Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, took to the Senate floor to give the first of a series of addresses on the separation of powers. The senator talked Thursday about the need for Republicans to hold themselves to the Constitution the same way they demand Democrats do. He asked what would happen if America elects Donald Trump, and if President Trump violates the Constitution.
So what happens next? Would those who have stayed silent about executive overreach over the last seven years suddenly find religion? After years of legislative atrophy, would Congress spring into action and remember its supposed power of the purse? And what about Republicans? After having raged against a supposedly lawless President [would Republicans] suddenly find that they are actually okay with a strongman President, so long as he’s wearing the same color jersey that they are? He may be a lawless sonuvagun but, some of them would say, but he’s our lawless sonuvagun. Would the ends justify the means? The way that Congress thinks and talks about executive power over the last few years has been almost this sophomoric. It has been based overwhelmingly on the party tag of whoever happens to sit in the oval office at any given moment. Republicans, Democrats, us versus them. These are the political trenches, and the no-man’s land lies somewhere between this chamber, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest. When your highest objective is advancing partisan lines on a map, it’s easy to forgive a president who oversteps his authority, so long as it’s your guy, and the one with authority is in your party.
Sasse has a point. Remember then-candidate Obama in 2008 saying this?
I taught constitutional law for ten years. I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all, and that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States of America.
Sasse also drew upon America’s founding principles, including that whoever occupies the office of the presidency—Democrat or Republican—ought to be kept in check by Congress. That’s something he doesn’t think Congress is effectively doing now.
The founders were equally afraid of the consolidation of power in a king, or in the passions of a mob. They understood that human nature means that those in power will almost always try to grab more power. … I think the weakness of the Congress is not just undesirable, I think it’s actually dangerous for America and her future. I think this not because I am a Republican, and we have a Democrat in the White House. Rather, I think this because I have taken an oath of office to a constitutional system, and I will continue to hold this view the next time that a Republican president tries to reach beyond his or her constitutional powers.
The senator promised more speeches about the separation of powers, checks and balances, and governmental accountability in the new year. It’s always refreshing to see a senator address the Constitution and remind members to adhere to it, rather than deliberately ignore it and work to put their policy preferences ahead of it, as they commonly do.
