Context matters. Barack Obama, regardless of your politics, was and is not an uncouth narcissistic bully who insists that all social interactions be conducted on his terms. Nor does he align himself with fascists, white supremacists, or foreign states hostile to democracy. Nor does he lie about trivial, easily obtainable facts and instruct his staff to do the same. When he use Executive Orders to generally make the world a better place, it is “met with a collective yawn of the Fourth Estate” because that is the job. When Donald Trump uses Executive Orders to drag the world kicking and screaming back to a place that it has collectively moved on from because it was universally understood to be bad, remove domain expertise from the decision making process, and walk away from promises made by the Government to the world on behalf of the American people, people are apt to “sternly invoke” the Constitution. People like judges. And journalists. And random people who can read and have the Internet.
Again, Donald Trump is a bully, and taking on bullies is the job of the Fourth Estate. Making analogies to history is a legitimate way to take on a bully; “he is like Mussolini” is a legitimate simile, and using it to frame what could happen if this particular bully isn’t stood up to is equally legitimate. More legitimate than the blatantly racist way that the not-mainstream media and parts of the Third Estate dealt with Barack Obama. It is one thing to stand up to a bully; it is another thing all together to look at someone standing up to a bully and declare anyone being hostile to the bully is somehow at fault.
The emoluments clause didn’t get any attention when we didn’t have a president who refuses to disclose his tax filings, who makes claims about the worth of his name that defy reason, who can’t put rumors of deep financial dependency to foreign banks, individuals, and perhaps even governments, and who won’t divest from his vast network of businesses and licensing agreements. Politicians are corrupt. Good politicians paper over their corruption with a veneer of legitimacy; tax returns, foundations, trusts, speaking fees, book deals. If we don’t like that, fine. Stop electing crooks and letting them write their own rules and adjudicate their own violations. We keep electing crooks.
The 5th and 14th Amendments, when speaking of due-process, say “person” not “citizen”. The Virtue of the U. S. Constitution is that is charters a government of the people, for the people, and by the people which, in its best version grants liberty and justice for all by seeing everyone as equal under the law. Nationalism actively works to prevent that best version of the United States from seeing the light of day.
It is also the 21st Century, and “citizenship” doesn’t mean what it used to. Mobility, connectivity, and the global economy challenge the Westphalian idea of people belonging to the government that controls the dirt inside some lines on a map. Countries don’t own people. Classifying people because of their country of origin is no different than any other course match, like skin color or religion or gender or sexuality. We’ve moved past that, and now the president is trying to drag us backwards. Refer above to the job of the Fourth Estate. It isn’t to conduct the remedial citizenship class on the principles a non-white, non-Christian, dad of a soldier who dies for the country reminds us all of on a national stage when he confronts a bully. And that message isn’t less valid because he secures visas for immigrants.
I’m sorry the writer’s audience can’t seem to understand this, but when you rebel against the Constitution, try to secede from the Union, cite your love of African chattel slavery in your articles of secession, use God as a justification of that love, and kill three-quarters of a million people all because you are trying to defend the right to own human beings like animals and white supremacy, you don’t get to pretend that it was about “States Rights”. Taken more generally, if you are trying to drag the nation backwards, then you don’t get to claim it is your right as a State. The Constitution is a sail, not an anchor. If you don’t like the wind, learn to tack.
Saying, “it is our right to go forward” is significantly different than saying, “it is our right to go backward”. And this isn’t a debate about what is forward or backward – the history of civilization has already told us that.
It is also disingenuous to blame the things about the federal government on the civil servants when for the past twenty years, every day that Congress has met, it is the worst day of Congress ever. Congress, not the President, has the greatest Constitutional power. Congress, not the President. If the Executive has too much power, it is because the Congress gave that power to them. If the Executive spends too much money, it is because Congress directed it to be spent. Don’t blame civil servants for government excess, blame Congress. Certainly don’t use blaming them to plant the seed that the only way to fix it is “serious scrutiny”. But also don’t ignore that Congress is only as good as the voters who put them there, and that the Fourth Estate is a business. Media credibility isn’t squandered because they are partisan, it is squandered because they are beholden to the bottom line; give the people what they want and the market speaks.