Since Sonny Crawford asked (“Trump and the Environment”), someone should answer.
The primary Constitutional responsibility of the president is to execute the laws passed by Congress, hence “chief executive.” Trump has been fastidious in doing this since people wait in queues to pile on if he mis-steps. At this point, if Trump got a parking ticket, the Democrats would try to impeach him for it, so his administration has been squeaky-clean compared to others.
There is a lot of pressure on presidents to exceed their authority, so they will. Congress abets this over-reach by ceding its responsibilities to the president in order to avoid making difficult decisions for itself: consider the “war powers act.”
Obama was especially egregious in his over-reach. To his credit early-on, Obama tried to follow the laws and work with Congress to advance his agenda, but soon found that his abilities didn’t match his ambitions, so he ditched that approach and began to rule by executive orders. Crawford should know that Obama never had the authority to commit the country to the Paris Accords. That power rests with the Senate. Trump was right in canceling that illegal action, even though, since it lacked any enforcement mechanism, the “Accords” are meaningless.
The rest of Trump’s actions that Crawford dislikes are all consequences of Trump’s reining-in of Obama’s skirting of the democratic process. Trump can effect these changes because none of them involve actual laws, or else are regulatory powers granted to the president by a Congress anxious to avoid being blamed for anything.
Many people would like to establish an administrative state and dispense with the messiness of the Constitution’s checks and balances. Like Hillary Clinton, they would like to run the Constitution through a paper shredder. Many prefer dictators, as long as the dictator does what they want. But others see the danger of dictators. Many people voted for Trump, or have come to support him, on that basis. He’s been the least dictatorial president we’ve had in a century.
In any case, to be intellectually honest, Crawford should either take Congress to task, rather than Trump, or simply come out in support of an Imperial presidency that rules by fiat.
John Blasiak is a resident of Greenfield.