Latest news with #ThreeRingGovernment
USA Today
10-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Remember 'Schoolhouse Rock!'? This is what it looks like under Trump.
Remember 'Schoolhouse Rock!'? This is what it looks like under Trump. | Opinion We now have an overreaching ringmaster in the executive, an empty ring where Congress should be, and the lion tamers in the judiciary struggling to contain the chaos. Show Caption Hide Caption Trump may bring down the tent on democracy with overreach | Opinion Schoolhouse Rock introduced kids to US government. One episode used a three-ring circus to describe the branches. This updates for the Trump era. "Schoolhouse Rock!" introduced the concepts of American government to a generation of kids using catchy tunes and cartoon animations. Most of the shows aged well, but the first 100 plus days of the Trump administration may force the reimaging of the episode teaching the three branches of government. If you can't remember the lyrics, 'Three Ring Government' describes the branches of government as working together like a well-balanced "three-ring circus." Each ring – the executive, legislative and judicial branches – has its act, its limit and its role in keeping the whole show running: 'No one part can be more powerful than any other is. Each controls the other you see, and that's what we call checks and balances.' While some might think the metaphor of a 'circus' is apropos to the current situation in Washington, the original cartoon wasn't describing chaos. It was about our government's dynamic equilibrium: Three branches competing, complementing and ultimately balancing each other out to safeguard democracy. But in President Donald Trump's second administration, that delicate balance is teetering. Instead of three functioning rings, we now have an overreaching ringmaster in the executive, an empty ring where Congress should be and the lion tamers in the judiciary struggling to contain the chaos. The overreaching executive: Ringmaster or wrecking ball? In the first months since he took the oath of office, the 47th president has deployed his power in a way that compares to few, if any, predecessors. The last president who initiated this many changes this fast was Franklin Roosevelt, but it's not fair to compare the hopeful tone of the New Deal to the fear itself Trump is creating. Consider a small sampling of his actions, including: And so on. Nearly all his policies have been enacted through one of his nearly 150 executive orders, with no congressional involvement or authorization. Opinion: Trump's offensive AI pope picture is a distraction from his failing economy In "Schoolhouse Rock!," the president was one ring in a balanced act. In today's show, the ringmaster wants the spotlight, the microphone and the final word. Missing ring in the circus: Congress takes a seat in audience Of course, Congress is supposed to act as a check and balance on presidential power. In the Constitution, it is the first branch of government. Instead, Republican leadership in the House and Senate have seemingly given up its part in the show and has opted for a seat in the audience. While the White House has been busy remaking the federal government, Congress has focused mainly on confirming Trump's Cabinet nominations with minimal scrutiny and working on a budget extension that aligns with the administration's priorities. Congressional Republicans have demonstrated remarkable loyalty to Trump – even at the expense of their own power, future electoral prospects and, most important, their constituents. Members brave enough to host town halls have faced angry crowds pushing back on massive cuts made by unelected hacks. Opinion: Trump just admitted it – the Constitution only counts if it's convenient Congress has done little to stop Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from firing federal workers, shuttering executive agencies and revising budget priorities without consulting with lawmakers. They did nothing when the White House undermined Congress' constitutional budget powers by freezing foreign aid. A handful of Republican senators did join Democrats in trying to nullify Trump's tariffs on Canada, but House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to even bring it to a vote. The biggest abdication of the three-branch vision has been Congress' unwillingness to act as a true check on the executive. Even as Trump flirted with constitutional crises, most congressional leaders worried more about remaining in the ring master's good graces than institutional integrity. If this "Schoolhouse Rock!" episode were updated for the Trump era, the lyrics would need to change from "See what they do in the Congress. Passin' laws and juggling bills" to "Congress is on the legislative bench, they're sitting out watching the show." Judiciary in the crosshairs: The lion tamers fight back Right now, the only meaningful check on executive overreach is coming from the third ring of the circus, the judiciary. In stark contrast to Congress, it has provided a check and balance to interpret the law and block executive orders that violate the Constitution. In a recent week, judges ruled against the Trump administration in at least 11 lawsuits regarding immigration, elections and anti-diversity efforts. In addition to just ignoring or flat out defying recent federal court orders, Trump, his attorney general, the head of the FBI and conservative influencers have also been threatening 'rogue judges' for weeks, calling to impeach judges who rule against them and promising to fight back against the judiciary. We saw this in Milwaukee on April 25 when the FBI arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, accusing her of directing an undocumented immigrant out of her courtroom through a side door while federal agents waited in the hallway to arrest him. Whether her actions were criminal is now up to the courts, but the spectacle of her arrest sent a chilling message. Consider the theatrics: FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest on social media, then reposted a photo of the judge in handcuffs, potentially violating Department of Justice policy. Dugan was subjected to a public perp walk instead of being allowed to voluntarily surrender. