Letters to the editor

Shock and awe here?

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) says Donald Trump's scheduled Day 1 release of 100 Executive Orders will constitute "shock and awe." (Face the Nation, 1-12-25)

This military metaphor suggests that the 47th President plans to shove his agenda down the throats of Americans.

Here is how Wikipedia describes "shock and awe:" "Shock and awe is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy and destroy their will to fight."

Two things stand out here besides the naked use of force rather than reason and law to implement policy. First, the American people are the enemy. Second, the intent of the strategy is to immobilize and to destroy. This is likely not just the Democrats of the nation, but Trump's own supporters who he wishes to immobilize and cow into submission.

One more thing, while the executive branch certainly is charged with implementing policy, Article 1 of the Constitution says that the executive branch is most definitely not in charge of deciding policy. Congress is in charge of that.