Our Current Reality: The Danger of Unified Government To Civility And Good Judgment
Leonard Zwelling
It seems that every evening, when I watch the news, I am met with yet another threat to the constitutional republic that is the United States.
The Founders never wanted an all-powerful executive as president. They had enough of monarchy. They expected that the president would have to pass laws to make changes and those laws would emanate from the Congress. Now, the Congress is a literal tool of the president. Further, Congress itself has turned into a collection of yahoos on both sides of the aisle as was demonstrated during President Trump’s address to the joint session. The Republicans whooped and hollered as is typical, but the Democrats couldn’t even celebrate with a young cancer victim Trump made a Secret Service agent. Instead, they held up auction signs and waved canes. The Dems appear to have no heart and the GOP appears to have no brains.
All the action in Washington is in the Oval Office. Trump isn’t even bothering with legislation. He’s just doing what he wants with presidential edicts and no one seems to mind. Congress is too busy having chairs of congressional committees insulting the first trans-woman member by calling her “sir” during a hearing.
I was discussing all of this with my older son who asked me if this was what it was like when I spent my time on Capitol Hill. It most definitely was not. Then, decorum ruled in public hearings and I worked for one of the most considerate men in the Senate, the late Mike Enzi. Senator Enzi would never act like that nor would any of the senators I was around during my stay on the Hill.
As was the case during the time of Gingrich, civility is no longer the watch word of congressional interaction. It certainly is not in the play book of the current occupant of the White House. When civility breaks down, and autocracy is on the rise, bad things will happen.
Is there any chance to turn this all around?
There is and it rests for now with the judicial system. As the suits against the Trump Administration reach the courts, some have resulted in meaningful changes to the actions of the executive branch. In the end, the integrity of the American political system, with its constitutionally-driven checks and balances may reside in the hands of only two people—Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett. The three liberal female appointees are likely to oppose Trump’s unconstitutional actions. Alito, Thomas and Trump’s first two appointees will probably go along with Trump. It appears that Roberts and Barrett have become the swing votes.
Our system is predicated on a balance of powers and shared decision making among the three branches of government. Trump clearly has no problem making decisions even if he changes his mind a great deal. After all, what exactly is his attention span? It seems we have traded senility for ADHD.
The Congress has the GOP going along with everything Trump does and the Dems flummoxed and leaderless.
It is up to the judicial system to regulate the Trump offensive on the Constitution (e.g., the Fourteenth Amendment) and our system of laws (imprisoning a green card holder who committed no crime is unlawful). If the judiciary does its job, the constitutional republic can be saved. If not, we have to hope we can make it to November 2026 when we can install a do-something Congress. For now, I fear, we have a narcissist in the Oval Office and sheep on Capitol Hill. The Founders feared such an occurrence and installed a judiciary to protect against the damage such an arrangement could incur. We are about to test whether they had the set-up right.
