experience taught
auxiliary precautions
a necessity
Adapted from the New York Times Opinion Piece, An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good, by David French where Mr. French writes:
We trusted that presidents would impose accountability on the executive branch. We trusted that presidents wouldn’t abuse their pardon power — or, if they did, then Congress could impeach and convict any offenders. And so we manufactured doctrine after doctrine, year after year, that insulated the executive branch from legal accountability.
It’s hard to overstate how much this web of immunities — combined with the failure of Congress to step up and fulfill its powerful constitutional role — has made the United States vulnerable to authoritarian abuse.
In Federalist No. 51, James Madison wrote some of the most famous words of the American founding. “If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” Madison wrote. “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
This is a version of the ancient question: Who will watch the watchers?
Madison’s next words were crucial. “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
I want to take just a moment to comment on the line, “… the failure of Congress to step up and fulfill its powerful constitutional role.”
My study of US History has been filled with the jealous, selfish and defiant protection of the power of Congress BY CONGRESS.
The question, “How will this play on the Hill?” has been asked by every Executive administration since 1787.
Jimmy Carter realized it was pretty much over for him when a Democratic Congress over road on his vetos.
Nixon claimed his loss of a congressional legislative base made it impossible to stay on as President.
Theodore Roosevelt said something along the lines of, “If I could only be President AND CONGRESS for 10 minutes.”
Today we watch the worst example of Congressional action and leadership in the history of this nation and the worst dreams of the founders are not dreams but fact.
We depended on Congress as representatives of the people.
We depended on congress because a dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.
But experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.
Sad to think about.
Sad to watch.
Sadder to live through.
Mr. French writes:
In the Trump era, those auxiliary precautions have utterly failed.
They’ve been undermined to the point where the reverse is now true.
Rather than providing additional precautions against the rise of authoritarian rule, American law and precedent seem to presume that angels govern men, and those angels would be free to do even more good if only they possessed a free hand.
We are witnesses to what authoritarian rule looks like.
No Haiku For You 