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Two Changes That Would Help Protect Our Democracy [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-20

If we make it through our current attack on democracy, there are two changes that should be seriously considered.

First, when the President, or any other official, is impeached by the House of Representatives the Senators act as the jury at the “trial” not as representatives of their constituency. They take a separate oath at the beginning of the hearings that is similar to one any juror would take, promising to set aside their personal and political biases and make a judgement based on the facts presented. However, given that they all hold elected political positions, whichever way an individual Senator votes creates a potential for retribution from their political supporters that may jeopardize their political future.

To address this issue, the Senate should change the voting rules for impeachment votes so that when Senators are sitting as jurors during an impeachment hearing all Senator’s votes on conviction of the impeachment charges will be by secret ballot, making all individual votes anonymous. While this might not completely solve the problem of political bias, it would go a long way toward removing political retribution as a consideration for a Senator’s vote as a juror, allowing them to vote on the facts presented.

Second, the country needs to address an issue that Edmond Randolph at the Constitutional Convention predicted: that a Unitary Executive would be a cradle for a future monarch. While his solution, three executives elected from three areas of the country, does not look like a viable solution today, our history and current circumstances seem to the validate his point that a Unitary Executive has insufficient checks on its power.

Perhaps the most obvious flaw is that because the Department of Justice is administered by an appointee of the Unitary Executive (the President) there are no enforcement checks on the Executive Branch. In the past the Constitutional check of Senate approval and the gentleman’s agreement that the DOJ would be able to operate independently of White House interference to enforce the Rule of Law have acted as a deterrent to an executive power grab. However, current events have demonstrated that Randolph’s concerns were real. The three branches of government alone are not strong enough checks on a Unitary Executive’s power. As we are seeing now, wealthy individuals and politicians can orchestrate corruption of the Senate’s and the Judicial Branch’s ability to check an ambitious takeover and deconstruction of our democracy by a Unitary Executive.

The solution to this is more difficult than changing the Senate voting rules on impeachment trials. However, most states have actually demonstrated a solution. The Attorney General is an elected official and this separately elected executive, in charge of the state’s Department of Justice, is independent of the Governor’s influence. Creating this additional check within the Executive Branch would require a Constitutional Amendment to Article 2, but would also go a long way toward providing both the Judiciary and the Congress an enforcement mechanism that is clearly missing now as check on Executive Branch powers.

My suggestion would be to have the Attorney General elected to a four year term by national vote. The election of the President and the Attorney General would be offset by two years, such that both would not be up for election in the same year. Both the Attorney General and the President would be limited to two terms collectively (e.g. both terms as executive in one of the offices, or one term in each office).

If such an amendment is proposed, it also might consider including replacement of the Electoral College with a national vote for the President as well.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/20/2311504/-Two-Changes-That-Would-Help-Protect-Our-Democracy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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