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| © Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images The White House Coronavirus Task Force on April 1, 2020, in Washington, D.C. |
By Ross K. Baker, Opinion columnist, USA TODAY
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has made exaggerated claims about his powers as president. He has stated on numerous occasions that “Article II (of the Constitution) allows me to do whatever I want,” or variations on that statement. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, he has invoked a more targeted version of that broader claim and aimed it at the states.
In April, in the course of a news briefing, he boasted, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s got to be. … It’s total. The governors know that.”
In that statement lies the key to understanding why the response to the pandemic has been so tragically bungled: a claim on total authority by Trump paired with a total abdication of responsibility. He has failed to mount a national response to the pandemic and cut the states loose to battle among themselves for resources. This is Trump’s toxic doctrine of laissez faire federalism.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has made exaggerated claims about his powers as president. He has stated on numerous occasions that “Article II (of the Constitution) allows me to do whatever I want,” or variations on that statement. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, he has invoked a more targeted version of that broader claim and aimed it at the states.
In April, in the course of a news briefing, he boasted, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that’s the way it’s got to be. … It’s total. The governors know that.”
In that statement lies the key to understanding why the response to the pandemic has been so tragically bungled: a claim on total authority by Trump paired with a total abdication of responsibility. He has failed to mount a national response to the pandemic and cut the states loose to battle among themselves for resources. This is Trump’s toxic doctrine of laissez faire federalism.
How federalism works
The constitutional scholar Harry Scheiber described the principle of federalism as the “intensely practical function of maintaining a 'balance' of national and state powers that will permit the government to operate effectively — or, at moments of high crisis, even to survive.”
Such a moment of high crisis and existential peril has hovered over this country since the first months of 2020. And though even in the best of circumstances with the swiftest and best-coordinated response our system would have been sorely tested, the confusion that attended the question of whether it would be the states or the federal government that would take principal responsibility cost us in time, resources and, ultimately, in lives.
Federalism as a key element in our system of government is one that has evolved over the years, often shifting from a dominant role by the federal government — typically in national emergencies — to periods of what has come to be known as dual federalism, where the states assume or are granted greater powers, usually by the courts.
In the extreme, we saw in the mid-19th century the assertion by states of the power to "interpose" themselves to protect their citizens against federal action or “nullify” congressional actions, if they were not authorized by the Constitution. It gave the power of states' rights: the claim by states that they could declare federal action null and void. This has historically resulted in constitutional crisis and civil war.
Right now, there is neither a muscular federal response nor freedom of action for the states. The current system is a misbegotten carnival game of “Push Me Pull You.”
Such a moment of high crisis and existential peril has hovered over this country since the first months of 2020. And though even in the best of circumstances with the swiftest and best-coordinated response our system would have been sorely tested, the confusion that attended the question of whether it would be the states or the federal government that would take principal responsibility cost us in time, resources and, ultimately, in lives.
Federalism as a key element in our system of government is one that has evolved over the years, often shifting from a dominant role by the federal government — typically in national emergencies — to periods of what has come to be known as dual federalism, where the states assume or are granted greater powers, usually by the courts.
In the extreme, we saw in the mid-19th century the assertion by states of the power to "interpose" themselves to protect their citizens against federal action or “nullify” congressional actions, if they were not authorized by the Constitution. It gave the power of states' rights: the claim by states that they could declare federal action null and void. This has historically resulted in constitutional crisis and civil war.
Right now, there is neither a muscular federal response nor freedom of action for the states. The current system is a misbegotten carnival game of “Push Me Pull You.”
Illusion of federal response to COVID
Governors waited in vain for tests from federal labs or equipment from “national stockpiles” whose very existence often seemed notional, and in the absence of coherent response from Washington, they were thrown into the turmoil of a marketplace infested by scammers and opportunists. Warned in advance by the president that they would be essentially on their own, governors might have plunged right in to the bidding wars.
But Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force would conduct their late afternoon briefings and create the illusion of concerted national action, but ultimately they served as little more than platforms for fables and exaggerations by the president and unctuous affirmations by Vice President Mike Pence.
Americans understand well enough the ideas of separations of power and checks and balances. But federalism, the third pillar of our constitutional system, is often passed over as the most dreary topic in civics courses. This leaves our least attentive citizens puzzled as to which level of government has the responsibility for which functions of government. This present crisis has done little to enlighten them.
Perhaps the most disastrous aspect of Trump’s laissez faire federalism is that it allowed the most incompetent governors to set the tone for the response to the pandemic in its early stages. The haste with which Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida opened their states after the initial shutdown served as the prelude to the crises that now ravage these areas.
Whether it was reluctance to accept responsibility, some antiquated Reagan-esque fantasy that the federal government is the source of all misfortunes or just not giving a damn, President Trump turned the pandemic response into a lethal auction in which the knockdown price was paid in the lives of Americans.
Read more at USA TODAY
But Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force would conduct their late afternoon briefings and create the illusion of concerted national action, but ultimately they served as little more than platforms for fables and exaggerations by the president and unctuous affirmations by Vice President Mike Pence.
Americans understand well enough the ideas of separations of power and checks and balances. But federalism, the third pillar of our constitutional system, is often passed over as the most dreary topic in civics courses. This leaves our least attentive citizens puzzled as to which level of government has the responsibility for which functions of government. This present crisis has done little to enlighten them.
Perhaps the most disastrous aspect of Trump’s laissez faire federalism is that it allowed the most incompetent governors to set the tone for the response to the pandemic in its early stages. The haste with which Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida opened their states after the initial shutdown served as the prelude to the crises that now ravage these areas.
Whether it was reluctance to accept responsibility, some antiquated Reagan-esque fantasy that the federal government is the source of all misfortunes or just not giving a damn, President Trump turned the pandemic response into a lethal auction in which the knockdown price was paid in the lives of Americans.
Read more at USA TODAY
