Congress Is Denying and Failing Its Duty

What’s happening in Congress is a massive hurricane of denial from Republicans right now. To defend against the coming of another king, the Founding Fathers made the legislative branch of the federal government the first article in the U.S. Constitution. Section 8 of that article lists these powers of Congress:

• “to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises …”
• “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes”
• “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested in this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution states, the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed . . . .” It’s pretty hard to claim President Trump is faithfully executing Congressionally created laws when he has his Administration

• create, manage, and remove tariffs on its own with no input from Congress (violates first and second bullets above)
• stop funding Congressionally created programs, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), for which Congress has appropriated and disbursed money to fund execution of the program’s specified duties (violates third bullet)
• remove Executive branch personnel, such as Justice Department employees for doing their jobs as criminal prosecutors, because they put loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to President Trump (violates third bullet)

At the start of each two-year term of Congress, representatives and senators pledge the following, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Republicans have always portrayed themselves as supporters of law and order, but by supporting President Trump’s disregard of the Congress’ authority specified in the Constitution’s Article 1, they are betraying their oath to defend the U.S.’s highest law, the Constitution, from a domestic enemy. It doesn’t matter that President Trump won the electoral college. It doesn’t even matter that President Trump won the popular vote. By his actions, President Trump is subverting the Constitution by ignoring the constraints and responsibilities it lays on him as president.

At the same time, I believe Republican Congress members believe they are honoring their oath. How? They’re altering their perception of reality by using the psychological mechanisms of denial, rationalization, and minimization to avoid cognitive dissonance. They’re afraid they’ll lose their next primary election because they believe their constituents support President Trump, so they subconsciously rationalize that they support his actions, and they minimize and deny his disregard for the Constitution’s Article 1.

The Founding Fathers created the checks and balances in the Constitution because they wanted to prevent a king from ruling the United States. They also created the Bill of Rights which serves to check the overall power of the government created by the Constitution. The final amendment in the Bill of Rights says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to States respectively, or to the people.”

That amendment shows the Founding Fathers believed the final defenders of the Constitution would be the people of the United States. I’m afraid that right now, however, the majority of people in the United States are, like Republicans in Congress, subconsciously denying, rationalizing, minimizing President Trump’s actions. They’re afraid to confront reality and instead stay in the comfort of their fantasy world in which President Trump is going to save them from the perceived dangers from Democrats, liberal elites, illegal immigrants, LGBTQ, the wealthy, the poor, women, non-whites, or whatever else they’re afraid of that will take away what they have.

I understand. The world is a dangerous place, and it’s getting worse for myriad reasons. Which is why it’s especially important for constituents to remind those who represent them in Congress that their most important responsibility is not to keep their jobs in Congress. Their most important responsibilities are to the Constitution and to all their constituents–
the body of citizens entitled to elect a representative (as to a legislative or executive position)“. Given the Constitution’s purpose written in the preamble, “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” those two responsibilities mostly overlap.

As taxpayers, some of the things we expect the federal government to do are

• defend the country from attack by other countries and terrorists
• ensure our road, rail, and air travel is safe
• provide social security benefits to those who’ve paid into that fund
• provide medical care for those seniors over the age of 65 who are citizens or eligible immigrants
• ensure the food and medications we ingest are safe
• assist states, counties, and cities with health care costs for those experiencing poverty
• manage our natural resources
• promote our national interests in international commerce

President Trump authorizing and supporting Elon Musk and the “Department” of Government “Efficiency” (be aware DOGE is not a Congressionally approved federal department, yet it is deciding what is efficient with no definition, guidance or direction from Congress) to lay off workers and shut down agencies, bureaus, and departments will certainly reduce the federal government’s ability to do those things to varying degrees. What level of reduction is appropriate? Will the cuts do more than that appropriate reduction? What are the foreseeable downstream consequences of these cuts? Since DOGE is not consulting with Congress before they reduce the administration’s ability to do what Congress has mandated the administration to do, it’s plain that the Republican led Congress has deserted their Constitutionally mandated role to oversee the administration’s actions.

As an example, as stated above, the Constitution clearly assigns the responsibility of setting taxes to Congress. The House of Representative’s Ways and Means committee “is the oldest committee of the United States Congress and is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. The Committee derives a large share of its jurisdiction from Article I, Section VII of the U.S. Constitution, which declares, ‘All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives’.” President Trump’s tariffs are a tax that by law must be paid by importers. It is reasonable to conclude that importers paying a tax on their goods will, at least somewhat, increase the price of those imported goods to their buyers. That will result in some import businesses no longer able to make a profit. Those businesses will have to lay off workers, switch to other sources (if available and affordable), or close the business entirely. It will result in products using those imported goods, such as electronic and vehicle manufacturers, becoming more expensive.

