Last night’s presidential debate was an unmitigated disaster, with neither candidate really having much of an idea what they were talking about. So, can we finally all agree that we should stop transferring more and more power to the presidency?
President Trump spent most of his night interrupting, was sporadic in how he chose to attack Joe Biden, and spent more time throwing punches at moderator Chris Wallace than at this opponent. When he did have time to speak, Biden didn’t say much of anything at all, launching into a clearly rehearsed attack based on an anonymously sourced story in the Atlantic and telling Trump to shut up while dodging important questions such as ones involving court packing.
For some reason, the 2016 election cycle featuring two of the least popular candidates in history was not enough to convince people that the president should be less powerful. Perhaps watching two candidates who were older than 72-year-old moderator Chris Wallace yelling at each other for 90 minutes should be a reminder that more power is being centralized to the office they are fighting for.
Conservatives were warning of this when President Barack Obama was threatening to legislate by pen and phone. Obama unilaterally changed immigration law with DACA and DAPA. Congress, which is ostensibly our legislative branch, has shipped off many of its powers to executive branch regulators. And crucially, it has handed over its constitutional power to decide whether to commit the nation to war. Trump has also used emergency powers to bypass Congress for funding on a border wall and extend unemployment benefits, among other things.
For years, the political power of states has been funneled to the federal government and centralized in the executive branch. States have had to sue to try and avoid unconstitutional oversteps by the federal government, and Congress has been content to outsource an increasing amount of its power to the president and the executive branch’s collection of unelected bureaucrats.
Democrats still want to hand more power to the presidency, undeterred by the fact that Trump has been president for four years. They hold the mistaken impression that they will never lose the presidency again. Republicans do a great job railing against presidential overreach when they don’t hold the White House but have become paper tigers since the 2016 election.
Everyone agrees that last night was a train wreck, so much so that some undecided voters are now considering ruling out both candidates. If we can agree on that, we should also be able to agree that giving Trump, Biden, or any future president even more power is a mistake. The center of our political solar system should not be any one person.
