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With No Republican-Led “Nuclear Option” For His Wall, Trump Drops One Of His Own Printer friendly page Print This
By Dallas Darling
Submitted by Author
Sunday, Jan 6, 2019

When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Newsmax TV that Donald Trump’s mind was “always open to different perspectives,”(1) few expected his most startling one. The president, to be sure, just threatened to take the controversial step of declaring “a national emergency” to build his wall without approval from the Congress. This not only comes on the heels of the president and senior Democrat’s failure to strike a deal to end a partial shutdown of the U.S. government over $5 billion more to fund his signature wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for, but a series of secret meetings where he demanded that the Republican-led Senate use the “nuclear option.” Both of which ultimately points to abuse of arrogance and power and the nuclearization of politics.

Fringes And Filibusters
Although the nuclear option wasn’t used until Senator Harry Reid invoked it in 2013, which allowed the Senate to override a rule, specifically the 60-vote rule to close debate by a simple majority of 51 votes(2), it had been building for years as top Republican figures began to abandon norms of mutual toleration. Consequently a fringe, that was no longer a fringe, goaded Republicans to view their Democratic rivals and Barack Obama’s presidency as anti-American and as posing a threat to the American way of life. Despite this dangerous territory, such extremism encouraged politicians like Senator Ted Cruz to view President Obama as a “threat to the rule of law.” This included blocking all of his legislation by “any means necessary” and a number of filibusters(3).

“Party of No”
Rising partisan intolerance led to an erosion of institutional compromise as well. Directly after President Obama’s election in 2008, a group of young House members, led by Kevin McCarthy, Eric Cantor, and Paul Ryan-who later became Speaker of the House, held a series of meetings to develop a strategy to confront the new administration. Known as the “Young Guns,” they decided to make the GOP the “Party of No.” This, despite the U.S. being mired in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression and losing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed the same sentiment. He declared that the “single most important thing we want to achieve in the Senate is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”(4)

Going Politically Nuclear
Obstructionism therefore became the name of the game in Washington. The very first bill in front of the Senate, for instance, was the innocuous 2009 Public Land Management Act-a bipartisan conservation measure to secure two million acres of wilderness in nine states. As if to send a message, Republicans filibustered it-followed by 385 more that blocked similar laws. Meanwhile, the filibuster turned into the nuclear option. Senate Democrats led by Harry Reid used it in 2013 to eliminate the 60-vote rule on executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments. In April 2017, Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell extended the nuclear option to Supreme Court nominations to approve Justice Neil Gorsuch. He was approved by only 54 votes, the lowest in history.

Compromise And Reciprocity Pays
Fast-forward to Donald Trump and the battle over his border wall funding. He not only wanted the Republican-led Senate to use the nuclear option while Republicans controlled both Houses, but he met with key Senators and threatened them when they refused. But the Senate maintained its decorum-for now. It’s remained true to compromising and protecting the American people from a fringe movement. This includes preserving the norms of toleration and “level-headed” deliberation, of limiting an overreaching president that has abandoned decency, and of keeping alive the spirit of reciprocity. Indeed, “your enemies on one issue may be your friends on the next.”(5) Something the president has yet to learn, and that Senator McConnell may regret if he resists the president’s demands.

Presidential Emergency Powers
As for the belief that the president possesses emergency powers in times of a national crisis, they’ve rarely been invoked. Neither are they specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used them in World War II to intern 125,000 Japanese Americans. President Harry Truman called upon emergency powers in 1952 to seize private steel mills that were not producing enough steel. He argued the U.S. could not wage a war successfully without sufficient materials to keep the military properly equipped. Whereas the Supreme Court upheld President Roosevelt’s executive order, the same cannot be said for President Truman’s. A few other presidents have tried to invoke the same powers but were constrained and limited by the Senate.

Why Government Quit Working
This was mainly due to norms of reciprocity which entailed restraint in the use of one’s power so as not to overly antagonize other senators and endanger future cooperation. Cooperation versus retaliation was so important so as not to hobble the government-let alone shut it down. Government worked because of toleration and forbearance, because norms of reciprocity had not been violated. This, despite other inimical challenges to America’s institutions and Constitution such as court-packing attempts or McCarthyism. Presidential powers, however, have gradually increased due to the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the many other preemptive wars in the Middle East and southwest Asia like Operation Desert Storm and Afghanistan. It also includes dozens of covert actions.

“President of No” And Nuclear Polarization
Does Donald Trump have the power to drop his own version of a nuclear option, or to declare a national state of emergency for his wall? Whatever the answer, it’s important to recall how the “Gingrich Senators,” whose intolerant ideology, aversion to compromise, and willingness to obstruct legislation, quickened the end of the government’s traditional norms of toleration and compromise. President Trump is on the cusp of a new wave of polarization too, one that’s rooted in growing public discontent particularly among his Republican base. He may not have created this polarizing crisis, but he feeds off it. He’s learned how to exploit it with his volatile rhetoric and shifting popular sentiments. Some therefore think his nuclear option to declare a national emergency poses a grave danger.

The Third Catastrophe
Considering that our species’ survival is already hurtling toward a nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, knowingly, can we now add the extinction of “politics” as we know it?


Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and  www.WN.com/dallasdarling.


(1) www.newsmaxtv.com. “Mike Pompeo to Newsmax TV: Trump’s Mind ‘Always’ Open to Different Perspectives,” by Todd Beamon. January 3, 2019.
(2) www.wikipedia.com. See “Nuclear Option” article.
(3) Levitsky, Steven and Danile Ziblatt. How Democracies Die. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, 2018., p. 162.
(4) Ibid., p. 163.
(5) Ibid., p. 134.



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