By Dan Cuda
I expect that most of the Senate Democrats that shut down the U.S. government participated in the nationwide “No Kings” rallies of October 18th. Taken in its best light, “No Kings” as a movement simply supports the rule of law. Of course, we have “No Kings.” On this 99% of Americans can agree. Yet this is all nonsense. These protests were much more plausibly about opposition to President Trump, as was the government shutdown. But interestingly, there is an odd disconnect between the ideas that shut down the government and the nominal ideas of the “No Kings” protest. In a strange way, the shutdown works contrary to the “No Kings” movement.
Shutting down the government seems to move us further away from constitutional democracy and closer to something like Monarchy. Maybe it’s more like anarchy than monarchy. That elected legislators would cripple a functioning government with its soldiers, air traffic controllers, and TSA employees either furloughed or working without pay, this dances on the edge of an abyss. This is not government operating in conjunction with the rule of law, it is government barely operating through patriotism, professionalism, and simple grit. Thanks to our fellow citizens for nominally working without pay.
The issues Senate Democrats seek to highlight is that of healthcare. Specifically, health care subsidies embedded within a thousand pages of law and a million pages of regulation. These have - SURPRISE! - presented some Americans with an end to their subsidies. For this we can all be concerned. Concerned and perplexed as we try to understand why this is being debated as we shut down the government. Shouldn’t this be debated within a Congressional committee where better government is created, away from the lights of a TV camera or a social media post? Debated this way, demagoguery, exaggeration, and posturing rule the day.
Monarchies in the light of street protests and demagoguery lurch from expedient to expedient. So here is where the shut down and “No Kings” diverge. Senate Democrats invite President Trump to get involved and tell his alleged subjects in the Senate to negotiate and remove this Health Care issue from the docket. This really is monarchy. What is really constitutional is treating this as an issue for the Senate to debate in regular order, not under the extraordinary circumstances of shutdown. Government by law and constitution was in operation until October 1st. Elected legislators sent by the people voted – perhaps even voted wrongly – but they voted in consequence of an election. This shutdown is a move towards anarchy that weakens the rule of law and moves us even closer to the dictates of one person.
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Dan Cuda is a former candidate for County Council (District 2) and current member of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee.