Dear Conservatives,
You know, I’ve been watching– and here’s a funny thing: my memory isn’t too shabby.
I watched you in my newsfeed for eight long years. I listened to you on the news, and on radio talk shows. I read the articles you wrote.
A lot of us did.
And here’s the thing: You *hated* it when President Obama signed executive orders.
While it is well in the right of a president to sign executive orders, when Obama did it you were outraged.
You said it was “unprecedented” and “unconstitutional.”
When I and others pointed out to you that this is well within the right of a president, pending checks and balances for constitutionality, you still objected. Instead, you argued that even if it’s within the right of a president, legal policies are best set by the legislative branch of government. You explained to me that we have a “standard process” for setting US government policies and that executive orders have a way of bypassing the will of the people, in favor of the will of one person.
We had this conversation sooooo many times that I know your explanation, cold.
So here’s my question, conservatives: since when did you start *loving* executive orders?
I mean, let’s be honest. Since the moment Donal Trump sat down in the oval office he’s been signing one after another at a pace I certainly can’t remember in my lifetime. With each one he signs you jump up and down, cheering in agreement for the new direction of the country. Even when his ban on refugees was temporarily overturned as unconstitutional, you said nothing– it’s as if you, the self-appointed Keepers of the Constitution, no longer care if something is good, right, or legal.
I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything, but I’ve got to say: I spy with my little eye a giant group of hypocrites.
Let’s be honest: You didn’t *really* believe all those things you told me about executive orders. You didn’t believe they were unconstitutional. You didn’t believe they were wrong because they bypassed the legislative branch and the will of the people. You didn’t believe we have a standard process that functions better for setting laws and policies.
You didn’t believe ANY of it, because if you did, you’d be crying foul now.
Instead of actually being opposed to executive orders, let’s be a little more honest: You’re only opposed to them when you don’t like the person signing them.
When it’s your guy?
Mmmmmm…. they magically taste delicious.
I’m all for charitable disagreements and finding common ground, but it’s hard to respect that degree of blatant, unapologetic hypocrisy.
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10 Responses
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me. https://accounts.binance.com/ro/register-person?ref=WTOZ531Y
Thanks Dr. Corey. I suspect you know the answer to your question well. People are fine with Executive Orders. When they side with the person issuing the order. People dislike Executive Orders. When… well you can finish the sentence. It’s been that way I suspect for as long as we’ve had Executive Orders.
My question for you would be “Why write this?” Do you think it’s news to either side? Or was it more just to take a shot at the “other” side?
And I write this as someone who voted for Hillary Clinton and who disagrees with the recent Executive Orders. Thanks.
Sorry, but the disagreement with Obama was the content of the EOs. Many of Trump’s EOs are reversals of Obama’s and non of them have been unconstitutional horrors. Also, Trump’s ban was temporarily overturned by a court that has no regard for the constitution. Has been approved as of late.
When?
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The very nanosecond we realized the hideously obese corporation, the corporation you people call “government”, was lying to us – to grow.
And you people were cheering – because the corporation owns you people – like pimps own prostitutes.
“So here’s my question, conservatives: since when did you start *loving* executive orders?” Answer: When they reverse an unconstitutional order issued by a lawless president trying to use progressive ideas to reshape the country in ways the people clearly don’ want.
“I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything, but I’ve got to say: I spy with my little eye a giant group of hypocrites.” And we the people see a giant group of sore losers who cannot accept the fact that their ideas are not mainstream and that the people have rejected them.
“You’re only opposed to them when you don’t like the person signing them.” Here is the fallacy. Trying to make the argument about the person not the policy; crying racism and xenophobe because you have no facts.
I’m with you Ben. When it was Pres. Obama/Democrats executive orders were “bad” and now that it is Trump/Republicans they are “the greatest thing since sliced bread”.
Ben is correct that Republicans have changed their tune about executive orders. They also changed their view about the appropriateness of federal courts striking down unconstitutional ones. When such abrupt changes in position occur, it is fair to suspect a partisan double standard.
All criticism of Christians by other Christians should be done in the spirit of Christian love, nowhere better expressed than in 1 Corinthians chapter 13:
“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
[ From Eugene Peterson’s The Message ]