Trump, Hitler, And The Enabling Act By Jacob G. Hornberger!!!
(2019-01-14 at 14:49:31 )

Trump, Hitler, and the Enabling Act by Jacob G. Hornberger

The terrorists had just fire-bombed the German Parliament building. Even worse, it turned out that the terrorists were communists.

German leader Adolf Hitler sought emergency powers to deal with the crisis. After heated debate within the German Reichstag, the German legislators gave Hitler the emergency powers that he was seeking.

The legislators made it clear, however, that the grant of these extraordinary powers was only temporary. Hitler dutifully returned to the Reichstag until the day he died to secure a periodic renewal of what became known as the Enabling Act.

President Trump is now threatening to declare an immigration emergency, which, he says, will give him the omnipotent authority to build his wall on the United States-Mexico border without congressional authority.

That would, needless to say, constitute classic dictatorial conduct!!

We live under a governmental system in which the United States Congress enacts the laws and the president carries them out.

No matter how badly the president wants his wall, it is up to peoples elected representatives in the United States Congress to make the decision. So far, they have said no.

And yet, here is President Trump declaring that he might just build his wall anyway, Americas democratic system be damned.

On what legal basis does President Trump make such an extraordinary threat in a country that supposedly prides itself on being based on democratic rule???

Well, it turns out that in 1976, Congress enacted an Enabling Act of its own, delegating to the president the power to declare an emergency, as he defines it, and assume emergency powers to deal with it.

There is one big problem with all this: The United States Constitution.

Only do not expect the federal courts to declare President Trumps actions or Congress Enabling Act unconstitutional.

When it comes to "National Security," the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, rolled over and deferred to the president and the national-security establishment a long time ago.

The United States Constitution controls the actions of both the president and the Congress.

It is the higher law that we the people have imposed on the federal government. The Constitution called the federal government into existence, not the other way around. And when it did, it made the federal government subject to the provisions, conditions, and limitations within the United States Constitution itself.

Soon after the federal government was brought into existence, the American people added ten amendments to the Constitution, which expressly limited the powers of the federal government in several ways.

A close examination of both the Constitution reveals that there is no delegation of emergency powers to the president. There is also no authority given Congress to delegate emergency powers to the president. And among the restrictions on power in the Bill of Rights, there is no exception for emergencies.

Does that mean that crises and emergencies were unheard of in the late 1790s? Of course not. There have been crises and emergencies throughout history.

So, why then, did anyone not, including James Madison, who crafted the Constitution, include a delegation of emergency powers to the president or authorize the Congress to give him emergency powers??

The answer is: because our American ancestors knew that to include such powers or authority would serve to destroy the liberty of the American people.

Throughout history, people have lost their liberty at the hands of their own government during so-called crises or emergencies.

It is particularly during those periods of time that freedom is most endangered, Crises and emergencies are the time-honored opportunity that political rulers use to seize dictatorial power.

That is how Hitler did it. It is how dictators throughout history have done it. It is how foreign dictators today do it.

That is why there is no grant of emergency powers to the president in the United States Constitution, the document that controls the actions of the president and the Congress.

The Framers did not want the president to have emergency powers.

Our ancestors also knew that historically rulers were prone to create or incite crises in order to have the justification for assuming dictatorial powers.

In Hitlers case, it has long been suspected that he had secret agents do the firebombing.

In the so-called immigration crisis on which President Trump is basing his threat of assuming dictatorial powers, the "crisis" is one that is inherent to a system of immigration controls, which both political parties-Democrats and Republicans-have maintained for decades.

The reason for this ongoing, never-ending crisis is simple: Being based on the socialist economic concept of central planning, immigration controls inevitably produce chaos and crises.

That is what socialism always does.

So, notice what President Trump is doing: He is seizing upon the chaos and "crisis" that his own socialist immigration system naturally produces as a justification for adopting dictatorial powers.

And where does it end??

Drug prohibition has produced a drug-war crisis. Social Security has produced a Social Security crisis. Medicare and Medicaid have produced a healthcare crisis. Our-of-control federal spending has produced a debt crisis. Trade wars with China and others have produced a farm crisis. Foreign interventionism has produced a terrorism crisis.

It is not difficult to see where this process ends. Just ask the Germans.

Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!