Saturday, April 29, 2017

Some of us were never afraid...............


A confession: I’m much less afraid of Trump than I was a year ago. His rhetoric, his unfettered far-right agenda, his love of violence, and his loathing of constitutional limits during the campaign were indeed things to be terrified by. They still are. But those of us who were worried that the Constitution might not hold, and that liberal democracy was teetering on the edge of implosion, have so far, mercifully, been proven wrong.

-Andrew Sullivan, as he opens this essay

One of the rationales for voting for Trump was that his election would force Congress to do their job.  It is possible for reasonable people to agree that, for the past 16 years or so of  American history, Congress has showed an alarming trend of ceding its authority and power to the Executive branch.  If I remember correctly, our system relies on the division of power - checks and balances if you will - between the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of government.  During the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, it sure looked like the Executive was ever encroaching on the Legislative branch.   Hillary's election would likely have continued that trend.  Trump, the theory goes, because he never had the backing of a national political party, would cause Congress to finally awaken from their slumber and do their job.  Governing is, and should be, difficult.  We live in a fractious nation.  Our representatives get pulled every which way.  This is all as it should be.  Government rarely solves problems without creating several new ones.  Take your time people, do the hard work, try to get it right.  Maybe if we get really lucky, a statesman (or stateswoman) or two will show up from both sides of the aisle.   Regardless,  the Founders created a messy system of government.  Amazingly, almost two hundred and thirty years later,  it still works pretty well.

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