From the Declaration of Independence:

“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government . . .”

There’s the problem: thanks to the Senate, the electoral college, and gerrymandering, the US government long ago ceased to derive its powers from the consent of the governed—at least from the majority of the governed. Add to that, the GOP (which is advantaged by our non-representative system) has vilified government ever since Reagan. Today’s failed GOP leadership in the House is merely the sad apotheosis of a process begun over 40 years ago.
Once the GOP succeeds in making the state ungovernable, they set the stage for authoritarians.

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