Donald Trump, Democratic Dictator by Jacob G. Hornberger!
(2019-08-26 at 22:25:27 )

Donald Trump, Democratic Dictator by Jacob G. Hornberger

Some people think that the United States is safe from dictatorship because the country is a democracy. It is only in totalitarian countries, they hold, that people are subject to dictatorship.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Such people are confusing how a ruler gets elected with the powers that the ruler has after being elected. A democratically elected ruler can wield and exercise dictatorial powers.

Case in point: President Donald Trump. He is the democratically elected president of the United States. He also wields and exercises dictatorial power over the American people.

The system of government that the Framers established with the Constitution provided for three branches of government - executive, legislative, and judicial. The United States Constitution delegated certain powers to each branch. The legislative branch was charged with enacting laws, including laws that imposed taxes on people. The executive branch was charged with enforcing the laws. The judicial branch was charged with interpreting the laws and, if need be, declaring them unconstitutional.

In a dictatorship, the dictator does not have to concern himself with legislation or judicial interpretation. What he says goes. When he issues a dictate, it automatically becomes set in stone as the law.

President Trumps conduct in his trade war with China confirms how far the United States has gone in the direction of a democratically elected dictatorship.

Notice that President Trump initiated his trade war all on his own, by unilaterally raising tariffs on products that are imported from China. He did not go to Congress and seek a law that raised tariffs. He just issued the dictate that raised tariffs.

That is classic dictatorship. The ruler issues an order, which automatically becomes law. And keep in mind that a tariff is nothing more than a sales tax on foreign goods.

The people who pay that tax are United States of Americans who purchase Chinese goods. Therefore, under the dictatorial system under which modern-day Americans live, the democratically elected dictator wields the authority to levy whatever amounts of taxes he wishes to collect from the American people.

Over the weekend, the American people received another stark example of President Trumps dictatorial conduct.

Angry over the fact that China has not bowed to his demands and instead is retaliating with its own tariffs on American products, President Trump declared, "Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China including bringing..your companies HOME and making your products in the USA."

That is an incredible command.

Did you ever think you live in a country where the ruler could issue orders to private individuals, as though they were in the army?

A necessary feature of a free society is that people are required to answer only to duly enacted laws, not to arbitrary and capricious orders and dictates of their ruler.

President Trump clearly does not get that.

He thinks that because he is "commander in chief" of the armed forces, that makes him the commanding officer of the United States of American people.

Congress is not innocent in this process, for it is Congress that has enacted laws delegating to the president the authority to issue these types of dictatorial decrees.

The Framers, however, never intended for one branch of government to delegate its powers to another branch of government.

Where is the federal judiciary in all this?

Is it not their job to declare laws that violate the Constitution unconstitutional. That is the way it used to be.

For example, in the 1935 case of A.L.A. Schechter v. United States, the Supreme Court declared the Franklin Roosevelt administrations fascist National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional. The Courts reason?

The law improperly delegated congressional power to enact laws to the president and, therefore, had to be declared unconstitutional.

So, why has the United States Supreme Court not done the same with respect to the laws on which President Trump is relying?

Two reasons:

First, shortly after President Roosevelt came out with his infamous "court-packing" scheme, which would enable him to pack the Court with cronies who would uphold his socialist and fascist programs, the Court made it clear that it would never again interfere with congressional enactments relating to economic activity. The Court has followed that policy ever since.

Second, the laws on which Trump is relying enable the president to cite "national security," the most important and meaningless term in the American political lexicon.

All that Trump has to do to justify his dictatorial orders, decrees, edicts, and dictates is declare "National Security is at stake."

At that point the issue is settled. That is because after the federal government was converted to a national-security state after World War II, the Supreme Court made it crystal clear that it would never second-guess any action of the president, the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency that is based on "National Security."

That is how the United States of America has ended up with a democratically elected dictator.

But hey, let us look at the bright side: At least President Trump is not as bad as Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the unelected conservative military dictator who the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency installed into power in Chile back in the 1970s.

Like President Trump, he too loved issuing decree-laws, without interference from a legislature or judiciary.

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