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the administration would pursue judges who think they're above the law. We can only hope the courts will remain resilient regardless of intimidation efforts and, like exhausted lion tamers, continue to crack the whip at executive overreach, defending the constitutional order one ruling at a time. In just 100 plus days, Trump's second term has upended the norms that once preserved our delicate separation of powers. "Schoolhouse Rock!" taught us that the three-ring government was messy but functional because no single branch can dominate the others. Today, the executive is overpowering. The legislature is complicit. The judiciary is endangered. If Americans want to preserve the three-ring balance, we must demand that one act not steal the whole show. Otherwise, we're not citizens of a democracy. We're just an audience under the Big Top – waiting for the tent on our democratic republic to fall. Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this column originally appeared.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Let's reimagine Schoolhouse Rock for the Trump era. This is no 3-ring circus.
Schoolhouse Rock introduced the concepts of American government to a generation of kids using catchy tunes and cartoon animations. Most of the shows aged well, but the first 100 plus days of the Trump administration may force the reimaging of the episode teaching the three branches of government. If you can't remember the lyrics, 'Three Ring Government' describes the branches of government as working together like a "well-balanced three-ring circus." Each ring — the executive, legislative and judicial branches — has its act, its limit, and its role in keeping the whole show running: 'No one part can be more powerful than any other is. Each controls the other you see, and that's what we call checks and balances.' While some might think the metaphor of a 'circus' is apropos to the current situation in Washington, the original cartoon wasn't describing chaos. It was about our government's dynamic equilibrium: three branches competing, complementing, and ultimately balancing each other out to safeguard democracy. Letters: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrong about autism destroying families. Each has value. But in this second Trump administration, that delicate balance is teetering. Instead of three functioning rings, we now have an overreaching ringmaster in the executive, an empty ring where Congress should be, and the lion tamers in the judiciary struggling to contain the chaos. In the first months since he took the oath of office, the 47th president has deployed his power in a way that compares to few, if any, predecessors. The last President who initiated this many changes this fast was Franklin Roosevelt, but it's not fair to compare the hopeful tone of the New Deal to the fear itself Trump is creating. Consider a small sampling of his actions, including: Unilaterally closing agencies, like USAid and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Education. Freezing billions of dollars of foreign aid that help feed starving people. Invoking the 18th century Alien Enemies Act, last used to lock up Japanese-Americans during World War II, to deport people his administration alleges (without proof) are gang members to a brutal prison in El Salvador. Unleashing the world's richest man and his tech-minions on the federal bureaucracy with a chain saw and handing them access to all of our personal data along the way. Announcing sweeping tariffs on every major U.S. trade partner (and islands with only penguins inhabiting it). And so on. Nearly all his policies have been enacted through one of his 142 executive orders, with no Congressional involvement or authorization. In "Schoolhouse Rock," the president was one ring in a balanced act. In today's show, the ringmaster wants the spotlight, the microphone, and the final word. Of course, Congress is supposed to act as a check and balance on presidential power. In the Constitution, it is the first branch of government. Instead, Republican leadership in the House and Senate have seemingly given up its part in the show and has opted for a seat in the audience. While the White House has been busy remaking the federal government, Congress has focused mainly on confirming Trump's cabinet with minimal scrutiny and working on a budget extension that aligns with the administration's priorities. Congressional Republicans have demonstrated remarkable loyalty to Trump – even at the expense of their own Congressional power, future electoral prospects and, most importantly, their constituents. Members brave enough to host town halls have faced angry crowds pushing back on massive cuts made by unelected hacks. Congress has done little effort to stop Elon Musk and DOGE