american government

The Modern Presidency: Wherefore Art Thou, American Legislature?

Adam Gravano

A flashpoint of this contention has been the executive order. Most notably, President Obama's statement that “I've got a pen and I've got a phone,” which covered more than actions requiring the secrecy and dispatch that other areas in which the presidency is accorded a freer hand, namely foreign policy: “Helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating.”

We Believed Our Constitution Would Always Protect Us - Until It Didn’t

Wolfgang Mack

To sum up, some of the compromises that our Founding Fathers had to make may have been necessary at the time they formulated our Constitution but the reasons for these compromises simply no longer exist. As recent events have shown, these obsolete compromise provisions can be exploited by less-than-trustworthy politicians to undermine our democratic institutions -- a clear and present danger to the future of our republic.

Explaining Our Cautious, Caustic Congress

Jim Jaffe

Inevitably those whose power was constrained by these new rules gradually figured out ways to use them and at least partially reassert control.  As a result it is nearly impossible to make a credible Senate race in most states without a big bankroll, arguably returning control to those who selected Senators under the old system.  The initiative process, which spread to other states, has also been distorted by those with money who focus on parochial concerns while obliquely attempting to elect their candidates.  

How Democrats’ and Republicans’ Struggle for Control is Harming the Country

Dave Helfert

Thus far, with a Republican House of Representatives and a Democratic Senate, each side has been able to stop the other one cold.  Nearly everything that passes in the House is dead on arrival in the Senate.  And just about anything that attracts enough votes to get out of the Senate is dead as a mackerel in the House.  As a result, the Congress of the United States has accomplished absolutely nothing of substance.

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