Trump is losing the argument about his phony emergency declaration. “Fifty-nine percent say they oppose President Trump’s declaration of an emergency to build a wall on the Mexican border, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll released Wednesday. The poll found that just 41 percent of registered voters support Trump’s decision, which has drawn lawsuits from 16 states and divided Republicans.”

This is a sure-fire way to lose the affection of many American voters. “After two weeks of efforts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in forming a united ultra right-wing party that will run in the April 9 elections, paving the way for Jewish supremacists from the ‘Jewish Power’ party to make it into the next Knesset. . . . This is an unprecedented development in Israel’s history and is equivalent to a U.S. president cutting a political deal with David Duke, the former KKK leader. The prime minister and the ruling Likud Party are legitimizing a racist, xenophobic and homophobic fringe party in hopes of bolstering a right-wing bloc after the elections.”

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When it comes to losing property rights, the Supreme Court justices are of one mind. “The Supreme Court today ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines applies to the states. The decision is a victory for an Indiana man whose luxury SUV was seized after he pleaded guilty to selling heroin. . . . In an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court seemed to regard the basic question before it as an easy one. The justices explained that the ‘historical and logical case for concluding that’ the ban on excessive fines applies to the states through the 14th Amendment — which bars states from depriving anyone ‘of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law’ — is ‘overwhelming.’ ”

If Republicans rubber-stamp the emergency declaration they lose any claim to fidelity to limited government. “Trump is a big fan of bypassing normal governing processes to impose his will by unilateral action. If he gets away with it, be prepared for rule-by-executive-order to grow in popularity as power-mad politicians exploit a handy detour around the deliberately frustrating limitations of constitutional government.”

We lose faith in democracy when campaigns degenerate into mindless attacks. Matthew Dowd has some suggestions: “End the tactics of personal insult, name-calling and berating or demeaning others. If we wouldn’t want to see words and actions our sons or daughters use in elementary school, then we shouldn’t allow them in political campaigns.” Read the whole thing.