Editor:
Congress has failed in its constitutional duty to serve as a check on executive power. Instead of defending its authority, it has surrendered it. This abdication has left the balance of power dangerously tilted, undermining the very system of government the founders designed.
Lower courts have attempted to push back against these overreaches, but the Supreme Court has largely stood aside. Bound to a rigid doctrine of “Original Intent,” the court’s majority insists on interpreting the Constitution only as the founders might have understood it in their time. But language evolves as society evolves. To apply 18th-century meanings to 21st-century challenges is not fidelity to the Constitution — it is a distortion of it. In clinging to archaic interpretations, the court risks destroying the very document it claims to protect.
History teaches us that tyrants succeed when the public is slow to resist. Delay only accelerates the erosion of freedoms and cements authoritarian practices into place. Too many citizens remain passive, expecting others to protest on their behalf. That path has led countless societies to ruin.
We cannot afford such complacency. The defense of democracy requires vigilance, courage and collective action. We must unite to demand free and fair elections in every precinct — without interference from masked agitators or soldiers deployed under false pretenses.
This election may be our last opportunity to remove those in Congress who enable authoritarianism and replace them with leaders willing to defend the Constitution. The stakes could not be higher. If we fail to act now, we may soon find ourselves living in a country where the freedoms we once took for granted exist only in memory.
Dennis Whitcomb, Blue Lake
This article appears in No Kings II.
