Opinion Column: MAGA, or whatever: No Clean Water, No Healthcare, and a Constitutional Crisis. But Look! A Military Parade!

Editor’s Note: This opinion column contains language and topics that are not family-friendly.

Another week, another handful of essential government programs cut by Executive Order.

I lost or pissed off at least half of you with the word “essential.”

And, look – I actually get it.

You’re sick of seeing your tax dollars spent on programs you don’t use (or don’t think you use), and don’t see the need for.

I hear you.

Hell, I might even agree with you, if it weren’t for the pesky fact that covering government for a coupla decades has shown me that most folks are woefully unaware of just how many government services they use/are contributing to their daily quality of life.

Pair that with the irrefutable fact that the current Presidential Administration is spending more money – your money, my money, our money – than any administration previous, and the justifications for your moral outrage at paying for shit you don’t personally think you use crumbles like much of this nation’s infrastructure.

(An easy example? Trump’s birthday/military parade is gonna cost us taxpayers $45 million – I, for one, could think of 45 million better uses for that money…But here we are.)

I’m not going to lie to you and claim impartiality here. Trump’s cuts have already hit too close to home for me to claim I have no “dog in this fight.”

I work with a water conservation group that ensures the water we drink and use for recreation is safe for human consumption. I think that’s pretty essential. Trump disagrees. Hope you’re not feeling thirsty.

My husband works for an international healthcare organization that brings essential medicines to poor communities throughout the world. I think that’s pretty essential. Trump disagrees. Hope you don’t ever find yourself sick in Central America, South America, Africa, or Asia. (And don’t All Lives Matter?)

A dear friend works for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The importance of that institution is easily gleaned from its name. I think preventing widespread disease is pretty essential. Trump? Disagrees.

So the cuts keep coming.

The job losses keep coming…

In fact it seems the only thing Trump hasn’t cut is government spending. (Ironic, as that was his stated goal…)

His failure to limit government spending, coupled with the fact that he’s making these decisions unilaterally is actually a really big problem. You see, there’s a lot of big talk going ‘round about “Defending the Constitution”… but y’all’ve been suspiciously quiet about Trump running roughshod over the part of The Constitution that lays out the Separation of Powers.

A history lesson for those folks who’ve forgotten (or failed) 8^th grade Civics: when the United States was founded, the Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, created a system of checks and balances wherein Congress (Legislative Branch) makes the laws, the President (Executive Branch) enforces the laws, and the Supreme Court (Judiciary Branch) interprets the laws.

In addition to these functions, each branch exists to be a “check” on the other, ensuring no individual branch goes power-mad and derails all of democracy.

Rule by Executive Order, as we’re experiencing today, throws off the balance of power.

All these cuts we’re seeing?

Under the Constitution – which we all love and wanna fight for, remember? – Congress (especially the House of Representatives) is supposed to control the government purse strings. Sure, the President proposes a budget, but it’s up to Congress to take up (or not) that budget and allocate funds.

Rule by Executive Order – especially when used in peacetime, for a non-emergency, to purposefully circumvent Congress and its role in financial checks and balances – is as contrary to The Constitution as Obama showing up at your house to take your guns.

And for those of you who’ll happily accept this assault on democracy because it’s “punishing” the people and institutions you wanna see taken down a peg?

Trump is setting a precedent. And he won’t always be President.

If you accept today that a President can flout the Provision of Powers in The Constitution, then you must accept that the next administration – which might not share your same opinions on which people and institutions need “punishing” – is entitled to act according to Trump’s precedent.

And if you’re honest with yourself, you don’t want that.

(I bet you DO want clean water though. Just a thought.)

I am, admittedly, that most hated of voters in this polarized political climate: The Centrist. The Moderate. The person who sees each extreme as exactly that: extreme.

I’ve voted for members of both major parties, and for independents when both of those parties have pissed me off to a degree I could no longer stomach, so this OpEd isn’t something you should write off as a Looney Liberal Leftist’s case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. (You will. But you shouldn’t.)

If you are a Trump loving Republican, and you are reading this:

1.     Thanks for making it this far. I applaud your sticking with it, even if it was just to give you fodder for your hate mail, which I look forward to receiving. But, while furiously typing your manifesto on my idiocy and incompetence, please consider:

2.     I came of age when Republican leadership included some of the nation’s most lauded public servants. John McCain immediately comes to mind, because he was a man I (and damn near everyone in the nation, regardless of party) held in great respect. And when y’all turned on him in favor of Trump, many of your family, friends, and colleagues looked you in your face and didn’t know you anymore. Because you cannot elevate a man like John McCain, and then topple him for a man like Donald Trump, and claim that the Republican Party hasn’t changed. It has. If Trump Derangement Syndrome exists, that is its definition.

Well, I’m all out of words and all out of fucks. Will my editor let me print ‘fuck’ in this publication? We’ll find out.

We’ll also find out if that word offends you more than the current President’s insistence that The Constitution is ‘meh,’ and that you don’t deserve clean water or access to healthcare.

MAGA, or whatever.

Note: This is an opinion article as designated by the the category placement on this website. It is not news coverage. If this disclaimer is funny to you, it isn’t aimed at you — but some of your friends and neighbors honestly have trouble telling the difference.