The Upside of a Trump Presidency

It hasn’t been a week since Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States – his “reign” won’t even start for another two full months. Already, people who obviously don’t like him have gone haywire: from wanting to assassinate him to wanting to commit violence towards his wife or his voters, or even beliefs that national parks will now sport oil rigs. 

But beyond these hyperboles, a Trump presidency actually has many advantages. These four points will suddenly become newsworthy. 

1. Executive Power 

For starters, people who call themselves liberals might finally realize that the executive branch is much too powerful and that the balance of power needs to deserve its name once more. 

Elected while promising to bring forward “change we can believe in”, Barrack Obama has done nearly everything but. Not only has pursued most of George W Bush’s policies like mass surveillance, non-Congress approved wars, befriending of lobbyists and a war on (state-level) legalized marijuana, but he greatly expanded them.  

He also shredded what was left of the constitution with the National Defense Authorization Act in 2011, which basically gives the president absolute powers to detain anyone, anywhere, without trial and for as long as he or she wishes. 

Now that the president-elect has a clear penchant for using government power to his own advantage, notably through eminent domain, many people will finally find interest in libertarian ideas to limit government power. 

2. Federalism 

In a similar fashion, liberals will start noticing that too much centralization of power is a huge impediment on freedom. 

During the 2016 election, three more states have legalized recreational marijuana, which makes a total of eight jurisdictions in the U.S. (including the District of Columbia). In addition, a total of 28 states have at least legalized marijuana for medical purposes. 

However, the federal government still classifies marijuana and its derivatives like hemp as Schedule 1 drug, which means that they are illegal and “without any medical use”, on the same level as heroin or LSD. This also means that the Drug Enforcement Agency can, at any time, raid your (state) legal operation and seize your assets without accusing you of anything. 

While Trump seems to have a pragmatic approach on the subject – he does want to let states decide – he made no mention of wanting to abolish the DEA and its operations that violate the due process of law. Blue states will surely want that their nullification of federal law be respected, just like red states have done for gun control during the Obama years. 

3. Unchecked Bureaucracy 

Speaking of the DEA, liberals might be paying more attention to rogue government agencies that have little to no oversight on their operation. 

Back in 2010, conservative outlets talked a lot about the Internal Revenue Service and its tormenting of conservative-leaning groups during the election, making their life harder, auditing them at an unusual rate, etc. And when it was time to question the agency, director Lois Lerner either pleaded the Fifth or said that her email server had been wiped out and that she lost emails. 

More recently, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has sued the federal government over (so they say) unconstitutional recess appointment at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; CEI also claims that the CFPB has no constitutional justification. The agency, like so many others, is nearly unaccountable; its director even defied Congress by nonchalantly answering “What does it matter?” to a question as to why his agency deserves more funding. 

With a red congress for at least the next two years, it is likely that the former event will happen. And if it does, maybe they wished these bureaucratic Leviathans didn’t have that much unaccountable power. As for the latter occurrence, it looks like militant liberals have it on check already. Too bad they haven’t done it in the past eight years. Hell, they even want Obama to use it one last time. 

4. Constitution 

Finally, with Donald Trump as commander-in-chief liberals will likely have a newly-found interest in the Constitution. 

They found it already during the elections by spending massive amounts of money in PACs and super PACs against the Republicans. Liberal muse Michael Moore even released a provocative movie against Donald Trump near the election date thanks to the Citizens United decision. 

Free speech seems to be a good thing; let’s now see how they will react if their own government, federal or local, turns against them because they sport ideas that the people in power don’t like. 

However, don’t delude yourselves; the liberals’ hesitations towards government will only last as long as they don’t have the power. Remember the giant protests against Bush’s war in Iraq? Compare them to the protests against Obama’s wars… 

But one never knows! Maybe some will finally see the light and look at government for what it really is: power and oppression.