sonora2sonoma

Not wanting to focus entirely on gloom with regard to the president’s decision to declare a national emergency as a means to repair his damaged ego, and being in the habit of analyzing the possible consequences of various responses to a given situation, I found some hope amid the melancholy—some reason, unlikely as it may seem, for optimism.

Should the president’s declaration of a national emergency survive court challenges and be successful, what would prevent a future Democrat in the oval office from using the same means to address two issues that by any reasonable definition are real bona-fide national emergencies here and now—climate change and gun violence?

I’m aware this isn’t a new idea, but it’s only appeared in the news so far as a kind of admonishment to Republicans in congress who are viewed as supportive of the president’s declaration to make them mindful of the dangers of setting precedents.

Don’t get me wrong! We should support every effort to challenge what the president is attempting to do. I’m just saying if those efforts should fail and the precedent is set, why not consider the newly confirmed presidential prerogative a tool to employ to address actual issues posing real threats to our country and the world.

To use the fruit of the Republicans’ abused logic, twisted reasoning and cowardly capitulation as a tool to undo the environmental mayhem resulting from the president’s deregulation agenda and blunt the effects of the insidious cloud of intimidation and misinformation issuing forth from the NRA would be a wholly appropriate response to the cancerous miasma of the trump/McConnell partnership.

Tim Konrad