Conservatives tout that the Republican Party is the bastion of the nation’s economic strength as well as the pillar of support for America’s constitutional law. Under the Trump regime, neither assertion is quite true.
The Wall
During the 2020 presidential campaign, conservatives have characterized as socialists any Democratic Party candidates who propose dramatic changes. However, Trump has adamantly proposed constructing a fence along the country’s southern border in order to deter illegal immigrants. This project can proceed only with the seizure of private property.
The right to own property is a basic provision of a capitalist free market. Eminent domain enables the government to acquire private property for a legitimate public purpose, but the property owner must be compensated for the loss. When the owner does not want to sell, the amount paid by the government is often considered to be inadequate.
Trump made a boastful promise during the 2016 campaign that he would build a 450-mile new border wall by 2021 that would impede illegal immigration from Central and South America. What is more, he promised to make Mexico pay for the wall.
According to reports, Trump has built only about 93 miles of the new wall, mostly on federal land where barriers had deteriorated, and Mexico has not contributed at all financially to the project. Nonetheless, Trump is pursuing the seizure of privately owned lands to build a wall that analysts say will not be a cost-effective way to apprehend immigrants intending to violate residency laws.
Impeachment
Trump has been charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Republicans seem to have rallied around Trump, even though to do so will vitiate the legitimacy of the U.S. Constitution as the legal establishment of the nation’s tripartite government. Few can reasonably expect the impeached president not to fight to win the conflict, but the people expect that the U.S. Senate will require Trump to offer a valid defense, if it is possible to do so.
If after a well-represented defense the Senate votes to discharge the impeachment, the validity of the Constitution can survive. With any response less than that, history will record the Republican Party as the institution that destroyed the American constitutional ideal.
