President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the White House in Washington, D.C., March 8, 2019. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Politicians face a difficult decision when a president abuses his powers to achieve something their party wants to achieve. Under Obama that was “deferred action” for illegal immigrants; under Trump it’s an emergency declaration to build the wall.

Democrats were pretty much silent about Obama’s abuses. None in the House supported the Republican-led lawsuit against the action. Only four (out of 186 voting) supported killing it via legislation, and the Democratic Senate did not even vote on the bill.


By contrast, 13 out of 195 voting Republicans in the House sided against the emergency declaration, and an impressive twelve of 53 Republican senators voted that way as well. Unfortunately these numbers are not strong enough to override a veto, and neither comes close to a majority of the party. But we did far better than they did, so in a nice change of pace the Right should be proud of its politicians. Or at least a lot of them.