown over the Columbus Day weekend.  By then, however, and following on President Bush’s statement of August of 1990 that Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait “will not stand,” U.S. troops were already beginning to deploy to the Middle East.  President Bush explained his decision to agree to a tax increase in order to avoid a further government shutdown as follows: “When push came to shove and our troops were moving overseas, we needed a fully functioning government.  I simply had to hammer out a compromise to keep the government open ….”¹  This is obviously an approach to government, and responsibility, that not many people in Washington, at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, seem to have today.

Where Does the Republican Party Go After Donald Trump?

While Donald Trump has only been president for a little over a year and a half (it seems longer, doesn't it?), with the 2020 election starting in January of next year (assuming it hasn't started already), it is perhaps not too early to start looking at the question in the title this post, since it could happen in a little more than two years.¹

In an editorial (“What has become of the Republican Party?”) and a long article (“How the elephant got its Trump”) back in April, The Economist touched on this question.  One of the most interesting points in the article was that Trump supporters came to the Republican Party before President Trump did.  Donald Trump didn’t create the populist wing (or whatever you want to call it) of the Republican Party.  He merely took advantage of it.