The myth of checks and balances.
Democracy is a mental construct. It only constrains you if you believe in it. But it can give you over power as long as you convince enough people to do it. It will, however, never be restored once broken through violent means without the use of violent means.
States, rule of law, democracy (and every other government type) and constitutions are mental constructs. They are linked together by the idea of a natural dependency. The only thing upholding any and all of these is the willingness to uphold the oath sworn by all those granted public authority, be that legislature, executive or judicial. They all check each other - in theory. Which is why they swear on the constitution - not a person - because that is the very thing that granted them the power and that acts as the web that weaves them all together.
If they stop checking and balancing each other than there’s nothing holding the statedom together - there’s afterall no natural consequence to breaking the web
The checks and balances were there, but they’ve been methodically corrupted and dismantled over decades without anyone doing anything about it.
That’s just it. There is no perfect government. The government is made of humans, and humans are imperfect. Any government, no matter how pure/noble its founding intentions, will eventually become corrupt need to be replaced.
We’re finally feeling that in America after a good 250 year run.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman sent to analyze the American government in its early days— specifically studying its checks and balances—called it way back in 1835. There’s nothing to stop tyranny in America. Well worth reading his writings, “Democracy in America.”
The checks and balances were never what they were advertised to be. They haven’t really been corrupted, just revealed to be more something people followed out of convention than an actual working system.
The US founding fathers were a bunch of mainly rich dudes, mostly in their 20s, from the 1700s. Their knowledge was limited to what a rich kid could in the 1700s. They had a decent grasp on how the English parliamentary system worked, some vague ideas of how systems worked in ancient Rome and Greece, they’d read a bunch of philosophers, and had a lot of youthful enthusiasm.
They come from a time 200 years before Game Theory and a century before the beginnings of Political Science. When they came up with these checks and balances, they didn’t do it in any kind of formal way, trying to attack the system as a clever adversary would. There were all kinds of assumptions baked into their models of how the system would work that they never questioned. As a result, their system of checks and balances doesn’t stand up to a popular party that wants the US to be a dictatorship.
The myth of checks and balances.
The myth of (checks notes) every single admirable or positive aspect I was raised to believe was true about our system of government and our values as a nation.
I’m in my 50s. Somewhere WAY down the list of shit that I’m absolutely furious about is that I can no longer pretend that a single thing about US values or the resilient and balanced design of our government has turned out to be true.
Every single thing that has ever benefitted non-wealthy non-white non-male non-straight or non-cis people in the US has been hard won with blood over decades or centuries. And we’re well on the way to undoing nearly all of those after not even two months of a despot in office.
Every thing I have ever been taught about what made the US great or special or even good has been a lie. It’s very plain to see now. It turns out we had some elected people superficially following the rules, and that was really the only thing keeping it all together.
Honestly, I am just hoping that the new country/countries that emerge from the smoking heap of America will try harder to enshrine democracy. Likely that will take decades.
It feels alot like margaret atwood wasn’t writing fiction at the moment. The religious and/or far right wing seems to be getting their way over there and it honestly feels like the handmaids tale is their vision. At least that is my take here from the other side of the pond.
No really, I am. 😆
But I’m kinda flattered that you recognized my username.
This account still exists because I want to sort through and preserve some saved threads and other stuff.
I’m in my 50s. Somewhere WAY down the list of shit that I’m absolutely furious about is that I can no longer pretend that a single thing about US values or the resilient and balanced design of our government has turned out to be true.
You should be mad at yourself for believing this bullshit for 50+ years.
Well, I didn’t just stop believing it all this morning. It’s been a process. This is just the nail in the coffin.
I mean the checks and balances are definitely there. They’ve just been taken over too. You just can’t have democracy without the people having faith in democracy.
Yeah… Kinda miffs people blaming the balances and checks. Like, they are there. They’re just being ignored. Lmfao. Cause some dipshits gave the fascists all 3 branches
I feel like if controlling all three branches is enough to undo the whole constitution, it wasnt that good. If they wanted to prevent a tyrant, they shouldve thought to ask “what if that tyrant is popular”
Again, it’s enforced by willingness, a want to uphold the US Constitution.
Once you decide you’re done doing that the US Constitution is done.
It is done. Everyone will continue to sit on their asses waiting for a correction that will never come. It’s already broken. And people act like it’s not because they know no other way to be.
That’s what the congress is for. The problem is that the president can easily bypass it with executive orders.
No worries. The kingdoms that replace democracy will be responsible and enlightened. /s
(Sadly, a real thing.)
A democracy, if we can keep it.
Half the voting population doesn’t want to keep it.
No, it was not half of voting population; go and research how US voting “works”
Where do you think I’m from? More than half the people who got off their ass and went and voted, voted for this self declared dictator. I never said half the country.
No, he ended up below 50%. He had the plurality though. If you include RFK Jr. votes with Trump (which some people do for some reason) it’d be over half, but I wouldn’t. People voting for him explicitly weren’t voting for Trump.
Half the people meaning half of the absolute number of people who went voting, which is not true
Since each state votes for their members of the Electoral College, it could happen that, if you count each person who voted directly, you get no way near 50% voting for the president that gets elected
This voting system is stupid, the idea of a law to pardon people as president is even more stupid.
It’s arguably more than that. A lot of the people who voted Democrat don’t want democracy either, they just want their neoliberals to be the ones fucking them instead of the loud crazies.
America rn is the result of over four decades of divisive propoganda efforts coming to fruition. Entire generations have grown up believing the wealthy elites of our nation are untouchable. We’ve been a plutocracy for at least a decade now, the mask has just fallen off.
The people have to be the adults
True. But hard when they’ve only ever been in a daycare.
It’s interesting the maturity, views and domestic priorities of an American that has travelled to other parts of the globe and one that has never left. To some, the daycare is their world, so it’s hard to imagine them acting as though they’re in “the real world”.
The daycare relies on that.
