Actually no, not really. The safeguards were mostly customs, not laws, so they can be safely ignored.
And what few laws there are, like the emoluments clause, seem to be entirely unenforceable because it’s not clear anyone has standing to bring a suit and the president presumably isn’t going to enforce the law on himself.
What we’ve learned in the last twelve years is our democracy was built on the good will of the people we elected, and when we stopped demanding the good will with our votes it was no longer guaranteed.
This! A "silver lining" from the current adminstration is that we've become aware that we've left way to much to custom. It's time to put some laws in place to act as hard guard rails. Or, as another commentor mentions, incentivise congress to exert control as they are supposed to do.
> This! A "silver lining" from the current adminstration is that we've become aware that we've left way to much to custom. It's time to put some laws in place to act as hard guard rails.
The US federal government had such laws -- they were implemented around 1910.
We rolled them back in the 60-80s in the interest of executive efficiency.
So it wouldn't be creating a novel check and balance, but rather returning to a previous configuration where the executive's powers are more devolved into strong independent balancing bodies via Congress.
(And no, the Supreme Court hasn't removed this possibility, because Congress hasn't passed intentional and unambiguous laws like this in 100+ years)
Yes, we cannot take politicians willingly following past norms for granted.
We knew this already. Washington set the precedent of only serving two terms and it lasted all the way until FDR. Then after he got 4 terms they amended the constitution to prevent it.
I sincerely hope similar things happen after this administration, but, I am not optimistic. The Biden administration didn’t make any move in that direction (and he violated plenty of norms too) but perhaps the new level will scare them into action. Fingers crossed.
I think Biden was sort of the last gasp of trying to "turn the other cheek" and show by deeds and words what an inclusive, forward thinking administration looked like.
I think a lot of people are now done with that, and are looking to burn down some things, figuratively speaking.
Congress has a lot of power here even outside of impeachment, which was always meant to be the nuclear option. The tariff power is theirs, they delegated it to the President in certain situations willingly, like national emergency. The Supreme Court will not rule that they cannot do that, they surely can, but they may rule that there is not a national emergency. (I think congressional Republicans hope for that, it gets them out of the situation without causing them to be opposed to Trump.)
The Supreme Court is never “complicit”, they call balls and strikes. Most complaints about the court are actually really complaints about our laws or constitution. For instance, I am as pro choice as anyone, but the Supreme Court definitely made the right call overturning Roe as the constitution clearly does not have a right to privacy, does not give the federal government the right to regulate abortion, and clearly delegates that power to the state. I do not like that (I’d support a right to privacy amendment wholeheartedly) but it is correct.
Congress in this case is also functioning more or less as intended. The whole point of democracy is that the government should reflect the will of the voters. If the voters overwhelmingly chose Trump, to the point where they’ll vote for whatever person he endorses in Congressional primaries, this is the will of the people. I don’t understand it still, but this is the electorate getting what they wanted. (That may change very much in a year.)
And what few laws there are, like the emoluments clause, seem to be entirely unenforceable because it’s not clear anyone has standing to bring a suit and the president presumably isn’t going to enforce the law on himself.
What we’ve learned in the last twelve years is our democracy was built on the good will of the people we elected, and when we stopped demanding the good will with our votes it was no longer guaranteed.