In Defense of Congress

In the American constitutional system, the soundest basis for domestic tranquility is conflict. It was from this principle that the Founding Fathers conceived a Grand Design for governance which went far beyond the antagonistic trinity of Executive-Legislative-Judicial “checks and balances” or the federal-state dualism. The American system was from the start richly susceptible to the tugs and stresses of regional, economic and class interests within each branch of government. It has been this conflict which has kept American society supple.

Of the various forces seeking dominance in the necessary—and necessarily inconclusive—struggle, the American Congress has been at once the strongest and the weakest. It has been the strongest because it controls the purse-strings and the means to enlist public opinion on its side; the weakest because of its membership and its political philosophy. At the height of its intellectual strength, the Congress has been exemplified by the John Calhouns, the William Borahs and the Robert La Follettes. Today, at the nadir of its prestige, the thundering periods of the past have been replaced by the croaking flatulence of a Wayne Morse or the childish vindictiveness of a Clinton Anderson.

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Ralph de Toledano

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In the American constitutional system, the soundest basis for domestic tranquility is conflict. It was from this principle that the Founding Fathers conceived a Grand Design for governance which went far beyond the antagonistic trinity of Executive-Legislative-Judicial “checks and balances” or the federal-state dualism. The American system was from the start richly susceptible to the tugs and stresses of regional, economic and class interests within each branch of government. It has been this conflict which has kept American society supple.

Of the various forces seeking dominance in the necessary—and necessarily inconclusive—struggle, the American Congress has been at once the strongest and the weakest. It has been the strongest because it controls the purse-strings and the means to enlist public opinion on its side; the weakest because of its membership and its political philosophy. At the height of its intellectual strength, the Congress has been exemplified by the John Calhouns, the William Borahs and the Robert La Follettes. Today, at the nadir of its prestige, the thundering periods of the past have been replaced by the croaking flatulence of a Wayne Morse or the childish vindictiveness of a Clinton Anderson.