There’s nothing like a crisis to bring clarity. The response of some mayors and governors to the coronavirus pandemic in recent days has made it clear they think they have unlimited and arbitrary power over their fellow citizens, that they can order them to do or not do just about anything under the guise of protecting public health.

We’ve now witnessed local and state governments issue decrees about what people can and cannot buy in stores, arrest parents playing with their children in public parks, yank people off public buses at random, remove basketball rims along with private property, ticket churchgoers, and in one case try—and fail—to chase down a lone runner on an empty beach. All of this, we’re told, is for our own good. – John Daniel Davision, TheFederalist.com, 4/13/2020

FoxNews.com reports that

A group of House members authored a new one-sentence resolution to remind President Trump of the limits on his power and challenged anyone in the House to vote against it.

Reps. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and Justin Amash, I-Mich., sponsored the resolution that “affirms when someone is the president of the United States, their authority is not total.”

Malinowski tweeted that since House business can only pass unanimously until all members return to Washington, “I’m curious if anyone will object.”

Amash, a former Republican who is “closely” looking at a third-party run for office, said even the national emergency of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t give Trump “magical” powers.

The House effort comes after Trump declared Monday in a White House briefing that he alone has the power to reopen schools, businesses and the economy because the president has full power.

“When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to to be. It’s total. It’s total, and the governors know that,” Trump said.

Trump’s declaration was met by wide rebuke especially since it was governors who issued stay-at-home orders and states enjoy powers through the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Not to mention that the federal government’s authority is divided among the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Even Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., tweeted out disapproval for Trump’s assertion of “total” power.

Governors, meanwhile, are working together to develop their own regional plans to reopen their states from weekslong closures of restaurants, schools and businesses — arguing they have the authority to make the call.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN on Tuesday that if Trump ordered states to reopen before he is ready to do so, he would defy the order and fight the administration in court.

“We don’t have a king in this country,” Cuomo said. “We didn’t want a king, so we have a Constitution and we elect a president.”

Per the Congressional Research Service,

The President of the United States has available certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war, or near-war situations). Such powers may be stated explicitly or implied by the Constitution, assumed by the Chief Executive to be permissible constitutionally, or inferred from or specified by statute.

What Governor Cuomo said is exactly right, believe it or not.

We do not have a king.

However, we are a country of UNITED states, not individual kingdoms.

The towns, cities and states, which seem to be majority Democrat-governed, who have gone overboard in restricting liberty during the Chinese Coronavirus must have someone over them so that they may be held responsible for their actions.

For example, in Greenville, MS, the mayor had the police place citations on the car windows of those Christians who attended a Drive-in Church Service on Easter Sunday morning. This caught the attention of Attorney General William Barr, who is siding with the churchgoers and is looking in to the situation.

I believe that what the President was doing, in his own inimitable way, was purposefully calling attention to these “kingdoms” which have sprung up across the country in order to emphasis the need to get Americans back to work as quickly and safely as possible in the most effective way that we can.

His plan for a committee of “experts” in their fields of endeavors to meet and to come up with a plan is hardly dictatorial or kingly. It’s a CEO, or in this case, a President, calling on the brightest minds, with knowledge of the real world and not just academia, available to come up with a solution to get the engine of Capitalism running again.

Please take note of those who are throwing a fit about what Trump said on Monday evening.

Isn’t it funny how some politicians, especially Democrats, who have never had any use for the Constitution before, always bring it up when their scheme which would harm our country are found out?

It is nice to know that we can count on the Democrats for something, even if it’s just their out-of-control Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Until He Comes,

KJ