Phantom powers replaced with phantom checks...

So for the lion's share of eight years, the left, the media, and the Democratic Party worked overtime in an attempt to expand the powers of the executive branch. There is little question that if your progressive movement would have had it's way, they would have crowned Obama King, and done away with the checks and balances nonsense.

Liberals cheer President Obama's pen and phone comment!

Now, the same people who demanded for eight years that the constitution, the voters will, the congress, and the courts were simply silly roadblocks preventing the ultimate power of the Presidency have done a drastic about face. It's now become clear that those phantom powers of the Presidency have conveniently disappeared and been replaced by new phantom "checks" on that same office.

Not that this sort of change in attitude isn't somewhat typical political behavior, or that historically it's exclusive to this particular generation of liberals. It's just that it's never been quite so obvious, quite so transparently hypocritical, and quite so blatantly illogical in the manner in which it has been argued.

Let's start with the basic concept that the separation of powers provides the legislative branch with the relatively exclusive powers to create domestic laws and statutes, while providing the executive branch with relatively exclusive powers to act on national security and foreign policy issues. Tell me how it is possible to support the claim four years ago that the President has the power to act on legislative issues if Congress refuses to do so.... but claim today that the President does not have the power to actually specifically follow explicit statutory laws regarding national security issues?

A better way to answer this question would be to reverse the situation. Would the same progressives argue that Donald Trump has the authority today to use a pen and a phone to create legislative orders if congress fails to do what he wants them to do. Should he be allowed by executive fiat to simply order tax cuts or maybe write an executive order that repeals Obamacare simply because Congress might not otherwise have the votes to pass the legislation?

Assume President Obama had made a decision, based on the information gathered by the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the Director of Homeland Security, and the various military brass to write an order restricting travel from a particular area of the world deemed dangerous. Assume he used existing statutory legislation to guide him, had the order written by immigration lawyers, reviewed by the NSA, Homeland Security, and the Office of legal council from the DOJ before rolling it out. How many people would have questioned President Obama and his decision? The answer (of course) is one of historical reality. He did in fact restrict travel during his tenure, and exactly zero people questioned his authority to do so.

The reality here is one that the left just doesn't want to accept. Donald Trump is as much President as Barack Obama was. Trump has the same Presidential powers and the same Presidential limitations as Obama did. An attack on Donald Trump's powers is simply an attack on the powers of the Presidency and executive branch itself.

Personally, I am fine with the abrupt halt in the expansion of Presidential powers. Everything Donald Trump gets fought on, ultimately restricts executive powers well into the future. Long term, we are looking at it becoming harder and harder for Democrats to garner congressional powers. Thirty red states and twenty blue states provides a built in GOP Senate advantage, and consolidation of liberal voters into dense urban areas provide a similar House advantage for Republicans. Considering the USSC could ultimately end up 5-4 or even 6-3 conservative by the time Trump leaves office, not to mention he will be appointing a bus load of federal justices without any chance of filibuster... it would seem that the other two branches of the Government may end up being conservative for the foreseeable future. Creating more "checks" on the Presidency would seem to be a bad long term political move for the left, considering the Presidency is still their best hope of getting their foot in the door.

But then again, when it comes to politics... most people can't see anything other than what's in the news today. Angry mobs filled with hatred and loathing are not exactly strategic thinkers.