I'm so sick of individuals being vested with supreme power over vital government functions.

[LaMouffette]

Like Emily Murphy having the supreme power to hold up the presidential transition. And Mitch McConnell having the supreme power to bring or refuse to bring bills passed by the House to the floor of the Senate. And Trump having the supreme power of granting top level security clearances—even when people like Jared and Ivanka have been denied clearances because they pose a threat to national security—and the supreme power to grant blanket pardons and to discard by executive order programs like the Iran Nuclear Treaty, which took hundreds of person-hours and massive diplomacy measures to enact. And state electors having the sole power of ignoring the majority of voters in their state and acting as "faithless electors."

Is this seriously what The Founders had in mind??? Just like capitalism running wildly out of control due to deregulation, the federal government is running amok from unregulated power in the hands of individuals and in one political party—the majority one.

The only "supreme" power in government should be the Supreme Court, and even that has the power of decision-making spread out over nine individuals (ostensibly), not just one.

This is nuts. We need a major injection of checks-and-balances before the next Trump gets elected.

[Laelth]

1. What we have, actually, is highly distributed power.

It’s cumbersome, but I prefer it this way. A dictator could address each and every one of the roadblocks you describe and dispense with them all quickly. In our system, power is very widely distributed, and that makes this republic highly resistant to tyranny.

-Laelth

[LaMouffette]

3. Hmm . . . ! I think my post came out all wrong!

What I meant is that I want more widely distributed power, not less. Sorry for the confusion!

I was feeling very frustrated that Trump loyalist Emily Murphy was able to hold up the Biden transition team, which reminded me of other individuals wielding enormous power, like the Senate majority leader. Not a bad thing in a responsible administration, but a nightmare situation in a Trumpocracy.

Thankfully, that GSA hurdle is behind us.

[marybourg]

2. Yes, this is what the founders had in mind. The executive

branch carries out delegated functions. Would you like tRump to make every decision in the entire executive branch? Or a committee of 9? Just because something doesn’t work perfectly every time, doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced with something new. We’re talking “humans” here. Nothing is perfect.

[LaMouffette]

4. Oops! Like I responded to Laelth, I don't think my post came out right.

The last thing I would want is for Trump to go from wannabe dictator to actual dictator.

It must not have come across the way I meant it to, because I really was trying to call for more oversight, more checks and balances, more guardrails, and less power wielded by any one of the three branches.

Maybe now that we have the adults back running things, there will be some serious shoring up of our governmental rules and procedures. They say that when a broken bone mends, it's stronger than before. Don't know if that's true or not, but maybe that will be the case with our democracy. (Oh, great. I just googled, "Does a broken bone heal stronger than it was before," and the answer was no. Oh well, there is still hope, now that we have Joe and Kamala at the helm.)