GOP strategist: Republicans want results from Trump but at what cost? | Opinion
When President Ronald Reagan spoke of a “shining city on a hill,” he envisioned an America that stood as a beacon of freedom and democracy — a nation where liberty was safeguarded, and success was earned through accountability, merit and hard work.
Reagan knew results matter and we don’t hand out participation trophies. That nonsense belongs to the woke liberal agenda that rewards the entitlement culture over achievement.
Maybe that’s why it’s so easy for Republicans to cheer on President Donald Trump. Many of them see results, but they are blind to the assault on our liberties and freedoms.
Take Trump’s recent executive order seeking to stop flag burning, a constitutionally protected act, by having the attorney general “vigorously prosecute those who violate our laws in ways that involve desecrating the American Flag” and also consider litigation “to clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in this area.”
On the surface, it plays to patriotism. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. Johnson in 1989 that burning a flag is constitutionally protected speech.
It’s settled law, and no president has the power to override the court with an executive order.
I abhor flag burning. Like Justice William Rehnquist expressed in his dissent, I view the American flag as a sacred symbol of our nation’s history, sacrifice and unity.
But this isn’t about the flag. It’s about something much bigger than that.
The president does not make laws. That’s Congress’ job.
And the president sure as hell doesn’t get to erase what the Supreme Court has already decided. Only the Supreme Court — by overturning precedent, as it did with Roe v. Wade — or a constitutional amendment — ratified by Congress and the states — can change Texas v. Johnson.
Yet on Monday, federal authorities arrested a 20-year combat veteran near the White House for burning a flag.
That a man who fought for our freedoms was jailed for exercising one of them should outrage everyone. Sadly, though, Republicans expressed more fury over the rebranding of the Cracker Barrel logo.
The Founding Fathers built a government with checks and balances precisely to stop this kind of executive overreach. Yet Trump treats these guardrails as optional. And spineless Republicans in Congress, through their silence and cowardice, have become his enabler.
No wonder Trump brags that as president he has “the right to do anything I want to do.”
Just look at the past several days.
Trump moved to eliminate mail-in ballots, restrict voting machines and lean on gerrymandering to rig outcomes.
He announced a 10% federal stake in Intel, with more government equity grabs on the horizon — state control of private companies straight out of authoritarian regimes like Russia.
He attempted to fire a Federal Reserve governor without a trial or a conviction — a raw political purge aimed at seizing control of an independent authority and bending monetary policy to political ends.
And he threatened to deploy active-duty troops to American cities like Chicago while creating “specialized” National Guard units to police crime — a blatant erosion of civilian control that risks transforming our neighborhoods into militarized zones.
Individually, each of these could be debated.
Together, they mark a dangerous march toward concentrated executive power.
I don’t believe Trump set out to be a dictator or to deliberately transform America into an authoritarian state. I think the truth is simpler: He craves glory — the Nobel Peace Prize, statues, the legacy of being remembered as the most consequential president in American history.
To him, the process is irrelevant. Trump is, at his core, Gordon Gekko, the “greed is good” businessman from the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” obsessed with results at any cost and convinced that outcomes alone justify whatever means are necessary to achieve them.
Regardless, his contempt for constitutional limits and democratic norms is producing the very authoritarian outcomes the Founders most feared.
My fellow Republicans may cheer Trump today because they like the results. But every shortcut, every abuse of power, sets a precedent for the next one. That’s how liberty dies — not in one sweeping move, but in a thousand small erosions excused as “results.”
What has always made America exceptional is the rule of law. The Constitution. The framework the Founders built — tested through wars, depressions, and crises — and preserved for generations. Once we abandon process, we abandon freedom.
Americans must demand results. But Americans must also demand accountability, restore checks and balances, and reassert constitutional limits. That is how the nation preserves liberty. That is how the nation keeps Reagan’s shining city on a hill alive for future generations.
Matt Wylie is a South Carolina-based Republican political strategist and analyst with over 25 years of experience working on federal, state and local campaigns.