This past election has been interesting. Interesting as in the old Chinese curse, “My you live in interesting times,” kind of way.
The election has produced a level of fear, paranoia, hate and vitriol, the likes of which I have not seen before in my soon to be 63 years on this little blue ball, which we all call home. Face Book, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media is abuzz with gloom and doom.
I just don’t understand it. Take for example, Trumps use of executive orders; For eight years, the supporters of Pres. Obama, defended the use of executive of orders to make changes to laws, even their use to bypass Congress.
Today, those same supporters of their past use, are on the news and social media, decrying the use of executive orders.
For the record, I don’t care who signs them, most are, in my view, unconstitutional. But does the use of executive orders, to undo executive orders, constitute a constitutional problem? I’m not a lawyer, but in what I have studied of the constitution, undoing an unconstitutional law which bypassed Article 1 Section 1 Clause 1 of the Constitution is lawful.
What everyone seems to be missing in their rush to condemn Trump for doing what Obama did with their heartfelt approval, in the use of his executive orders, is the flaw with the entire system of their use. With the stroke of a pen, everything the previous administration did in bypassing the constitutional requirements of Article 1 Section 1 Clause 1, is being nullified.
The executive order giveth and a new executive order taketh, and all without the constitutional checks and balances needed to ensure our government doesn’t over reach.
Others on social media, are not that specific. Their dread is general, baseless, unarticulated;
Original Post; Today I discovered it's extremely hard to be productive while the place you live breaks the foundation it's supposedly built upon.
Response; Me too.
Response; Right? Jesus.
Response; Hi, country, or state? Or both? Or state of our country?
Response; Pick your poison?
Response; I'm a tad scared to my friend!!!
Response; I have felt ill since November
Response; Same problem. I've got two papers that need to be readied to submit to journals and I can't focus on them
While the above is public in that it is on social media, I have removed all names for reasons of privacy, The entire conversation is baffling to me. I am brand new to writing, I wrote, and published two books under an administration I abhorred, an administration that saw the reemergence of racial tensions, a deliberate attempt to divide a country that had, until the past 8 years, worked hard heal some deep wounds. I know the original poster, he is brilliant writer. He has helped me grow as writer, and helped me to view the world on the whole, much differently than before. I have learned empathy for my protagonists, to see the world through the eyes of someone I could never personally be. Yet, I am still mystified by this attitude of “my guy can do all this, but yours can’t.” And the attitude that a smaller, limited, more constitutional government, is a bad thing, leading to all kinds of problems for the nation and, personal, if the above post are to be believed, disasters.
Don’t get me wrong, the Right believed Obama was going to be a disaster, and one of world shattering proportions, but we got up the next morning, not to riot, not to destroy, not to block traffic, even when most of our fears played out before our eyes. No, we got up and went to work, we did out jobs. We did what we always did, and will always do, live our lives as peacefully as we are allowed to.