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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Alleviating D.C.’s gridlock

When the first American Congress met in 1789, its members probably did not imagine that American politics would evolve into the rather unpredictable chaotic mess that we unfortunately see today.

On the night of Nov. 4, 2014, Republicans around the nation celebrated Senate, House and gubernatorial victories. Republican candidate victory parties were thrown, conservative news and commentary anchors (especially those on Fox News) had trouble containing their enthusiasm and the nation prepared for a new chapter in American history.

Although I personally lean conservative in my views, even I am unsure if this was truly best for the country. Now that the 114th Congress will be controlled by the Republicans, and the Democrats will continue to run the White House, will the two groups truly be able to get things done and not clash?

Our Constitution was established in order to create a balance of power throughout the three branches of government. However, when the branches of government do everything in their power to counter each other, we pay the price, and the nation as a whole ends up worse off.

As the new Republican majority takes control of the senate, with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, at the helm, they, along with the new larger Republican majority in the House will set forth with their agenda. After McConnell spent years saying that he would work as hard as he could to make President Obama a one-term president, he now says he will pledge to work together with the president, despite his plans to embark on a fairly conservative agenda. Meanwhile, Obama, who also said he looks forward to working with the new Republican-majority Congress, plans to execute several more executive actions, such as his latest plans for immigration, in order to push his own agenda forward.

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As you can see, a balance is never met between the executive and legislative branch, as long as two different parties are in power. It was the same way during the Bush Administration. We have arguably not had a cohesive government by two parties since Bill Clinton was in office.

So far, I have mentioned only the two branches of our national government that are clearly the most prominent.

With the way our government is set up, though, the Supreme Court could arguably take action in order to stop some of the chaos playing out between the other two branches. The Supreme Court has the power, as we all learned in high school, to claim that laws passed by Congress are unconstitutional. It also has the power to stop the president’s executive actions. However, the Court will not take any action like this. Why? This is because the Supreme Court is just as partisan as any other branch of government. Since the president appoints justices to be approved by Congress, usually the justices will share similar views to the president who appoints them and the Congress that confirms them. Therefore, despite having lifelong appointments, the justices are scared to anger the parties that had a hand in their rise to the Supreme Court.

The Constitution was made to keep the government running, but when the branches of government do not adhere to the clauses that endorse working together, nothing gets done. The three branches of government were created to balance one another, not to counter one another. Since modern media has made it possible to create nasty campaign advertisements, and issues have become more divisive due to those on the extreme left and the Tea Party, it appears there is no turning back to a balanced government.

I cannot explain how to solve our national problems; after all, I am just a college student. However, I do have a few suggestions. Term limits need to be set on members of Congress. This will make it so new ideas will emerge more often from the voices representing us.  A defined set of guidelines needs to be established on what constitutes a reasonable and legal executive order by the president. If this were created, there would be less controversy over the president’s decisions. Finally, the Supreme Court needs to rule on cases simply by the duties outlined in the constitution and knowledge of law, not by what members think would please the political party with which they are affiliated.

Regardless of who is in charge, I encourage you, my fellow SLU students, to become informed about the issues in order for your opinions to be heard. We, after all, are the ones that will be impacted by the current government’s decisions, good or bad, and we are the voices of the future.

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