Monday, February 01, 2021

Executive Orders

Simply noting that Biden is issuing a lot of executive orders.  His defenders are saying that well he has to, undoing all those executive orders that Trump put in place. Maybe not terrible, except that it is the opposite of what he said to George Stephanopolous in October 2019. Trump excused some, but not all of his own orders as undoing Obama policies, and Barack in turn issued his to counteract Bush 43 orders which were initiated on the first days of that administration to replace things Bill Clinton had put into place. I get it, and see that this is how the game is played, because it reassures your base right off the bat so they go back to sleep, and no one is going to remember in four years anyway.

It's the self-righteousness that gets to me.

That, and the fact that there seem to be more of them each time around.  The ratchet only goes in one direction. The Supreme Court ends up dealing with issues that should be legislative, and legislatures spend lots of time on symbolic political issues rather than governance (beyond the basic concept of "we'll send you some money to fix that"), so I see why presidents do this so that there is some governance versus no governance.  It also explains the maligned Deep State response of "what the hell do you expect us to do?  We aren't really given much direction here, just left on our own to keep the place from falling apart, so we do what we think best." Anyone who works in a bureaucracy knows stuff like that happens all the time. If you didn't want me to make that decision, why did you leave me in charge of it?    

So yes, executive orders, many geared more toward keeping contributors, groups, and causes happy as a reward rather than actually doing what's right for the many people who voted for you or (shudder) the country as a whole. Just don't tell me that it's a relief, or a return to normal after four years of authoritarianism, or something moral in any way.

I don't know why I wrote that last silly thing.  Of course it will be declared moral.  It's what people do when they experience the relief of their tribe handing out the goodies again.  It's the way life should be.

3 comments:

Mike Guenther said...

It goes back to the self interest you alluded to in a previous post.

Biden is straddling the fence between his base and the fringe, radical left and hoping not to get splinters in his ass. Good luck with that.

Christopher B said...

I'm kinda meh about this. To the degree that these are marching orders to the Executive Branch minions, at least the changes to interpretation and implementation of statutes are being put on paper and made public as opposed to being done privately.

It's also a public admission of the legislative weakness of the Democrats that they don't have a bunch of legislation lined up to advance, and have to rely on Biden's phone and pen instead.

The one DO Steve Hayward has focused on as being most likely unprecedented is the Keystone pipeline stoppage. It's not entirely clear what legal authority is being exercised, it's ticking off Canada, exposing the US government to potential civil claims, and even the justification of 'climate change' doesn't make sense since the oil is still going to be transported by rail and truck.

Sam L. said...

The Left KNOWS what is best for we peons. The Left is ignorant...but it/they have PLANS...