So Far, Democracy's Doing Pretty Well

I’ve been writing this blog to highlight the danger that President Trump presents to our democracy.  While there’s been plenty of bad news, there's good news, too: We have a strong democracy.  

I’ve taken much of the following from a recent opinion piece by Daniel W. Drezner, professor of international politics at Tufts University.  He argues that the structures of our democracy are holding up pretty well, despite Trump’s demagoguery.  

As I’ve written before, our constitutional system contains a series of important checks and balances that keeps any branch of government from overwhelming the others. 

1. “Federalism puts important legal constraints on what the federal government can impose on the states.
2. “The Bill of Rights puts important legal constraints on what any level of government can do to the American people.”
3. On top of that, the government bureaucracy can frustrate even the president who presides over it.

For example, Congress has several times countered the President by failing to repeal Obamacare, refusing to eliminate the filibuster, refusing to ease sanctions on Russia, and insisting on continuing the congressional investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.

The courts have kept the President from some of his most egregious policies, significantly restricting the Muslim travel ban, striking down the attempted transgender ban in the military, and prohibiting the President from withholding federal funds to “sanctuary cities.”

Even the investigators and prosecutors who technically serve under Trump have largely ignored him, as have military judges and juries.  His own agencies have sometimes rebelled.  The Federal Communications Commission, for instance, didn’t even consider Trump’s threat to shut down broadcast media who criticized him … not only because of First Amendment rights but also because the FCC has no legal authority to do so.

The President did succeed in firing FBI director James Comey, but that backfired when Comey’s deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, appointed a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller.  Trump did appoint outspoken supporter, Senator Jeff Sessions, to be Attorney General, but he can’t even get Sessions to do what he wants.  Just this week, Trump’s unprecedented attempt to get the Department of Justice to investigate his former opponent Hillary Clinton has caused an uproar in the department.  The recent elections—not only the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey but also local campaigns across the country—have sent a strong message to Republicans everywhere.

I don’t mean to downplay the very real challenge to our democratic institutions.  Trump’s successes in changing Obama-era regulations have been pernicious:

1. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded important environmental regulations. 
2. In finance, brokers are no longer legally required to have their clients’ best interest at heart.
3. Universities no longer have to pay attention to federal guidelines on investigating sexual assault.
4. Regulations allowing students some debt relief have been rolled back.

Nevertheless, the good news is that even under this president, democracy is doing pretty well.  The bad news is that he’s only nine months in and there are still three years, two months, and four days to go.