The erosion of our democracy was made evident recently with the Senate’s blanket approval of Trump’s highly unqualified cabinet picks and the GOP Congress permitting Trump and Musk to ride roughshod over our institutions by cutting valuable federal funds and firing 30,000 federal employees in all areas of government.

The Republican-controlled Congress remains passive as its own powers are being removed one by one. Article I powers are continuing to erode as our nation’s leaders allow the Trump White House to trample over constitutional guardrails. North Carolina’s U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and District 6 Congressional Representative Addison McDowell are willfully participating in this disintegration of our democracy.

The erosion of our democracy was made evident recently with the Senate’s blanket approval of Trump’s highly unqualified cabinet picks and the GOP Congress permitting Trump and Musk to ride roughshod over our institutions by cutting valuable federal funds and firing 30,000 federal employees in all areas of government. Both houses of the GOP Congress have acquiesced as Trump unites with Russia, our former enemy, and betrays our European allies. The GOP Congress is turning a blind eye as Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director, Russ Vought, takes direct aim to give the power of the purse to the Executive branch, the purview of Congress in our traditional American system of checks and balances. Disturbingly, no Congressional Republican is pushing back against Trump’s Executive Order to end the Department of Education.

As all of this upheaval is showing signs of creating grave, long-term damage to our economy, Tillis, Budd and McDowell have a hard choice to make. Will they continue to complacently allow their powers to be stolen, or will they speak out for their fellow North Carolinians, take back their power and authority, and govern again?

Karen Puckett