People are ready for reform. Is Congress?
We’re living through times of great strife, but Americans are still united by their belief in a democratic republic with Congress playing its appropriate leading role.
Today is Constitution Day, a day most of us would normally treat as just another ordinary day. But these are not ordinary times. We know it. We feel it. We see it all around us.
Whatever vision the Founders had of a free, prosperous, and vibrant society in which diverse voices are respected, not shot down; in which the real power resides with the people; in which our elected leaders lead with humility and in pursuit of a greater, common good feels almost otherworldly now.
But it is in these trying times that we must continue striving for the democracy that we believe in, that our Founders believed in. And, today, I believe that Americans are waking up.
As the founder of a nonprofit group that works with both political parties to strengthen democracy, Issue One, I wake up every day with a mission my team shares: to find ways, as difficult as it may be, to bring differing political ideologies together to fix our broken political system. It is challenging work. But even when our politics feel increasingly fractured, I still believe that the only way through is together.
And I especially believe that we must lean into this way of thinking following the unspeakable act of violence we witnessed just a few days ago. The murder of Charlie Kirk—regardless of how you felt about his beliefs or politics—is an inflection point for our country. Free speech is a fundamental pillar of our Constitution, and the ability to speak and engage respectfully with those who believe and vote differently than we do is vital for any free society. If we lose that—whether through acts of violence or through government clampdowns on civil liberties—we will lose our superpower as a democracy. We must confront the growth of political violence with the urgency of a national crisis. Not as Republicans or Democrats, but together as Americans.
Political violence is not the only danger testing our republic. Another quieter but equally corrosive threat comes from the steady erosion of checks and balances. On this Constitution Day, we must ask ourselves: Has Congress ceded so much power to the presidency that our democracy is at risk?
President Donald Trump has stretched executive authority to extremes. From his increasingly politicized use of the military and National Guard to unilateral trade policy, there’s no mistaking that second-term Trump is far more empowered with far fewer guardrails than first-term Trump. And Congress has, in countless ways, shrunk from its responsibilities to serve as a check in any real meaningful way. The result is one of the greatest challenges to our constitutional framework in U.S. history.
Americans are taking note. My organization just worked with YouGov to poll voters across the country—Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike—on a wide range of issues pertaining to executive power, checks and balances, and the constitutional role of Congress. Perhaps the most striking takeaway from the poll is how concerned voters are about how much power is being concentrated in the presidency. Nearly 1 in 3 voters (32%) ranked it as a top concern—below inflation (46%) and roughly tied with jobs (33%) and immigration (34%).
Whoever says democracy isn’t a kitchen-table issue might want to reconsider.
A majority of voters (59%), including nearly 8 in 10 independents (79%), said that Trump is going too far outside the bounds of our system of checks and balances.
More than 3 in 4 voters (78%) support holding the executive branch accountable through congressional oversight, and nearly 3 in 4 respondents (72%) would prefer a candidate who acts with respect for institutions and rules rather than ignoring the Constitution to act with greater speed and urgency, including nearly 3 in 4 independents (73%) and a majority of Republicans (57%). Nearly 8 in 10 (78%) voters said that the primary job of members of Congress is to represent their constituents rather than rubber-stamping whatever the president wants, including more than 8 in 10 independents (86%) and nearly 2 in 3 Republicans (65%).
These findings point to a powerful truth: Americans value checks and balances, and they would back Congress if it stepped up to rein in executive overreach.
So how can we apply these findings to our current national crisis?
To be clear, these threats to our system did not emerge overnight. Trump’s bombastic flare has brought the cracks into sharper focus, but they are not the consequence of one man or one movement. For decades, Congress has steadily surrendered its constitutionally granted authority to presidents from both parties. Over time, the balance of power has tilted in ways the Founders warned us about, leaving us with a presidency far more powerful than the Constitution ever envisioned or laid out.
Though there has been much focus on how today’s Republican-controlled Congress has been weak when it comes to standing up to Trump’s overreach, Democrats also squandered their chance to reassert Congress’ Article I powers when they had a trifecta after the 2020 election. They had a chance to pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act—legislation designed to curb presidential abuses of power, from prohibiting corrupt pardons and safeguarding inspectors general and whistleblowers, to limiting a president’s ability to freeze congressionally approved funding. Instead, the bill stalled amid partisan squabbles and the Senate filibuster. By failing to act then, and boxing in President Joe Biden, Congress put itself in a weaker position and helped set the stage for the executive branch excesses we’re witnessing today, including DOGE and unilateral funding recissions.
The reality is that real reform will require more than one party acting when it has the majority. If members of Congress are serious about the powers the Constitution grants the legislative branch, reining in executive power, and restoring their own constitutional authority, both Republicans and Democrats will need to agree that limits on the presidency serve the institution of Congress itself. Until that happens, the door will remain open for presidents of either party to expand their powers even further.
The reforms we’re putting forth today—and will be championing in Congress—are rooted in the Founders’ vision. These aren’t partisan platforms. They’re enduring, nonpartisan principles. And they’re backed by real voters who want to see their elected representatives stand up to presidents when they go too far. From restoring Congress’ trade authority and reinforcing spending powers to safeguarding the use of emergency powers, these critical reforms are needed now to bring balance back to our constitutional order.
We’re living through times of great strife. But the American people are still united by their belief in a democratic republic with Congress playing its appropriate leading role. That’s why I remain fiercely committed to the spirit of working with whomever—from whatever party—because our form of government was designed to sort through differences, broker compromises, and balance power.
Restoring that balance will not happen overnight. But if lawmakers summon the courage to work together, the people will thank them, and our democracy will persevere through even the roughest patches.
Nick Penniman is the founder and CEO of Issue One, a D.C.-based nonprofit focused on building bipartisan power to strengthen the foundations of American democracy.
 | A guest post by
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Expecting Congress to save us is a fool’s errand. Here’s why.
Wealth has always been the key to social and political power. Despite the eloquent protestation that we’re all created equal, the reality is that right from the outset, there has been tension in the U.S. between those who have a significant degree of wealth (and hence power) and those who have little or none. The balance between the haves and the have nots has bounced back and forth over the years but during Reagan’s presidency the haves got a significant boost as much of the wealth of those in the middle was transferred to those already at the top. The transfer was sold to a gullible public by the “trickle-down” smokescreen which quietly ignored human selfishness. When I was a youngster the wealthy gave roughly 90% of their earnings to the government. By the end of the Reagan era and its aftermath, this had plummeted to where it is today, hovering just under 40%.
Once wealth became concentrated at the top the rule makers who set the tax rules were chosen primarily from among the wealthy, because they alone could afford to broadcast their candidacy more forcefully. Modern communication (television) magnifies the voice of those who can afford to pay for it. And so the average Joe and Jane have become mere pawns in a system the rules of which are set predominantly by those quite unlike themselves.
Until Trump arrived on the scene with the necessary skill and willingness to marshal the combined forces of concentrated wealth and widespread resentful ignorance, the country sailed along doing well enough that the great mass of people gradually forgot that the only true corrective lies in massive resistance by the public. The need and the will to confront tyranny has petrified over the years, and so we see ourselves succumbing to fascism without much more than a whimper.
Sic transit Gloria.
"nearly 3 in 4 respondents (72%) would prefer a candidate who acts with respect for institutions and rules rather than ignoring the Constitution to act with greater speed and urgency"
Which raises the question of why so many of those respondents nonetheless voted for a presidential candidate last year who made his utter contempt for those institutions and rules abundantly clear during his campaign.