Have the Democrats discovered the Constitution?
For many years, the Democrats have found the Constitution to be an impediment to their goals. To get around that document, they have invented the concept of a flexible Constitution, one that must be interpreted not as written, and not in accord with the intent of those who wrote it, but instead as one that changes according to the moment — the moment always being the current Democratic Party agenda.
Their motto is, the Constitution be damned. One federal judge has gone so far as to openly aver that the Constitution is completely irrelevant, implying that it should be ignored or scrapped entirely.
However, now that President Trump has vowed to build a border wall without explicit legislative approval, those Democrats who are opposed are hypocritically arguing that the Constitution forbids him doing that. Yes, the Constitution suddenly must be followed to the letter. Even some Republicans who strongly favor the wall are worried that a future president might use Trump's precedent to unilaterally enforce policies that the political left has vowed to enact, such as banning fossil fuels or confiscating privately owned weapons.
But that is already the case. The Constitution has been being violated for decades now, or, at the least, flagrantly misinterpreted.
One example is birthright citizenship, which has enticed thousands of illegal aliens to enter the United States explicitly for the purpose of giving birth to a child on U.S. soil, thereby imparting natural citizenship, with the subsequent chain migration of his relatives. No reasonable case can be made that this was the intent of the Framers.
Another example is the Tenth Amendment, which explicitly forbids the federal government from using powers it does not have, those not enumerated in the Constitution. Rarely is this amendment invoked to prevent government overreach. Had it been enforced over the years, the abuse of federal powers would have been significantly reduced.
So the real question is not one of parsing the Constitution, but rather whether process is more important than policy.
In answer to that question, untold thousands of former military men (including myself) are familiar with the term "midnight requisition." It refers to the act of stealing supplies that are critically needed immediately and using them to accomplish a military objective when going through the ponderously slow supply system bureaucracy would delay the supplies until it is too late. I won't say I ever obtained supplies illegally, but somehow, they always did materialize when needed for the mission.
Trump is using the same principle, and for the same good reason.
The nation desperately needs a broad framework of laws and policies that will protect the taxpayer from being overburdened by a flood of poorly skilled low-wage workers who do not share our values or even our language. Those needed laws and policies are not enacted, nor enforced when enacted, because Democratic politicians seek the votes of those who depend on welfare, while wealthy corporations seek their cheap labor, passing the costs on to society.
The process has been used against us. President Trump rightly understands that immediate action is needed to reverse the neglect and malfeasance by those who demand that the process be followed, at least when it serves their purposes. He is taking that action.
The lock on the back door of the supply building is broken, but that is a small price to pay for saving the republic.