from firing federal workers, shuttering executive agencies and revising budget priorities without consulting with them. They did nothing when the White House undermined Congress' constitutional budget powers by freezing foreign aid. A handful of Republican senators did join Democrats in trying to nullify Trump's tariffs on Canada, but House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to even bring it to a vote. The biggest abdication of the three-branch vision has been Congress' unwillingness to act as a true check on the executive. Even as Trump flirted with constitutional crises, most Congressional leaders worried more about remaining in the ring master's good graces than institutional integrity. If this School House Rock episode was updated for the Trump era, the lyric would need to change from "Congress is the legislative branch, they make the laws you know' to "Congress is on the legislative bench, they're sitting out watching the show." Right now, the only meaningful check on executive overreach is coming from the third ring of the circus, the judiciary. In stark contrast to Congress, it has provided a check-and-balance to interpret the law and block executive orders that violate the Constitution. Last week alone, judges ruled against the Trump administration in at least 11 different lawsuits regarding immigration, elections and anti-DEI efforts. Opinion: 'Death & Taxes' is a certainty. Do you know what that actually means for you? In addition to just ignoring or flat-out defying recent federal court orders, Trump, his attorney general, the head of the FBI, and conservative influencers have also been threatening 'rogue judges' for weeks, calling to impeach judges who rule against them and promising to fight back against the judiciary. We saw this in Milwaukee on April 25 when the FBI arrested Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, accusing her of directing an undocumented immigrant out of her courtroom through a side door, while federal agents waited in the hallway to arrest him. Whether her actions were criminal is now up to the courts, but the spectacle of her arrest sent a chilling message. Consider the theatrics: FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest on social media, then reposted a photo of the judge in handcuffs, potentially violating DOJ policy. Dugan was subjected to a public perp walk instead of being allowed to voluntarily surrender. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the administration would pursue judges who 'think they're above the law.' We can only hope the courts will remain resilient regardless of intimidation efforts and, like exhausted lion tamers, continue to crack the whip at executive overreach, defending the constitutional order one ruling at a time. In just 100 plus days, Trump's second term has upended the norms that once preserved our delicate separation of powers. Schoolhouse Rock taught us that the three-ring government was messy but functional because no single branch can dominate the others. Today, the executive is overpowering. The legislature is complicit. The judiciary is endangered. If Americans want to preserve the three-ring balance, we must demand that one act not steal the whole show. Otherwise, we're not citizens of a democracy. We're just an audience under the Big Top — waiting for the tent on our democratic republic to fall. Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump's first 100 days filled with executive overreach | Opinion
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
3 ways Trump is acting like a king and bypassing the Constitution's checks and balances on presidential authority
I learned basic civics in my public school. But mostly, because it was more interesting, I also learned civics after school watching the animated series 'Schoolhouse Rock,' often with my abuela – my grandmother – who took care of me. Back then, 'Schoolhouse Rock' had a wonderful episode, 'Three Ring Government.' In singing narration, the characters explained 'about the government, and how it's arranged, divided in three, like a three-ring circus.' Those three circles, all the same size, kept each other honest. For many in my generation, those three rings were our introduction to the idea of the checks and balances built into the U.S. government. They include the separation of powers among the legislative, judicial and executive branches. In short, we learned, Congress passes the laws, the president administers the laws, and the courts interpret the laws. This elegant but simple system stood in contrast to the nearly unshackled power of the British king, who ruled over the American colonies before independence. And it provided representation for 'We the People,' because we vote for members of Congress. During its first month, the second Trump administration has pushed a new balance of these powers, granting the president expansive and far-reaching authority. These actions imperil the power of elected lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation, oversee the federal government and exercise spending authority. Most U.S. legal scholars regarded these issues as fairly settled. Trump's recent actions, however, have unsettled this understanding. Here are three examples of how the balance of power is being upset by Trump and his administration: On Jan. 28, 2025, President Donald Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, three years before the end of her five-year term. The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, established in New Deal