Latest assault on democracy
By Max Boot
May 25 at 5:57 PM
... Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely, Acton wrote. Great men are almost always bad men. The longer Trump spends in office, the more he realizes what he can do as president and the fewer aides remain who will tell him that there are certain things he should not do. He is now surrounded by lickspittles who will affirm, on command, that he is an extremely stable genius. Every abuse of power, when left unchecked, leads to a bigger abuse. The latest but far from final result is the wholesale assault on democracy launched by the president this past week, building on his prior assaults.
In February, Trump declared an emergency to spend money that Congress had not appropriated to build a border wall that the country doesnt need. Only 10 percent of congressional Republicans opposed him. So now, having decided that rule-by-fiat suits him, Trump is using his emergency powers to bypass Congress to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Both the House and Senate have voted to end support for the Saudi war in Yemen, but, having vetoed that resolution, Trump appears determined to remove Congress from any oversight role in the sale of weapons to the murderers of Jamal Khashoggi.
Congress must reclaim its powers, tweeted Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), the lone Republican to call for Trumps richly deserved impeachment. When will the legislative branch stand up to the executive branch? At this rate, the answer is: Never. At least not while a Republican sits in the White House and Republicans control the Senate ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/25/trumps-latest-assault-democracy/?utm_term=.83bb40a55e5b
The former rightwing Iraq war enthusiast seems to dislike Trump