The American government has become incredibly powerful, but it’s lost much of its authority. That’s a serious problem: The difference between power and authority is the difference between tyranny and law, mob rule and republicanism, oligarchy and statesmanship. When the dividing line between the two break down, chaos results.

For years, Americans have viewed both presidents and Congress with distrust. It’s easy to see why: Each elected member of the federal government swears an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States.” How many have actually kept that promise?

It’s also easy to see why the vast majority of politicians have departed from the Constitution they swore to protect. After all, the essence of any constitution is the limitation of government power. That means that each member of the American government has an incentive to weaken the very same Constitution that he is supposed to uphold.

By now, the damage that has been done to the executive and legislative branches is probably irreparable. For the last 15 years, congressional approval ratings have been mired in the teens, with just a few brief forays into the 20s. This is quite significant—after all, the legislature is designed to be the most democratic of all three branches of government.

Indeed, public trust in government hovers at around the same level as public approval of Congress. Last year, that was 20 percent. The fact that it has been stuck under 50 percent for over 50 years—excluding a short-lived boost following the terrorist attacks of September 11th—is a sign of how disenchanted Americans have become.

Yet one institution has largely weathered the storm. In fact, as Americans lost trust in their federal legislators and presidents throughout the late 1900s, they turned to the one place that they thought was fulfilling its constitutional role of limiting government: the Supreme Court. As recently as 2020, trust in the Supreme Court was still substantially higher than it had been in 1976.

No longer. In 2022, more than half of Americans distrusted their highest court for the first time. This reflects a broader shift in public opinion regarding the entire American judiciary.

On the left, Americans feel that the Supreme Court is too conservative. On the right, Americans see the court system as a whole using lawfare against critics of the current administration. The result is sobering: the dramatic decline of perhaps the last vestige of government authority in the world’s pre-eminent superpower.

When people no longer think that their government is acting on the basis of law, all that is left is raw power. Power—unjustified, arbitrary, and limitless—becomes the only reason for all state decrees. This doesn’t necessarily mean that people will stop obeying the law. But what it does mean is that they will no longer believe that they should obey it.

When there is no reason to follow the law besides fear of punishment, it becomes impossible to believe in justice. After all, justice can only be obtained in a society where law reflects people’s innate sense of right and wrong. The moment that people think law is simply the will of the powerful, justice disappears.

America is speeding toward a future in which there is no longer any good reason to support the government. If there is no good reason to oppose a revolution, then we should expect a revolutionary movement to gain support. It’s not irrational to worry about a new civil war at a time when people no longer trust their government.

To prevent the coming bloodbath, Americans need to put effective pressure on their leaders. Either we return to the constitution we once had, or we live in a nation without law.

—

Image credit: Pexels