Letters to the Editor: Congress should work toward getting its constitutional powers back
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- A Simi Valley reader says Democrats should prioritize restoring Congress’ constitutional authority over laws, war and treaties rather than pursuing retribution against President Trump.
- The letter says presidential power has expanded for decades and calls for a constitutional amendment rejecting the “unitary executive” theory.
To the editor: I appreciated Mark Z. Barabak’s published thoughts on the election (“For Trump, Democratic blowout is a stark personal repudiation,” Nov. 3). I too believe that the electorate is volatile. Before the midterms, I could have easily believed Americans would vote to keep Republicans in power.
Reckoning versus healing is probably the key question for Democrats. Personally, I feel that a reckoning that focuses on President Trump’s many misdeeds (maybe crimes), rather than on undoing his policies, would be destructive to the wellbeing of the great mass of Americans, and would swing the volatile electorate back away from Democrats.
Congressional Democrats might be able to work with Republicans if they focus on recovering the powers assigned by the Constitution to Congress, yet ceded to presidents. America has slowly evolved from a republic to a kind of democratically elected monarchy. That didn’t start with Trump, though arguably he turned the knob to 11. Perhaps Republicans, thinking about future Democratic presidents, would even be willing to override a Trump veto.
Article I is clear: Only Congress makes the rules (a.k.a. laws) or declares war. Article II makes the president responsible for ensuring the rules are faithfully executed, not for making the rules. That applies to foreign relations: The Constitution empowers the president to “make Treaties,” yet only when subject to active involvement and supermajority approval of the Senate.
Finally, how about a constitutional amendment to strike down the “unitary executive”? “Unitary,” of course, never appears in the Constitution. Justices simply made up this theory out of thin air. It seems to me a true conservative would welcome this.
Bob Wieting, Simi Valley
