If national security can be invoked to bypass Congress abroad, it can be invoked to bypass constitutional limits at home.
In other words, if a president can launch a war without congressional authorization, he can claim similar emergency authority to restrict voting, suppress dissent, or silence opposition.
The War Powers Act was meant to rein in presidents who bypass Congress. But laws are only as strong as the institutions willing to enforce them.
Without congressional authorization, without meaningful debate, without constitutional clarity, the executive branch claims the unilateral authority to wage war.
This is how dictatorships arise and republics erode.
It happens when a president is allowed to treat constitutional limits as inconveniences rather than restraints.