For years, partisan opinion has largely dominated the allegation that the GOP has privileged its parochial interests over the country's welfare. As if there ever existed any real question as to the veracity of the opposition's contention, its long-standing indictment is no longer grounded in mere opinion or garden-variety partisan adversity. That the GOP's narrow self-indulgence lies in sharp contradistinction to the nation's much greater interests is now a demonstrably indisputable fact of our two-party system.
The NY Times:
Some top Republicans, led by Mr. McConnell, pivoted quickly to say they supported the president’s [national emergency] action because it was the only option left to him after Congress failed to meet his demands for wall funding….
Trump exerts a powerful hold on his party, and lawmakers are cowed by the belief that opposing him will end in their political destruction….
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida spoke for many House Republicans in praising the president’s action. "I’m proud of our president for boldly declaring he will not allow politics to stand in the way of the United States’ national security interests."
"Proud" Mr. Gaetz undoubtedly is, but he erred in his usage of "politics." Rather, the president has lawlessly declared he will not allow the United States Constitution to stand in his way of confronting a fabricated national emergency. On this, Article I is unambiguous: Congress, exclusively, authorizes and appropriates funding for federal initiatives. All chief executives have at times discovered our founding document's critical separation of powers and institutional checks and balances to be, let's say, inconvenient in their occasional pursuit of an imperial presidency. None, however, has so brazenly, illegally, unconstitutionally defied these paramount hallmarks of American governance.
Trump's declaration was also in no way "bold." It was a cowardly, premeditated, impeachable abuse of power, not to mention traitorous — all in pursuit of a presidential monarchy, merely to placate his party's increasingly precarious base. And his party's congressional allies are shamelessly complicit.
For a number of days now I've been out of physical commission, resulting as well in what I feared was mental unfitness for anything approaching coherent writing. So I spared you, although again, my apologies for being AWOL, however unavoidable. Still, I kid you not, I have found that my grim, somatic disabilities were personally preferable to finally reading the news.
The nearly always bughouse Ann Coulter has nevertheless said quite soberly that "The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot." Well, idiot presidents we have suffered before. But never an incontrovertible traitor — and with his party mostly behind him.