³ÉÆ·ÈËÊÓƵ

I won’t go into great detail regarding President Donald Trump’s many abuses of power in the initial days of his second term, his attempts to usurp Congressional authority, his blatantly unconstitutional actions and his defiance of court orders.

Under our system of checks and balances, it’s up to the courts to hold the executive branch in check. Whether that will happen this time around, the jury is still out. (pun intended.)

Trump’s governing style seems to be driven by a single motivation: Exacting vengeance on his perceived enemies, foreign and domestic.

The result has been ugly and chaotic. Jobs have been lost; families have been torn apart; due process rights have been ignored; children have been needlessly stricken with contagious diseases; miners’ safety has been compromised; vital programs and services are endangered, putting people’s lives and health in peril; and the world economy has senselessly been thrown into turmoil.

Yet, members of Congress, a co-equal body intended to function as a check on the executive branch, have largely refused to stand up to this abuse of power, presumably terrified of retribution by Trump and his cult-like supporters. On that count, West Virginia’s congressional delegation has been particularly disappointing.

Closer to home, Gov. Patrick Morrisey is operating like a mini-MAGA, issuing Trumpian executive orders of dubious legality, the most publicized of which is his executive order creating a religious exemption to the state’s mandatory vaccination law.

Morrisey is insisting that his order remains in effect, even though the Legislature soundly rejected legislation he proposed to codify the exemption (Senate Bill 460), acting in response to overwhelming public opposition to the bill.

Like Trump, Morrisey is acting like a king, not the head of a co-equal branch of government who has taken a solemn oath to uphold the U.S. and state constitutions.

Morrisey’s flimsy argument for ignoring the will of the people and the purview of the Legislature is a 2023 law, the Equal Protection For Religion Act.

Never mind that the primary purpose of the act is to provide evangelicals with a legal basis to flout anti-discrimination ordinances. The legislation says the state cannot “substantially burden� a person’s exercise of religion unless doing so is “essential to further a compelling governmental interest.�

What more compelling governmental interest could there be than preventing an epidemic that results in children’s deaths? If even one child dies needlessly so that Morrisey can pander to a far right ideology, blood will be on his hands.

Of course, the Legislature cannot claim higher moral ground when it comes to defying the rule of law.

In addition to enacting laws of questionable constitutionality or legality, that defiance of the law was on display in the Senate in the final hours of the regular session, when the Senate made a mockery of legislative and constitutional rules in order to pass Morrisey’s anti-DEI bill, including simply ignoring a series of pending amendments to the bill (SB 474).

Morrisey exacerbated matters by signing the bill into law, claiming it is not within his purview to ascertain whether the Legislature had properly followed constitutional and legislative rules in its passage.

Similarly, the Legislature this session defied the rule of law and passed legislation to usurp the authority of the state Board of Education, with sponsors openly acknowledging that they expect the legislation to be challenged in court (HB 2755).

The Republican legislative supermajority also defied the will of the voters, who just three years ago soundly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have given the Legislature the authority to overturn Board of Education policies. Legislators ignored both the people and the constitution in giving themselves authority over the state school board.

What could be a greater defiance of the rule of law than to knowingly pass legislation the constitutionality of which is so dubious that it is certain to prompt a legal challenge?

n n n

This is not to say that flouting the rule of law is a new phenomenon.

I’m currently reading “The Republic For Which It Stands� by Richard White, which covers U.S. history from the end of the Civil War through the Gilded Age, arguably one of the most politically corrupt eras in our history, present company excepted.

This was a time when American government was driving Native Americans off their native lands, frequently through the use of violence. Reconstruction collapsed and newly freed Americans lost many newfound rights and found themselves subject to violent acts of repression. Anti-immigrant fervor was rampant, particularly against Chinese immigrants who were helping build transcontinental railroads. Monopolistic policies made a handful of robber barons fabulously wealthy while working class Americans suffered, and their efforts to obtain living wages and better working conditions were often violently supressed.

It’s a part of our history that the anti-“woke� crowd are trying to erase through the use of anti-DEI initiatives like SB 474, which requires neutrality to avoid teaching the reality that these horrible chapters of American history were perpetrated almost exclusively by white men.

Likewise, President Richard Nixon oversaw the cover-up of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in what was a blatantly illegal attempt to assure his reelection. However, when his actions came to light, he did the right thing and resigned the presidency to avoid impeachment and removal of office. (Although speculation is that in today’s political climate, he would have survived Watergate and completed his term as president.)

Similarly, former West Virginia Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. had a long tradition of bribery and extortion during his three terms as governor. He eluded justice for years, but in 1990 justice was served when Moore pleaded guilty to five felony counts including extortion and obstruction of justice and served 32 months in federal prison.

In this era when Trump feels it perfectly acceptable to receive a $400 million jet from the Qatari royal family, one wonders if today’s Justice Department would even bother pursuing the five- and six-digit bribes that Moore took.

Yes, the American experiment has never been perfect. Corruption, greed and lawlessness has been the dark underbelly of our governing bodies at times in our history, but the present day seems particularly bleak.

n n n

One of the common themes I’ve touched on here is my bewilderment at West Virginians who consistently vote against their own best interests.

In November, West Virginians overwhelmingly voted for Trump and a Republican congressional delegation, and in return, have gotten nothing but anguish.

The Trump administration put coal miners’ health and lives at risk with Trump’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency shutting down the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, putting some 200 highly trained professionals at its Morgantown office out of work, an action at least partially and perhaps only temporarily reversed by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger, who called the firings “arbitrary and capricious.�

Kudos to attorney Sam Petsonk, who eloquently made the case that miners will die if NIOSH is permanently shuttered.

Certainly, DOGE has offered no indication of what it regarded as waste, fraud or abuse at NIOSH.

There’s a commercial out that claims there can be no doubt that Trump is a friend of coal. However, between his callous disregard for miners’ health and safety, and the threat of exorbitant ship docking fees and tariffs that could cripple coal exports, with friends like Trump, coal doesn’t need enemies.

Then there was the announcement that Cleveland-Cliffs was canceling plans for a much ballyhooed $150 million project to convert an idled tin mill in Weirton into a transformer manufacturing plant, creating 600 jobs.

While reasons given for the cancellation have been a bit hazy, the Sierra Club reported that the project was linked to an upgrade of a Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill in Butler, Pennsylvania, a project dependent on the awarding of a $75 million federal Department of Energy grant — one of multiple pending DOE investments that are being held up, and may be eliminated by DOGE.

Ironically, one of the biggest advocates for the Weirton project, Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, was co-sponsor of the resolution this session to rename Spruce Knob as Trump Mountain. Perhaps he can rename the vacant plant as Trump Plaza Weirton.

Meanwhile, a $1.2 billion statewide broadband expansion — a game-changing initiative that was part of President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — is in the third month of a federal spending pause, with no certainty of if or when the pause will be lifted.

Thus, a vital project that then-Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael called “a monumental leap forward,� and the jobs and economic development it would generate is being held hostage by the Trump administration.

And, as I write this, the Republican-controlled Congress is pursuing cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP food benefits that not only would cause grave harm to tens of thousands of our most vulnerable West Virginians, but would put state hospitals, nursing homes, grocers and farmers in financial jeopardy.

Just what will it take to convince West Virginians to stop electing people who not only don’t have their best interests at heart, but actively pursue policies that make their lives worse?