Elected officials aren’t exactly known for their consistency. But even for House Democrats, their latest act of hypocrisy is a doozy.
Their impeachment investigation into President Trump’s alleged pressuring of Ukraine’s president centers around a potentially impeachable but nebulous “abuse of power” charge. Most nonpartisan observers agree that if it’s proven Trump used the power of the presidency to advance his campaign interests, that would indeed be an abuse of power.
Whether this is proven, and whether it’s worth removing a duly elected president from office, all remains to be seen. But already, it is clear that Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are merely concern-trolling about “abuses of power.” If they actually cared about corruption and not just their chances in 2020, they wouldn’t simultaneously be doing everything they could to expand the executive branch’s power further and set the stage for future abuses.
The libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash, an independent from Michigan, noted as much on Twitter:
Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi said the president has “abused his power for his own personal, political benefit.” Today, she wants to extend the president’s power to do warrantless surveillance of Americans.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) November 19, 2019
The House’s short-term spending bill (continuing resolution/CR) extends expiring, unconstitutional provisions of the Patriot Act until March 15, 2020. The Patriot Act shouldn’t be extended even for one more day. Every representative in Congress should oppose this legislation.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) November 18, 2019
Amash pointed out that the same Congress frothing at the mouth over Trump’s alleged abuses of power just voted to reauthorize wide-reaching surveillance powers for the federal government, powers that encroach on our civil liberties and are, for practical purposes, unchecked. Yes, that’s right: Democrats are perpetuating a program that’s ripe for abuse while moaning about abuses of power. How does that make sense?
Of course, surveillance is just one issue, but Democrats’ affinity for executive expansion extends far beyond the Patriot Act. Many Democratic 2020 front-runners, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have endorsed “Medicare for All,” a government takeover of healthcare that would throw hundreds of millions of people off their private health insurance. Much has (rightfully) been made over the fiscal implications of a $52 trillion program, but what about the negative effect that government control would have in general — on medical innovation and otherwise? No one genuinely concerned with “abuses of power” would give government so much power over healthcare decisions — literal power over life and death.
Whether it’s President Barack Obama looking the other way at the IRS targeting his political enemies, or Trump possibly leveraging aid to Ukraine for political gain, people given this much power tend to abuse it. Do you really trust the executive branch making your medical decisions?
So, too, the “Green New Deal” endorsed by many prominent Democrats would involve a government takeover of half the economy. This isn’t exactly the kind of power you’d give someone if you were truly concerned about political abuses of government authority.
Democrats demonstrably don’t care about abuses of government power. Prominent 2020 candidates such as Kamala Harris have proposed re-writing our gun laws through executive action if Congress won’t do what she wants, an executive overreach if there ever was one. And Democrats almost uniformly have defended the Obama-era efforts to re-write immigration law via executive fiat through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, separation of powers be damned.
These are not the actions of a party honestly concerned with “abuses of power.”
Of course, Democrats might make the case that such immense executive power is fine, as long as it’s in their hands. This argument should never be taken seriously, no matter who is making it. Beyond party politics, it is the nature of unconstrained power to corrupt the inevitably flawed humans who wield it.
Sorry Democrats, but no number of hearings, or even the removal of a president, will prevent future abuses of power. The only way to do that is for you to start caring and to respond in the only way that makes sense — by restricting the government’s power.
