Editor,
The Emergency Powers Act — a newsworthy topic of late.
Should we be concerned that the president has asserted these powers for the purpose of building a wall on the southern border of the United States?
After all, the Emergency Powers Act has been used a lot over time by presidents, usually for economic reasons against other countries to freeze assets.
However, in more serious times of war, presidents have used the act for more serious suspension of liberties. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, Roosevelt interned Japanese-Americans during WWII, and Bush’s programs of warrantless wiretapping and torture following the 9/11 attacks.
But this move for an ongoing problem of immigration signals possibly the tip of the iceberg that should send chills down all backs of Republicans and Democrats.
On the Republican side is the thought of blowback for when a Democrat eventually takes over the presidency. One such topic often held dear to the Republican party is the Second Amendment.
Yet, a Democratic president could provide the gun death statistics to the American people and take broad presidential action restricting access and how these weapons are obtained.
Another issue held dear to Democrats is climate change. The Department of Defense has already voiced concern that this is the greatest threat facing the U.S. in the next century.
A Democratic president could invoke emergency powers to place massive restrictions on U.S. businesses to conform to green ideology, which would no doubt be felt economically by all Americans.
On the Democratic side, the threat is much closer — the 2020 presidential election.
Right now, the Democrats in the House signaled that they are basically at war with Trump with all the investigations underway.
In order to deflect these issues for the next election, Trump could indicate impasse with North Korea and/or Iran to declare a national emergency.
The reach could go to government control of the internet to allegedly find Iranian or North Korean subversives. This would allow Trump to prioritize pro-Trump posts on internet searches.
I mean, the Russians have already given the blueprint of how to manipulate an election.
The president then could say intel from the internet reflects danger at polling places, and he could then declare the election process a national emergency and call up the military to guard all polling stations — thus deterring some Americans, low-income Democrats, from going to the polls.
Much of my information is from an article in the Atlantic, January issue, titled, “The Alarming Scope of the President’s Emergency Powers.”
I highly recommend this reading for anyone interested in saving the republic.
Thomas Kosloske
Oak Harbor
