We were all educated about the US system of checks and balances which would guarantee a fair and just government. There are pages and pages of search results about checks and balances. But when push came to shove, they all failed. Let’s look at the individual checks and consider where and how they have failed.

The Electoral College

One of the few alleged benefits of the Electoral College was that they would supposedly intervene and step in if the popular voters had selected a charlatan buffoon. The popular voters did select such a buffoon, a criminal no less, but the EC did nothing. Possibly they felt the bar hadn’t been met for overruling the popular vote. This could have been stopped at the source, but alas now we all suffer.

Congress

Congress is fully controlled by the GOP, both houses. And while the GOP was quick to step in with Nixon, they seem to completely have forgotten their oath first and foremost to the constitution. They are either explicitly validating policies or simply remaining silent while the Trump administration runs rampant over US norms, be they national or international.

They not only appear to be putting party first, but just putting their own careers first. Now a handful of GOP politicians have made Strong Statements condemning the Trump administration, but they were either already retired or announced their retirement in tandem with the Strong Statement.

The courts

Trump stacked the Supreme Court with loyalists. They mostly do his bidding now as they have a conservative majority and many owe their careers to Trump and his GOP.

How did this majority happen? Part of it is the Dems’ own fault. Sometimes they’re just too nice.

First Justice Scalia died in February of Obama’s last year. Although he still had over 10 months left in his term, Mitch McConnell declared that any justice appointed by a lame duck president would be immediately null and void and that the justice should be chosen by the next president. The Dems went “well golly shucks Gomer makes sense to me!”. Then Ruth Bader Ginsberg ignored calls to step down while Obama was in office and while his party controlled the Senate. Instead she died in 2020 late during the first Trump administration. He replaced her with Amy Coney Barrett, barely waiting for the body to be cold. It apparently didn’t matter any more that he was at the end of his term.

So now the courts have a strong conservative majority. Yes, they are supposed to rule on The Law and not play party politics. But that’s in theory, not in practice.

And during the Biden administration there was a similar issue with Justice Sotomayor but that moment has passed us. If she has further health problems we’ll be facing a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. They were able to repeal Roe with just 6-3. So look out ahead if Sotomayor’s health fails.

The military

As Senator Mark Kelly has correctly pointed out, the military does not need to follow an illegal order. But military top brass has done just that, first using military force against unarmed Venezuelan fishing boats, a transparent attempt to provoke a response, and now by invading a sovereign nation with no cause whatsoever, and kidnapping their leader. Oh, by the way, those drug boat raids have mysteriously stopped now that we have kidnapped Maduro and are “running the country.”

Ignoring laws anyhow…

And when he flagrantly breaks the law, which is pretty much a regular thing, he just ignores it and nothing happens. Emoluments clause? Meh. Mandated Epstein release? No biggie, just don’t do it and ignore it when it does emit a few docs. Using the government to campaign or for other personal political purposes? Sure, why the heck not. Taking bribes from foreigners? Well come on, everybody is doing it. No consequences ever.

What made all this work? Money and Fox News

Trump and the GOP built this huge media machine to push their agenda. And unconstrained my those pesky facts, Fox News can make the news “entertaining” by pretty much just showing what the billionaires want you to see. Dem media, sticking more to reality, simply can’t compete, because reality in comparison is so boring.

So you put up guys in navy suits with red ties and blond women and present in a news-like format and a huge amount of listeners will believe it just like it’s real news.