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The U S Constitution is pretty clear on the roles and responsibilities of the various arms of the federal government. 1
Congress is the legislative branch. Their job is to create laws. 2
The President heads the executive branch. Their responsibility is to assure that the laws are enforced. 3
The federal court system, including the Supreme Court, is the judicial branch. Their responsibility is oversight of the other two branches, assuring that they protect and defend the Constitution. 4
Hey, I’m not a lawyer, not a scholar, and not a politician, but the Constitution is pretty clear on this stuff (and yes, I’m oversimplifying). 5
The executive branch has been poaching on congress’s territory for years, arguably back to Lyndon Johnson and his 1964 lying and arm-twisting to turn Vietnam into a full-blown Military-Industrial-Complex Party. 6
Every President since has poached on congress a little more. Bush and Cheney launched their endless, criminal war. 7
When the billionaire-funded tea party was jammed like a spanner in the works into congress, bringing it to an obstructionist standstill, even Obama resorted to poaching to show some—any—progress. 8
Trump is simply acting like he’s the king, actively destroying the structure of the government created by the Constitution. 9
The 10 Democrats who debated paid little respect to the problem of Constitutional destruction, declaiming the laws they would make, even though they don’t have the authority to make laws. 10
The only candidate who seemed to recognize the problem was Warren. More than once, she asserted that the laws were already in place, but that we were not enforcing them. 11
Her stance was less bold, less aggressive, less adrenaline pumping, but it was the only one consistent with the letter and spirit of the U S Constitution. The President’s job is to assure enforcement of the laws Congress enacts. 12
Klobuchar reflected the feeling within the congressional trenches: they work earnestly to move the needle and are thankful when it quivers a fraction of a millimeter. The deplorables learned a long time ago that while lawmaking is difficult, law-destroying is easy. 13
I hadn’t intended to bother to watch the debate but my son gently insisted, and I’m glad he did. As he said, the debates aren’t for picking winners, but for eliminating the losers. We all know who fell on their own daggers last night. 14
But we have two challenges. 1) The world is melting down with multiple, systemic problems. And 2) The federal government, which is the only effective tool available to us to remedy the world’s problems, is wounded and bleeding under the heel of runaway capitalism. 15
Thus we are confronted with a kind of chicken-and-egg problem: do we fix the government to fix the world, or do we fix the world to fix the government? I wish I knew. 16
