Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
Even under a President such as Donald J. Trump, whom I both like and support, there should be limits to the power of the United States Federal Government. We cannot condone Federal overreach just because we happen to approve of the policy or of the man who is trying to implement it.
Both within and beyond the United States, large cities have always faced challenges of crime, poverty, squalor, machine politics, and corruption. Hammurabi’s Code of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” indicates that these difficulties were well known in Babylon even 3,775 years ago.
Our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., has long been a proverbial hive of scum and villainy. Twenty years ago, the Bethesda video game “Fallout 3” was set in a post-apocalyptic Capital Wasteland. Many who knew the real city well said that the game version (which included both hungry giant scorpions and homicidal super-mutants) was more wholesome and safer than the current-day city.
In big cities, the patronage of politicians-on-the-take locks desperately impoverished individuals into a servile role. To keep their welfare flowing, these dependent adults blindly support their patron’s ambitions and blithely excuse his or her peccadilloes. Objective judgment, the necessary quality of all free citizens, is impossible when a dependent needs a leader’s help to survive.
Along with a critical mass of Americans, I enthusiastically support President Trump’s surge of troops and resources into this crime-ridden hellscape. Early reports indicate an improvement in the quality of life of residents that is so conspicuous that even a few Democrats couldn’t keep from acknowledge it.
Washington D.C. is unique among American cities in that it is a Federal territory. The President and Congress have the Constitutional role of governing it. In the past, they have permitted the development of a Mayoral-City Council system to administer the city. But, this pretense of self-government masks the reality that the Federal government has the ultimate say in what transpires within the District of Columbia.
Because of this, the second Trump administration has been able to take the remarkable step of suspending normal city rhythms to restore the rule of law. Residents who have for decades been prey to anarchic savages can now begin to live like civilians within their neighborhoods.
Trump has gambled that he can demonstrate how to restore civil society in a former war zone. If his efforts in Washington D.C. succeed, a better alternative than that of compromised Democrats will have been revealed to every American. Urban elections might then be won by locals who wish to emulate Trump’s approach.
This is what our Constitutional Federal Republic requires. Citizen voters who live everywhere outside of the District of Columbia genuinely have self-government. The enfranchised legal residents of cities must bestir themselves and shoulder the burdens of citizenship. Many might vote Republican for the first time in their lives.
However, in his enthusiasm to save American lives and restore peace and prosperity, President Trump has publicly indicated that he will try to impose a Washington D.C. style solution to failed communities like Chicago and Los Angeles.
I appreciate his desire for decisive action. However, it is not the role of the President of the United States to manage law enforcement within our states and cities. In fact, the Federal government has a very limited role in law enforcement. It is the states and municipalities which are entrusted with the policing powers of law enforcement.
This separation of powers is both right and good for our liberty. It is nothing less than absolutely necessary for our ongoing freedom. Our Founding Fathers understood well what both the Romans of the Republic and the philosopher Montesquieu knew about governmental power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Shakespeare expressed it. To concentrate authority in a single office or to trust any individual with limitless power is to court dictatorial tyranny.
Our American Federal Republic separates authority between localities, the states and the Federal government and also between a legislature (House of Representatives, Senate), an executive (Governor or President), and a judiciary (State and Federal Courts and the U.S. Supreme Court).
The inevitable inefficiency in such dispersion of authority was intentional. The Founders acknowledged that there were occasions when any government must be effective in order to survive, such as in wartime. However, they concluded that such occasions were the exception and not the norm.
Our system intentionally retards swift and decisive change. Usually, any lasting change requires a consistent electoral preference expressed by voters over from six to twelve years. The Founding Fathers did not want a system where, in a single election, a panicked electorate could replace our Republic with the rule of one man, one party, and one political philosophy.
I am nothing less than grateful for the restoration of America that President Trump is leading. But, even in the face of disaster zones like our big cities, no U.S. President should be permitted to Federalize law enforcement.
The problems inherent to such a centralization of power have been recently illustrated by the disgraceful politicization of Obama and Biden’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Robert Mueller, James Comey, Peter Sztrok, Lisa Page are only the most famous Federal agents who betrayed their public trust in order to favor Democrats over Republicans.
Trump’s National Guard surge in D.C. is an example of what could be done to save our cities. It cannot be a first step in a program to federalize law enforcement. Politicians should not have access to a so potent a tool of oppression. If our cities are to be saved, it cannot be by Donald Trump. Their citizens must vote to save themselves.
