Posted on 01/16/2019 6:46:38 AM PST by Kaslin
In February 2017, Dr. Christopher Duntsch became the first surgeon in American history known to be sentenced to prison for botching a patient surgery. A licensed neurosurgeon, Duntsch left a string of deaths and maimed bodies in his wake: He was accused of causing the death of two surgery patients and leaving 33 others permanently damaged. His patients left their lives in his hands; he left them paralyzed or dead.
The checks and balances that were supposed to contain Duntsch failed utterly. His medical school licensed him but didn't require the preparation necessary to instill competence. Hospitals suspended him but didn't report him. The medical board could do nothing without forms filed against him. Patients were left without recourse.
When checks and balances fail, damage is usually the result.
That's why when it came to our system of government, the founders were so focused on creating gridlock. They recognized that in a system in which legitimacy sprang from popular support, the easy path to perdition lay in popularly backed centralized power -- tyranny could spring just as easily from a popular majority as from a king or despot. The founders didn't trust individuals with authority, and they didn't trust human beings to delegate authority to mere individuals.
But popular governments have always bucked against such limitations.
The majority of Americans always want action, on some grounds or others. That leads to an eternal drive to grant unchecked power to some institution of government. As Alexis de Tocqueville writes in his 1840 "Democracy in America": "It may easily be foreseen that almost all the able and ambitious members of a democratic community will labor without ceasing to extend the powers of government, because they all hope at some time or other to wield those powers. ... Centralization will be the natural government."
We're now seeing the consequences of such centralization on two separate fronts: the president's authority to declare a national emergency and the FBI's investigations into the president. Proponents of President Trump would like to see power centralized in the presidency; antagonists of President Trump would like to see power centralized in the FBI.
President Trump's allies seem eager for Trump to declare a national emergency in order to appropriate funds for a border wall. The law cuts against such a declaration: The National Emergencies Act was written to curtail presidential authority, not increase it. No matter how much border hawks (including me) want a border barrier, the proper method is to request funds from Congress.
Meanwhile, President Trump's enemies are celebrating reports this week that the FBI investigated Trump as a possible Russian agent after his firing of then-FBI director James Comey. Trump had authority under the Constitution to fire Comey, and there's no actual evidence that Trump is an agent of the Russians. But Trump's enemies want the legislature to step in and attempt to protect the FBI from executive branch checks on it.
All of this is foolish. It's good that the legislative branch checks the executive branch, and it's good that the executive branch must remain in control of executive branch agencies. Here's the easy test: How would you feel if the situations were reversed? How would Republicans feel about an emergency declaration from a Democratic president to shift funds to leftist priorities? How would Democrats feel about Republican attempts to seize control of the FBI for purposes of investigating a Democratic president?
Nobody ought to trust institutions enough to grant them unchecked power. And no one ought to trust the people enough to allow us to do so.
“How would Republicans feel about an emergency declaration from a Democratic president to shift funds to leftist priorities?”
Where is the clown school for writing essays?
How would Republicans feel about a president who uses executive power to shield his people from investigation, sic the IRS on opponents, impose draconian environmental and labor laws that gut the middle class, and literally give hundreds of billions of dollars to our enemies?
That is the question he should ask.
As far as I can see, President Trump is using rhetoric and saying, "I could declare a national emergency, but I would prefer that Congress act as it is supposed to and just fund the wall. In the meantime, Congress is checking and balancing me. And I will patiently wait until they decide to act as they are supposed to."
Does Ben have a problem with this? There is certainly no tyranny in evidence.
Shapiro the super midget strikes again. When this guy talks about too much centralized power and therefore Trump can’t declare a national emergency to deal the border, remember this prick has also advocated deporting every Arab man, woman and child from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, etc.
Actually, I’d have no problem with a Dem. President declaring an emergency if it was fundamentally related to protecting the general public from insurrection, invasion, rioting, etc. So, I’m not really sure where Shapiro is trying to go with this.
“Shapiro the super midget strikes again. When this guy talks about too much centralized power and therefore Trump can’t declare a national emergency to deal the border, remember this prick has also advocated deporting every Arab man, woman and child from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, etc.”
I would love to see Shapiro debate Mark Levin on the Constitution.
Christopher Duntsch wasn’t negligent. He was skilled. He killed and maimed intentionally. From an email he sent: “I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.”
He also had a history as a coke head, but the libertarians will tell us that drugs are a victimless crime.
Such a question would never occur to Ben Shapiro
bbb…..bbbbbu…...bbb…….bbbut when big-league bankers nearly destroyed the global economy in 2008 we were told that there weren’t any laws against being incompetent.
Ben is an idiot.
There are active declared emergencies still in effect, even from previous Presidents.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/politics/national-emergencies-trump-opioid/index.html
My supposition with regard to this would be the instance of a Democrat President declaring an emergency and sending billions to the UN to fight Global WarmingTM.
What much of the right misses is that the Progs have a ratchet that only allows the rope to be tightened around the neck of freedom. It is never relaxed. Very soon the left will force us all to decide if we wish to have a dictator from the left or the right. Of course they are betting that with illegals, Sharia, welfare, and government employees that they will rule.
That coming day is what Ben and the rest of his ilk (George Will, Romney) cannot get their heads around.
My supposition with regard to this would be the instance of a Democrat President declaring an emergency and sending billions to the UN to fight Global WarmingTM.
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I suppose that could be tried, but it seems a far cry from the “clear and present” problem that illegals flooding across one’s border seems.
The Democrats do not see the border issue as a crisis. They are more than likely to say that the next SCOTUS nominee is a crisis. Their world is psychedelic. Or better, PSYCHO-delic.
I like Shapiro even when he is way off base on this one in my opinion. Opinions create critical thinking,thoughtful dialogue and problem solving which is absolutely absent in anything the left is doing in this situation.
How can this guy write an entire essay about Checks and Balances and not mention our tyrannical federal judges?
Re: “The Democrats do not see the border issue as a crisis.”
If 80% of immigrants voted Republican, it would definitely be a crisis.
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