legislation in 1935, was designed to ensure industrial peace by protecting the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively. Congress created the board as a bipartisan body to resolve allegations of unfair labor practices brought by workers or management. By design, the board operated independently from Cabinet-level departments. Congress sought to preserve this independence by ensuring that board members serve a fixed term and could be removed only for 'neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.' This independent structure – shared by other agencies such as the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – aims to provide regulatory consistency, slightly removed from the political passions of the day. Some legal scholars have been percolating an argument that the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to limit those agencies' Congressionally endowed independence in favor of more expansive presidential authority, even though the court decided this issue unanimously in 1935. Wilcox is suing the administration for its apparent violation of Congress' statutory language by firing her. 'Ms. Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board, the first Black woman to serve as its Chair, and – if the President's action is allowed to stand – will also be the first member to be removed from office since the Board's inception in 1935,' the lawsuit states. If this case makes it to the Supreme Court, and the court takes the unusual step of reversing itself, its ruling would imperil the independent structure, not just of this agency but of other agencies too. Congress created a comprehensive system of laws for processing the asylum claims of people who say they are fleeing persecution or torture to seek protection in the U.S. These laws allow applicants to show likelihood of harm if they could not stay in the U.S. They were originally adopted in response to humanitarian crises, including when Jews fleeing Nazi Germany were turned away by the U.S., among other countries. As part of Trump's declaration, on his first day in back in office, that immigration is both a 'national immigration emergency' and an 'invasion' under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, the president essentially shut down the asylum process at U.S. ports of entry. His proclamation canceled the appointments of those who had waited to pursue their claim under existing asylum procedures. In doing so, Trump ignored critical portions of laws passed by Congress. This move places asylum seekers already in the U.S. in danger of being deported to the countries where they say they face life-threatening persecution or torture. Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to set spending amounts and priorities for the federal government. By law, the executive branch cannot spend what has not been appropriated – meaning approved by Congress – nor can it stop that spending. Shortly following the inauguration, however, Trump's Office of Management and Budget ordered a pause of federal grants and loans to organizations and programs ranging from Head Start to farm subsidies. Almost immediately, several states, concerned about the loss of essential federal services, filed a lawsuit to halt the freeze. A federal court in Rhode Island sided with the plaintiffs and temporarily stayed the freeze. The judge rejected the Trump administration's argument that it must 'align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,' calling it 'constitutionally flawed.' And he concluded that the president could not act unilaterally under the Constitution. 'Congress has not given the Executive limitless power to broadly and indefinitely pause all funds that it has expressly directed to specific recipients and purposes,' wrote the judge, John J. McConnell, Jr. 'The Executive's actions violate the separation of powers.' 'Schoolhouse Rock' taught that one ring must respect the other coequal rings. What has happened under Trump is one ring expanding in size to swallow up much of another ring – that of Congress. Several of the Trump administration's recent actions appear designed to test the legal viability of an expansive, more 'kinglike' view of presidential powers. Yet for the most part, Congress as an institution has mostly remained silent as the executive branch invades its sphere of authority. Instead, the courts have served as a check on his power by stalling, temporarily, more than a dozen of Trump's presidential actions that surpass the executive powers permitted under various laws and the Constitution. Most of these stays are only temporary. They were issued based on the recognition that the immediate harm of unlawful presidential overreach would be difficult to roll back. In the end, the Supreme Court will likely decide the scope of presidential powers in the various contexts. If they rule in Trump's favor, the U.S. government will become a one-ring circus run by a kinglike president – precisely what it was never meant to be. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: David Lopez, Rutgers University - Newark Read more: Congress, not the president, decides on government spending − a constitutional law professor explains how the 'power of the purse' works Firing civil servants and dismantling government departments is how aspiring strongmen consolidate personal power – lessons from around the globe Trump, Ukraine and a whistleblower: Ever since 1796, Congress has struggled to keep presidents in check Gwynne Wilcox is a Rutgers Law grad and has spoken to our class.
