Checks and balances won't stop Trump

Donald Trump’s ego is a black hole - a gaping maw of inconsolable need that cannot be fulfilled. Ever. That is an existential fact of who and what he is. He will try to consume the world. And if he can’t consume it, then he will destroy it in the attempt. That is what we are facing: an existential threat to the republic, if not to the world itself.

So, then, what can prevent him from consuming or destroying everything?

The founders designed a system of checks and balances into our constitution. They established three branches of government, each of which has its own prerogatives and its own powers, with the idea that they will counterbalance one another - when one branch seeks to obtain too much power for itself, or in some way goes too far, the others, jealous of their prerogatives and their powers, will use those powers to block or to restrain the overreaching branch. This has worked pretty well throughout our history.

The problem today, though, is that all three branches of government are controlled by a single party that has demonstrated consistently over the past thirty years or so, and particularly in the 21st century, that it has no ultimate respect or sense of fealty to the Constitution or sense of duty to promote the general welfare. The Republican Party has, in fact, demonstrated that it is willing to flout the Constitution, to go around the Constitution, to defy or subvert the Constitution, whenever the Constitution - in letter or in spirit - interferes with or obstructs their agenda. (I cover this extensively in my book, Beyond Reason, in a chapter dedicated precisely to this subject and also more generally throughout the book. You can read the chapter here.)

For Republicans, the Constitution, Constitutionalism, and declarations of respect for the Constitution are merely rhetorical postures taken up in order to obtain favor and support from the public. Which, in and of itself, represents a deep contempt for the Constitution.

The Republican Party is, in the most practical and direct sense, hostile to, or at best highly ambivalent about, democracy itself. When we consider gerrymandering, voter ID laws, limiting the number of polling places, procedures that make it difficult to register to vote, the disenfranchisement of felons who have already paid their "debt to society", and other vote-suppression measures that are supported by Republicans, it becomes clear and incontrovertible that the GOP has an effective record of interfering with democracy and seeking to dismantle it.

Republicans are hostile to democracy for the simple reason that democracy is an impediment to their ability to implement their agenda, which a majority of Americans oppose. Republicans favor their own agenda, their own values, their own objectives, above the will or interests of the majority of American citizens. Where the Constitution conflicts or interferes with their priorities, Republicans won't hesitate to ignore it.

So, when it comes to Donald Trump seeking to expand executive power, with the ultimate aim of becoming an authoritarian ruler, a dictator even, how can we count on the GOP, or any institution that is dominated by the GOP, to stand up for the Constitution or to stand up for democracy? It would be folly to expect them to do so.

As long as Donald Trump’s ascendancy helps them to advance their agenda, the Republicans who dominate American government in all branches, at every level, will not interfere with him; they will not exercise their constitutionally mandated function as a check on executive power. That is our predicament and it is dire.