I’ve become increasingly concerned about Congress’ failure to defend their prerogative to declare war under our Constitution. The Constitution clearly gives this power to Congress, not the executive. I’m mystified as to why our legislators are allowing the executive to illegally usurp this power. It’s time we started insisting that Congress do its job. There are lots of signs that executive overreach is becoming normalized. That’s dangerous. It’s up to us, the people the Constitution was designed to protect, to hold the officials we elected to represent us responsible for rendering parts of our Constitution irrelevant.
I’m a member of Action Corps Vermont. We and other organizations in Vermont call on our legislators, Representative Balint and Senators Welch and Sanders to introduce a War Powers Resolution demanding a halt to U.S participation in the genocidal war in Gaza. Such a resolution would be privileged, meaning it could not die in committee and must be voted on by the full chamber.
Jeff Martin
Brattleboro, Vermont