King Donald

It's the day after the Inauguration. I completed the MLK Day of Service, and then I watched President Trump sign executive orders as part of the ceremony. This all made sense to me. Executive orders represent an expansion of presidential power.  Executive orders are a way for President Trump to expand the power of the presidency and allow him to expand his party across populations that would not traditionally align themselves with Republicans.  It is fitting that the president used executive orders as part of his ceremony. But, it is my opinion that President Trump is moving us toward a statist monarchy over time. 

As you know, we have three supposedly equal branches of government.  However, the federal government has continued to grow larger over the years, creating what could be arguably called a fourth branch of government. The court system defers to the Congress. In phrases like "all things necessary and proper for carrying into execution" and "to promote the general welfare," we have the Social Security Administration and a national bank. The growth of federal agencies and employees is at an all-time high today. When most government programs are started, they are started with very good intentions. These programs become institutionalized after a few years, and the services that they provide can become secondary to their own survival. At the end of any fiscal year for these programs, it is common to see a spending spree when there is money left over in the budget. The thought by the bureaucrats is, "if we don't spend it, we will get less money next year." All of these pressures make government continue to grow beyond efficiency.

Article Two of the Constitution gives the president the power to use his discretion to determine how to enforce a law. This is especially true of laws that are funded by the federal government. In light of our current president, it is ironic that Democrats have used executive orders more than Republicans. Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson passed the most executive orders among the presidents, but of course, they both were presidents in a time of government emergency. In more modern times, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used executive orders expeditiously. President Obama said, "I've got a pen and I've got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward." He had a phone to negotiate the law with Congress, but it was much easier for him to sign an order. The growth of the federal government has steadily increased the power of executive orders. They have been used for all kinds of purposes. Perhaps the most famous of them is the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in the South from slavery during the Civil War. This executive order, written by President Lincoln, the founder of the Republican Party, was an order to ensure equality. Many executive orders over the years have been used for this purpose, and the expansion of the federal government has made them more effective over time.

The Republicans prioritize liberty over equality. They have traditionally fought for a smaller federal government. Republican presidents have also used executive powers. Calvin Coolidge ranks #3 on the list with 1,203. Whereas many of the executive orders of Democrats support equality, diversity, and inclusion, many Republican orders support liberty and exclusion. Of course, there are exceptions, the most famous example being Roosevelt's order #9066 that led to the internment camps for Japanese Americans in WWII. So generally speaking, Republicans choose to execute orders that prioritize liberty and individualism, and Democrats the opposite.

This brings us to a quandary for President Trump. He seems poised to beat all past presidents in the use of executive orders. Since executive orders are empowered by a growth in government, then how will President Trump drain the swamp with a DOGE executive order and empower his orders at the same time? It is here that we must introduce two more political parties: the Statists and the Libertarians. The Statist Party would prioritize order, ultimately leading to monarchy. The Libertarian Party prioritizes disorder, which promotes individualism. All of political perspectives have value, but my premise is that no one party should take over our government. The tension of all these philosophies upon one another produces values like the concept of American Freedom.

The Libertarian Party is a party that cannot operate apart from order. It is only when laws are passed that jeopardize individual expression that the Libertarian philosophy of individual rights becomes important. The best example of this is the passage of a Bill of Rights after the Constitution was already written. A Bill of Rights guarantees individual rights not protected in a document dedicated to the common good. 

Our current president has been able to expand his party by leveraging the pressures of both Statists and Libertarians. His pardon of the January 6th. rioters validated their disorderly protest and won support from this camp. His use of executive orders garners support from the Stateist camp. Ultimately, if people feel that their standard of living is increasing, they will forgo individual liberties for greater government oversight. The ultimate government oversight expressed by the statists is a monarchy. Unfortunately for President Trump, it is ironic that a decrease in the federal government will give executive orders less impact. This will make the path to monarchy less predictable. However, it is not impossible to predict a King Donald in our future. If this wave of populism continues, it's easy to see how the feel-good narcotic of contentment would allow President Trump to be re-elected not to an unconstitutional third term, but to a monarchy that has no term limit.