There are real-world consequences to actions and inactions. When one creates an alternate reality by denial, rationalization, and minimization, however, the perception of those consequences is also altered and usually reduced or eliminated entirely. Congress, especially Republicans, can make themselves believe those real-world consequences won’t happen, but reality always eventually wins.

Personal Story of Denying Reality

I know reality always wins because I’ve experienced denying reality, and I’ve heard and read the stories of those with personal experience of doing the same. One thing I’ve learned, both as a student of social sciences and especially as a recovering addict, is that I and people in general have an amazing ability to avoid cognitive dissonance by creating alternate realities. My experiences recovering from the mental illness of addiction have given me a deep, visceral insight into how well I created alternate realities that allowed me to do what I wanted, so I could avoid objective reality with its troubling responsibilities. As an addict, my actions were often insane, yet to me at the time, they seemed logical and harm-free.

Eventually I hit a bottom that forced me to begin facing my insanity. I began treatment with therapists and 12-step programs for my mental illness. With a lot of guided introspection, reading, talking, and listening I was able to unlock the mental compartments in which I hid reality. I was able to face my secrets and lies and sit with the pain I’d spent my life running away from. I developed a spiritual relationship with something greater than myself. Over time, I became a grateful, recovering addict. Why grateful?

Because my journey back to health gave me something: the direct experience of how well I and others can avoid reality by creating a false reality that enables us to feel, think, and do what we want to do even when doing that betrays our own values and imperils our relationships to others. To recover, I had to accept the help of others to break through my own denial. I had to examine and accept what I had done. I had to endure the cognitive dissonance caused by betraying my own values to myself and others. Most importantly, I had to change my thinking and acting so I supported my own values. I had to take responsibility for what I’d done, make amends to myself and others, and learn to live a life of truth and honesty–one that requires constant and never-ending self-examination.

We as individuals living in the United States and especially those who’ve been elected to Congress to represent their constituents need to apply constant and never-ending self-examination to our reactions to what President Trump, his administration, and Congress–especially Republican, are doing–and not doing–now.

It’s Time to Break through Our Denial, Accept Reality and Responsibility, and Demand Congress Does the Same

I remember years ago hearing from a Congressional staffer who said that the only things Congress will do are the things that constituents make it impossible for Congress not to do. As a volunteer in RESULTS, I’ve lobbied Congress for over 30 years to support legislation that promoted policies and funded programs that are ending poverty overseas and in the U.S. I helped make it impossible for Congress not to do those things. I know from personal experience that I, as a constituent, have political power, because (1) I’ve been taught how to use that power, and (2) I’ve been supported in using that power. Too many constituents believe there’s nothing they can do, but being cynical about politicians and politics is another example of our ability to avoid cognitive dissonance. We deny, rationalize, and minimize our political power because we’re subconsciously afraid to accept and use it. It’s easier and safer in the short run to do nothing or perhaps to join with others and protest in the streets. Protesting is not exercising political power.

Exercising political power requires communicating with our Members of Congress (MoC): the senators of our state and the representative of our district. It means calling, writing to, and meeting with our MoCs and their staffs to tell them what we want them to do. We have to break through our denial and remind ourselves that the people who represent us in Congress work for us. Through our taxes we pay their salaries. If we never communicate with them once they’re in office, we’ve essentially hired an employee and given that person no supervision, no guidelines to follow, and no goals to meet. It’s like we expect them to read our minds to know what they need to do and how to do it.

Exercising our political power means helping our MoCs break through their own denial and helping them to see that what we want them to do aligns with their own values. If you think liberals and conservatives have different values, you’re partly right but also partly wrong. We all want what our Constitution says, “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”. What we disagree on is what all that looks like and how to achieve it.

When lobbying Congress, I often find it helpful to remember the stories of the blind men and the elephant and the Golden Rule. If you think President Trump and Elon Musk are betraying the Constitution, if you think their actions betray what President Trump campaigned on, and especially if you’re a constituent in a Republican district or state, you need to be among the first responders in the hurricane of denial this country is facing; contact your MoCs and demand they fulfil their Congressional oath to defend the Constitution.

Finally, if you want to learn how to be an effective, powerful advocate for change, see if there are any RESULTS groups near you and talk to them, or you can join RESULTS as a volunteer even if there aren’t any nearby groups.