Republicans Are Learning to Love Unconstrained Executive Power.
Just like their counterparts in the Democratic Party do!
Do Republicans and Democrats have any respect for what makes America the country it is? When it comes to the country’s political foundations, it doesn’t look that way.
Some countries are defined by culture, others by ethnicity, and still others by language. The United States is defined by a shared, if imperfectly implemented and frayed, political tradition of limited government and personal freedom. It’s a little worrying, then, when supporters of the major political parties show disdain for the constitutional constraints that supposedly embody that political tradition.
“The share of Republicans who say presidents could operate more effectively if they did not have to worry so much about Congress and the courts increased 16 percentage points over the past year, from 27% in March 2018 to 43% this past July,” Pew Research Center noted this week.
Not coincidentally, the current president is Donald Trump, who was elected as a Republican. Skepticism about congressional and judicial restraints on presidential power are strongest among conservatives who make up the core of Trump’s support. In the poll, 52 percent of conservative Republicans agree that “many of the country’s problems could be dealt with more effectively if U.S. presidents didn’t have to worry so much about Congress or the courts.” By contrast, 68 percent of liberal to moderate Republicans say it would be “too risky” to give presidents more power, essentially unchanged from last year.
Republicans Are Learning to Love Unconstrained Executive Power
Executive Power Do Republicans and Democrats have any respect for what makes America the country it is? When it comes to the country’s political foundations, it doesn’t look that way. Some countries are defined by culture, others by ethnicity, and still others by language.