- “I said, war, huh, What is it good for?
- Absolutely nothing, say it again…” – War, The Temptations
Declaring War
Ask Donald Trump: the United States is at “war”. We are at “war” with narco-terrorism. We are at “war” with domestic “left” extremists. And, of course, we are at “war” with undocumented migrants and on “crime”. The Executive Branch of the American Constitutional Government is “declaring” War after War, War, and taking action based on those “declarations”. ICE, the “front line” in the “war on the undocumented”, is expanding from 6500 to 16500 agents. The President is Federalizing the National Guard in certain “Blue” states, Oregon, Illinois, and California, in order to “control the streets” of “Democrat Run” cities. The US military is blowing up ships on the high seas.
Those of us raised on “School House Rock”, are a little confused. We thought that the United States Constitution granted the power to declare war to the Congress (Article I, Section 8, Clause 11), not to the President. But it’s not Congress making all these “declarations”, it Donald Trump and his minions, Stephen Miller or Russell Vought. America is at War, and President Trump is “leading us”.
Heritage Foundation
It isn’t that the President can’t take action against drugs. We’ve been “waging” war against drugs for half a century. Richard Nixon “declared war” on drugs in June of 1971. But Nixon’s “declaration” at a press conference was “symbolic”. Nixon really wasn’t planning on waging war, he was simply emphasizing a White House focus on combatting drug use. (In a half century that war continues to be lost).
But the Trump Administration has a different “attitude” about the word, “war”. It’s technical, based on the Constitution and recent law. And it’s important to consider as we wage war against such dangerous “undocumented criminal hotbeds” as Chicago and Portland. (Even the far-right fear of “black helicopters” is now reality, as masked military-like agents fast-roped down onto a Chicago apartment building).
It all started in the heartbeat of right-wing political thought, the Heritage Foundation. When the January 6th Insurrection ended, those “thinkers” were faced with ultimate failure. Joe Biden was going to be President, and the House and Senate were Democratic. After four years of the first Trump Administration they were unable to change America to what they wanted, and now Democrats were bringing things “back to normal” once again.
They had years of political “exile” to think through a “do-over”. What if they got a second chance to run America? What could they do differently to really change the fundamental structure of the American government, and make America “Great” (White?) again? And while they publicly pressed a “states’ rights” agenda (ask the Governor of Texas), privately they were developing a whole theory based around a “unitary executive”, that gave the President unprecedented power and control over the entire Federal government.
Immunity
They were even willing to risk extending some of that power to Joe Biden. The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court created a brand new Presidential perk during the Biden Administration; absolute immunity from prosecution for any “official act”. Biden didn’t take advantage of a power he didn’t want or believe in, but if Trump could get back in, that could “excuse” any action he took. It simply had to be “official”, and nothing is more official than an “Executive Order”.
Congress still has the power to declare war. But, Congress hasn’t “declared war” since the days after Pearl Harbor in 1941. Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, Lebanon, the invasion of Panama, the Persian Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, all took place without declaration, but simply with Congressional authority ceded to the President. The AUMF (authorization of use of military force) from 9-11 is still in effect, twenty-four years later. There’s a specific reason that the Trump Administration uses the words “narco-terrorism”. Terrorism is a defined term in the AUMF, so the President can claim to take “approved” war action against “narco-terrorists”.
War gives the President expanded authorities. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the right to have a hearing in court if arrested, for some parts of the United States. During the Second World War, Roosevelt rounded up American citizens of Japanese descent and put them in “relocation” camps. Those clear violations of citizenship rights were tolerated, because “we were at war”.
Changing America
The geniuses at the Heritage Foundation want to expand those Presidential War powers even farther; against undocumented migrants, and now, against any opposition to their political plans. We keep hearing the words “domestic terrorist” applied to folks like George Soros and the mysterious “ANTIFA”.
The President always claims extraordinary powers in times of war. The other American institutions, Congress and the Courts, have recognized the need to “act swiftly” in wartime, assuming the risk of mistakes that swift action might entail. But the “norm” has always been to retract those powers after the crisis was over. Today, the Heritage scholars are reversing that trend, creating issue after issue where “war powers” are given to the President. Congress is unwilling to stand up for themselves, and the Supreme Court majority is aligned with the Heritage views. And it doesn’t help that Congress has declared the government, and themselves, “closed”. The Executive is all that’s left.
And this President, unlike his predecessors, sees no imperative to restrict his own powers. War is “good” for him, “good” for his power, and “good” for those behind him who believe in an altered America. They are striving to achieve their vision, even at the cost of the very foundations that made America different than any other country in the world.
