Whether or not Congress can find a way to authorize military force against ISIS is actually more interesting than whether they should or not. Because, if Congress is simply incapable of authorizing force, not because they don’t want to but because they’re incompetent, then they can’t really fulfill that constitutional role. And it will be taken away from them by necessity.
You can argue that this role has already been taken away from them, and, to a degree, it has.
What’s different this time is that we’re on the verge of reaching the point where most people will have to agree that that’s a good thing.
It would be different if Congress refused authorization because they opposed the use of military force. That’s their prerogative. That’s what they’re supposed to decide.
This is an example of them not being able to authorize force that they do support because they hate and mistrust each other and the president too much.
Our republic depends on a functionality that no longer exists.
That whether they should or could everyone, including Obama and his strategy team, is counting on them not.
the republicans’ terrible twos “no no no” is pitiful
because their primary institutions become dysfunctional… Do Republican’s realize the degree to which the USA’s standing has been damaged by 2 unsuccessful wars, the economic crash, and their failure to address just about any major global problem in a coherent way?
Do our elites realize the degree to which the USA’s standing has been damaged by 2 unsuccessful wars, the economic crash, and their failure to address just about any major global problem in a coherent way?
Fixed!! Because it’s not only GOPers. It’s Democratic elites as well.
Phil, can you do me a favor and shoot me an email real quick? I just want to check something out.
Thus, if a Republican run Congress can not make decisions then they must be removed from office ASAP for they are a threat to National Security.
There is something more than vaguely…Hitlerian…about this comment. I am sure…I hope, anyway…that it was not meant in that way. It is quite close to the same thing that Hitler said when he essentially dissolved his legislature. “They cannot take care of business…let’s just get rid of them.” Or words to that effect, anyway. Look how well thatturned out.
AG
If we leave it would be a good thing. So I don’t see any reason to take the choice away from Congress. In general, if there’s dithering about going to war, it’s a good idea to stay out.
ISIS exists only because of the chaos created by Dick and George’s Excellent Adventure. So what exactly makes our “defense” elites think that THIS time, we will magically find a way to make things better instead of worse?
Back in the Cheney Administration I used to jest they were laying the groundwork for our Little Tin Pot Dictator to declare Martial Law, dissolve Congress as dyfunctional if not obstructionist, and “postpone” the election. Not necessarily an implausible scenario, nor am I certain history would qualify Obama as tin pot dictator if he did so.
Seriously folks, the only way out of this mess is a radical departure from the way things have been.
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to
subscribe to your newsletterjoin your guerrilla band in the Sierra MaestreWe desperately need to revamp our horse and buggy constitution, yet the thought of the kinds of psychopaths who would undoubtedly get elected to a Constitutional Convention inspires stark terror. We’re really in a serious bind.
In the very very long run, one of the biggest virtues of our peculiar Constitution is that the separation of powers isn’t as categorical as you might think it ought to be, leaving some flexibility. It’s not just the familiar story of one branch being able to stop the other when it gets out of line, but also of one branch being able to step in when the others become unable to function. When Congress couldn’t do its job on civil rights in the 1950s, the Supreme Court showed up. When the presidency became nonfunctional in the 1970s, Congress became more proactive. It wasn’t a great job, but it kept things going.
Now is the era when we find out what the president can do when the other branches are both awol. We’re just incredibly lucky that it’s Obama, who finds creative ways of getting things done as with immigration and who restricts himself to the extent he’s done in military adventures–I know it’s still too much for most of us but imagine President McCain.
I certainly wouldn’t be one of those people. There is no existential threat that requires us to go to war against ISIS. If our government is so disfunctional that they can’t take a simple vote, then we should take it as a sign that we have to get our house back in order here before we engage on another trillion dollar adventure.