A professor from Princeton University told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that the United States faces grave peril from President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration.
Eddie Glaude Jr., a professor of American Studies, sounded the alarm on the GOP letting Trump seize dictatorial powers. He discussed with co-host Joe Scarborough the acquiescence by the GOP to whatever actions the president takes.
Glaude said that the Republican Party’s members of Congress completely gave in to Trump after he invoked a national emergency to build his long-promised border wall without congressional approval. For weeks they had warned the president not to declare an emergency, but once he did it they fell silent.
Glaude also said the GOP’s leaders have now shown they’re willing to completely disregard the U.S. Constitution to further their goal of acquiring more political power. Especially dangerous according to Glaude is what he calls “the complicity of elites.”
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“You’ve interviewed on this show the authors of ‘How Democracies Die,’ and one of the claims of that book isn’t simply about the autocrat or the figure who emerges who comes and undermines norms,” Glaude said. “It’s about the complicity of elites allowing for those norms and institutions to be eroded.”
Glaude went on to say that the office of the president and the entire executive branch of the U.S. government has acquired much more power the past several decades. Now, he said, that power will be stretched even further with someone like Trump in the White House who doesn’t follow either rules or accepted norms of presidential behavior.
“What we’re seeing here is the imperial presidency run amok,” he said. “Many of us have been complaining over the years about the expansion of executive power. We wondered and we worried that if you had a person in the Oval Office who had no ethical backbone, who wasn’t committed to constitutional principles, what they would do if they had access to that kind of power — and now we’re here.”
The bottom line, Glaude said, is “we are in deep trouble.”
One thing Glaude overlooks is that there is fierce opposition to Trump’s actions, despite the complicity of the GOP leadership in Congress. Yesterday Senate Democrats said they have enough votes to pass a resolution blocking Trump’s national emergency. Such a move will set up a showdown with Trump.
In addition, numerous states have said that they will file lawsuits today to block Trump’s declaration.
What Glaude makes clear is that we cannot sit back and let Trump shred the Constitution and become a dictator in fact. We all must stand up against him and resist his efforts to destroy democracy in America.
CLICK HERE to watch the video of Glaude’s interview.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
