Congressional cravenness reaches high water mark

Anemic defense of its war power in letter to President Biden

Congressional cravenness may have reached its high water mark.

Twenty-seven Members of Congress lettered President Biden on January 26, 2024, bemoaning his flouting both the Constitution and the War Powers Act in attacking Houthis in Yemen without congressional authorization.

The Members then got down on their knees like genuflecting to the Emperor in China and pleaded with Mr. Biden to cease his unconstitutional actions: “[W]e urge your Administration to seek authorization from Congress before conducting any more unauthorized strikes in Yemen.”  But no sanctions are threatened or implied for the President’s past or prospective constitutional violations, as if compliance with the Constitution is optional. The letter will paradoxically embolden Mr. Biden to undertake more unconstitutional wars by signaling the worse will be a few huffs and puffs from Congress signifying nothing.

Why do these clowns repeatedly get reelected? No blowback from constitutionally illiterate voters. If our epidemic of constitutionally illiteracy is not quickly cured, we are doomed as a nation. Thomas Jefferson admonished, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”