“Declare a National Health Emergency” and Other Ridiculous Ideas
A rough consensus is emerging, primarily among young and “progressive” voters that the Roe repeal is as much the Democrats’ fault as Republicans. “He didn’t try hard enough to force Manchin to vote against the filibuster,” or “they ignored the Republican takeover of the courts,” or “primary all of them and bring in new representatives,” or the extreme, “they haven’t done anything for us, why vote for them?” Now in the aftermath? “They need to do more.”
A few days ago, I heard “the Dems should censure Manchin and Sinema and remove them from their committee assignments.” Yes, that would be a brilliant move, most likely to culminate with Manchin crossing the aisle to caucus with the GOP, and therefore giving Republicans the majority. Guess what? No more committee chairs. No more judicial confirmations. For besides actually voting with the Democrats about 90% of the time, Manchin also gives them the Senate majority.
Making it worse are the “do something, anything” advocates. This can be a great idea (“Contract With America”) but if it gets people excited and then nothing can be done, that just magnifies the disappointment. Maybe the worst idea around right now is the plan to “establish abortion clinics on federal land.” That’s a great idea except for one problem: Fort Hood is still *in* Texas. Fort Benning is still *in* Georgia. Yes, it’s possible that Texas authorities would be unable to shut the clinic down, but guess what? If it’s a crime in Texas to get an abortion, it’s a crime to get an abortion at Fort Hood. And people who suggest that as a workaround are not just politically naive, they are also being incredibly irresponsible.
Equally far off the mark is the “Declare a National Health Emergency.” Which will allow the government to do… exactly nothing. The way national emergencies work is, declaring a national emergency of itself does nothing. It is a process to allow a president to invoke some law that is triggered by a national emergency. So if a president wants to seize foreign assets, or put sanctions on a foreign country, business, or individual, he/she declares a national emergency and then invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That’s a real thing. So if a president declared a “National Health Emergency” to protect the right to an abortion, he could then invoke all the legislation that allows abortion in a national emergency. I’ll wait for you to look those laws up. Take your time...
One of the most popular excuses to sit out this election to punish Democrats even more (AND create even more Republican judges) is “the Dems were asleep at the switch; they didn’t fight very hard about these justices.” That is quite simply not true. In my adult lifetime, the Dems have rejected three nominees (Clement Haynsworth, Harrold Carswell, and Robert Bork), made it clear they were going to reject Harriet Meier if Bush didn't withdraw her name, made a major issue of Clarence Thomas (52-48); and essentially voted as a party against every Republican nominee starting with the egregious Samuel Alito. Except for Chief Justice Roberts, no Republican currently serving on the Court received more than 58 votes and three of them (Thomas, Kavanagh, Coney Barrett) got 52 votes or fewer.
Since the 104th Congress, when a Republican Congress was elected as a reaction to Clinton’s tax increases and Newt Gingrich’s demagoguery (including the ‘Contract with America’), Republicans have controlled the Senate eight times, the Dems five, including the present 50:50 Senate. Yes, maybe the Dems should have fought harder. But maybe the real problem is that the Democrats should have turned out to vote.