✍️ The Wrecking of the Republic: When Profit Trumps the Constitution
How corporate power and the Supreme Court are rewriting democracy
I’m bewildered—and frightened—by the willingness of Republicans in Congress and, especially, on the Supreme Court to weaken the constitutional checks and balances on the presidency.
Even with their shared conservative priorities, it’s shocking to see how readily they risk the very system that protects us all.
This year, the court narrowed key administrative powers and limited nationwide injunctions in over a dozen rulings, constricting the ability of agencies to police industry excess.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has gutted environmental enforcement, bringing only three civil actions by mid-year. That’s roughly one-tenth the number under the Biden administration.
We’ve seen what happens when profit and power rewrite the law. What was once creeping drift is now full tilt. When regulators are neutered, corporations write the law by default.
Do they honestly believe the presidency will stay in their hands forever? Or have they devised a scheme so cynical that they expect to keep it—no matter who replaces the current unstable, unhealthy president?
And do they expect (or hope) that corporate America—freed from regulation under the U.S. Constitution—will take control of all wealth and power in this country?
Have they forgotten—or don’t care—that Congress holds the constitutional power to regulate commerce (Article I, Section 8)? It’s not just to manage markets but also to protect the people from monopolies, exploitation, and corruption.
Do these conservative officeholders and their enablers not understand that they, too, will be disposable in a corporate-run state?
That the profit-driven whims of a greedy, unchecked corporate elite may discard their rights, their freedoms, their very livelihood?
This isn’t theoretical.
The Founders deliberately gave Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states to prevent private interests from overruling the public good.
They feared tyranny from kings but also from corporations, cartels, and any force that placed profit above principle.
When Congress abandons that duty and the courts stand aside, democracy weakens. Each step edges us closer to collapse.
We are left with a republic hollowed out. Here’s what that looks like:
courts unwilling to pull back
Congress entangled in money
agencies stripped of authority
power surrendered to the richest and loudest
And more: Big donors shaping policy through deregulation, privatization, and industry-written legislation. Fossil-fuel and high-tech lobbyists enjoying open access to the White House and Congress.
Amid record donations from oil, tech, and drug companies this year, corporate money isn’t just influencing policy; it’s writing it.
That’s the wrecking crew at work—not incidental, but deliberate.
The question is no longer who wields the wrecking ball, but who’s willing to rebuild what’s left.
Repair begins with insisting that power serve people again—at every level.
If we don’t continue to speak out, organize, and push back, we may wake up in a country where neither our votes nor our voices carry any weight.
And our children and grandchildren may not forgive us for losing what our grandparents fought so hard to defend.
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