Government by edict = chaos

The following column appeared Friday in the Finger Lakes Times newspaper in Geneva, NY

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Government by edict = chaos

By Michael J. Fitzgerald, FLT columnist

Even the most die-hard Trump fans are having trouble keeping up with the blizzard of executive orders, commands, edicts and late-night tweets coming from the new president.

It looks like he’s trying to fulfill all of his campaign promises in the first few weeks. Then retire to Trump Tower or perhaps go build a golf course somewhere.

Media outlets have detailed out the national roller-coaster ride of the past two weeks: the startling, ill-thought-out order to ban Muslims, the on-again, off-again meeting with Mexico’s president and disturbing changes to the National Security Agency.

Fitzgerald

There are plenty of other examples.

It’s government by edict. And it’s predictably causing unnecessary governmental, political and judicial chaos.

These bursts of government-by-decree also add to the dread that the Electoral College and a minority of voters have put a virtual dictator in office, one that acts unilaterally and often erratically on a daily basis.

It should not come as a surprise.

The nation installed a self-proclaimed, ultra-wealthy businessman at its helm, someone used to barking orders and having them obeyed by subordinates without question.

The new president was never schooled in the art of compromise or even consultation. All the normal rules of governing — like asking experts for advice — are pretty much thrown out the window.

And in the case of the experts currently being installed in positions of federal responsibility at all levels, many are clearly sycophants who are certainly not going to challenge the boss, no matter how off-the-wall an idea he espouses or tweets.

The nation has had presidents with business backgrounds before — Herbert Hoover comes to mind immediately. But in the case of Donald Trump, we have a president who reports only to himself and perhaps family members. In his decades of business dealings, he has never been beholden to shareholders, boards of directors or other interested parties who might ask pesky questions about business operations.

Like casino bankruptcies.

But the United States isn’t a privately held family business. It’s a democracy.

And if you want to apply the business model to national governance, then we are all shareholders in this enterprise, a going, growing concern since 1789.

We all have a huge stake in this nation/company. Our future — even our lives — depend on it.

But the buck is about to stop with Congress.

The burden for protecting our huge stake falls largely on the U.S. Congress to exercise its authority under the U.S. Constitution, part of the three-way system of checks and balances that any junior high school student should be able to recite on demand.

Ditto that for the judiciary branch — the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president’s edicts are only as powerful as these other two branches of government allow them to be, evidenced already by court rulings declaring Trump’s ban on Muslims illegal, pending a thorough legal vetting that should have been conducted prior to last weekend’s immigration nightmare.

But a bigger part of the burden falls on Congress.

Although Republican members of the House and Senate are generally either cheerleaders (or silent) about Trump’s first two weeks of pronouncements, they had better get ready to exercise their power to sensibly control the current government-by-chaos.

Finger Lakes GOP Congressman Tom Reed has a particularly crucial role as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. That committee looks at health care, trade, tax policy — and Social Security.

Reed has made plenty of promises to citizens in town hall meetings since 2010 about protecting veterans, retirees, Social Security recipients and people on Medicare.

It remains to be seen if he has enough courage to fulfill his promises if a presidential edict takes a swipe at lowering — or wiping out — any or all of these benefits.

Fitzgerald worked for six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for several news services. He splits his time between Valois, NY and Pt. Richmond, Calif. You can email him at Michael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com and visit his website at michaeljfitzgerald.blogspot.com.