Bumble Obama and the right way to do things
Donald Trump is acting like a king, and we know who else tried that, and how it turned out
Instead of a phone and a pen, President Donald Trump uses a microphone and a Truth Social post. I’m going to make a shocking statement here, but one that is becoming more in focus as Trump’s second term rolls on like a snow plow slamming parked cars into the ditch. Donald Trump is acting like Barack Obama, but a bumbling version of Obama with no idea how the government is supposed to function or what things like the Constitution really mean.
Obama tried to get the DREAM Act passed, to grant a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who arrived illegally before they turned 16 and lived here for at least five years. If you listen to Trump’s speeches, the DREAM Act fulfills his own vision of “who gets to stay in America”: those who stay need good moral character, have graduated high school here (or gotten a GED), and no serious criminal convictions. Additionally, they would need to complete two years of college or military service to earn a green card or citizenship.
Donald Trump is acting like Barack Obama, but a bumbling version with no idea how the government is supposed to function or what things like the Constitution really mean.
But Republicans in the Senate filibustered and killed it. So Obama used his phone and pen to sign an executive order, called DACA. In his first term, Trump tried to kill DACA by his own executive order, but failed to use the correct procedures in doing so, and was thwarted by the courts.
Let me highlight a few things here, that are really obvious but we tend to ignore the forest for the trees. I’m going to drone up and go beyond the legal 400 foot limit (for recreational drones) to get a better view.
First, what is done by the phone and the pen can be undone by the next president the same way. That is, if the next president knows how these things actually work. If a president has a grasp of the Administrative Procedures Act, along with various civil rights and other parts of federal law, to wit: Title 42, Title 20 (Education), Title 29 (Labor), Title 15 (Commerce). Channeling Obama, to be clear, Donald Trump has little grasp of, or desire to know about, these things. He just wants it done, finit, complete.
So what Obama did by executive order, along with what President Joe Biden did to undo Trump’s first term executive orders, has largely been undone, in the bumbling way that Trump does it, within the first two months of Trump’s second term.
Second, there is a right way to do things, and that is by legislation. I’m actually amused, in a Kafkaesque, dark Jewish humor kind of way, at how Trump and his consigliere Elon Musk got the latest continuing resolution budget passed by the Senate, when it was clear Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would rather have eaten glass than voted for it. It was by offering a “Hobson’s choice” (Schumer’s words) where the cost of not voting for it exceeds the benefits of voting against it.
I think this template works in many respects. One example is the Department of Education. There is insufficient congressional support to shutter the department, if legislation, ab initio, was introduced, whipped, and voted on. I know this because over the past few terms, Republicans did introduce such legislation in both the House and the Senate, and though they had control of the House, the bills never made it to a floor vote.
Republicans are now preparing another bill to abolish the department. But this one has the added background of an executive order that Trump signed already abolishing the department, by destroying its ability to function, and ordering the Secretary of Education to prepare to scuttle it. This leaves Democrats a Hobson’s choice: allow the wrecking ball to continue to destroy the department so it can’t function, or negotiate the best deal to move the department’s functions elsewhere, or to the states.
According to Pew Research data, the Department of Education is not particular well-regarded. Only the Department of Justice and the IRS are thought less of by Americans.
The functions of the Department of Education always resided with the federal government. It was part of the enormous Health, Education and Welfare department when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965. In 1979, under President Jimmy Carter, the office was upgraded to a full cabinet department.
Democrats might be better off arguing how they can preserve the functions of the department and move them to other homes in the federal leviathan, while Musk’s DOGE droves go about dismantling the “inefficiencies” found between federal departments. It might be ugly, but at least it will be constitutional.
What Trump is doing is the wrong way of getting things done. It’s holding large chunks of the government hostage, and then negotiating for their release. But, again, amusingly in a dark, Soviet gulag kind of way, it might work.
In the end, the right way is right for a variety of reasons. Courts will do what they can to block Bumble Obama’s attempts to get his own way, frequently at odds with the laws he swore to uphold. And if the government survives four years of this, the next president will simply undo it all.
The right way is for Congress to pass legislation, and the president to sign it. I am all for that, even if it’s done the way it’s getting done. Lyndon Johnson was not much different, other than he had no Truth Social to post garbage, and Johnson was no bumbler—he understood how Congress worked, even though he was not above taking his own hostages.
As for immigration, that’s a tougher nut to crack. Trump and his administration’s attempts to defy federal courts will not end well for the country. Perhaps this will lead to actual legislation, also. If the template works (let’s, charitably, call it “creative destruction”), then by every ounce of gallows humor, let it work. It’s better to at least have real laws than Bumble Obama pretending to be Caesar.
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS: You can follow us on social media at several different locations. Official Racket News pages include:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsRacket
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewsRacket
Mastodon: https://federated.press/@RacketNews
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@theracketnews
David: https://www.threads.net/@captainkudzu71
Steve: https://www.threads.net/@stevengberman
Our personal accounts on the platform formerly known as Twitter:
David: https://twitter.com/captainkudzu
Steve: https://twitter.com/stevengberman
Jay: https://twitter.com/curmudgeon_NH
Thanks again for subscribing! Don’t forget to share us with your friends!
Considering the DoEd only deals with ensuring every child is served by state public education (e.g. disabled access, special ed, and anti-segregation) and managing student loans for college - there's not much to be sent back to the states. Especially when the entire reason the department exists is because states weren't doing those things.
Another important point: the executive branch can't just zero out budget and fire all employees of a Congressionally created org, as they have a legal duty to ensure the core functions as defined by Congress need to be executed. They may be able to cut some personnel and programs, but not the entire thing.