We Are the Guardrail
The men who wrote the Constitution, ratified 238 years ago, had a lot on their minds. There had never before been a complete, written national constitution anywhere. They were not sure a government which derived its authority from the people it governed could succeed. Some would have gladly declared George Washington King of the United States were he willing to accept the position.
Some feared the people were not qualified to govern. They believed there was a natural ruling class who should be in charge. Some wanted a strong central government. Others wanted power to remain with the individual states, as it had been since the revolution twelve years earlier.
The result was a document in many ways a revolution itself, describing a government of the people, but one purposedly designed to contain the compromise, confusion, and purposeful ambiguity that reflected the debate between the authors. With the addition of 27 amendments, it has survived all this time.
For those who slept through civics class, the Constitution separated the central government into three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. Each had a list of powers. Each had a method of checking the operation of the other two branches. There were important omissions. Items on which the authors could not agree and so left for future generations to sort out. But it has held together for all these years. That says something.
What the authors feared most was that power would corrupt. That malevolent leaders would destroy the nation in search of personal advantage. This was John Adams’ nightmare. In my lifetime, I have never seen anything as corrupt as the current administration. Nor have I found one this corrupt in my study of American history. I mean corrupt not just in a monetary sense, although the avarice of Donald Trump and his family is astounding. I mean also corrupt in what Trump has done to the institutions of government and the rule of law.
That one man could be so misguided is not surprising, although the fact that 77 million voters cast their ballots for him in 2024 is. What is surprising is the degree to which the checks and balances have collapsed. The guardrails have failed.
This is due to the abdication on the part of the legislative branch, which has ceased to provide any meaningful oversight of the executive, failed to enforce its decisions on taxation and spending, and consented to the appointment of some of the most unqualified and actually destructive individuals to positions of power throughout government. There have been 306 calendar days in the year to date. The House of Representatives has been in session for 133 of them. Nice work if you can get it.
The judicial branch has not just abandoned its responsibilities. It has openly ceded its authority to the executive branch. While many lower court judges have blocked Trump’s unlawful excesses, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has more often than not knocked down those guardrails, allowing Trump to proceed with his executive power grab. With those actions, the Court has greatly tipped the balance of power in the government, allowing for an autocracy at the helm.
The outlook is bleak. But there is one last hope.
We are that hope. We, the people. We, the voters, have now an opportunity to change the direction of the nation. But only if we get off our rears and go out and vote. In the United States, voter turnout for true “off-year” elections (held in odd-numbered years for local and municipal offices) typically falls between 25% and 40% of eligible voters. There are indications this year the turnout will be much greater.
That is a good sign. If you are happy with the way things are going, by all means go out and vote Republican, ensuring that Trump will be unfettered in the next two year. But if you are unhappy with the current state of affairs, vote for Democrats who will raise the guardrails. They will not have the power to reverse the current state of affairs. That decision comes in 2028. But Democratic majorities in Congress will slow down the Trump onslaught and place a spotlight on the abuses of the administration.
We are the final guardrail.
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