Americans still believe they live in a representative democracy. We vote. We argue. We watch Congress on television and think that what we’re seeing is government in action. But the truth is harder to face: the people’s branch of government has been surrendering the very authority that gives democracy its meaning.
Congress was established to represent us, determine how our funds are allocated, safeguard our freedoms, and ensure the proper functioning of our government. Today, much of that power is being handed away, piece by piece, to the executive branch. The institution meant to represent the people directly is turning into an audience to its own irrelevance.
The Forgotten Purpose of Congress
The Founders didn’t design Congress to “support” a president or echo a party. They designed it to restrain power. It was built to represent every voice across geography, class, and ideology, to deliberate, to argue, to prevent any one person or office from ruling unchecked.
That design is fading. Too often, legislators act as extensions of the executive rather than guardians of the people’s will. When that happens, representation becomes symbolic. Democracy becomes procedural. And government becomes something that happens to the public instead of for the public.
When the People’s Voice Falls Silent
Every time Congress defers to the executive on spending, oversight, or national policy, it abandons a piece of its authority. That might sound like a minor, technical issue, but it strikes at the heart of the republic. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse because only the people, through their representatives, are supposed to decide how national resources are used.
When that power is ignored or ceded, the result is a government that listens upward, not outward, to presidents, not to citizens. It becomes easier for money to move without transparency, for decisions to bypass debate, and for the public to lose faith in the process itself.
Representation or Performance?
A Congress that forgets its purpose stops representing the people and starts performing for them. Votes become theater. Debates become branding. The institution survives, but the spirit that gives it meaning withers.
If that continues, the question becomes unavoidable: why have a Congress at all? Why maintain a body that no longer guards the balance of power or defends the citizen’s voice?
The danger isn’t collapse; it’s substitution. True representation is replaced by ritual. Oversight is replaced by partisanship. And democracy becomes a set of gestures without genuine accountability behind them.
Restoring the Balance
The good news is that the system still works when those within it have the courage to use it. Congress still holds the authority to assert itself through oversight, transparency, and fiscal control. The people still hold the authority to demand that it does.
This isn’t about one party or another. It’s about remembering that self-government only works if we insist that our representatives act like representatives. They are not there to protect power. They are there to protect us.
The Warning and the Choice
If Congress continues to surrender its role, we will still have elections, debates, and ceremonies, but they will be performances. The flag will wave. The words “representative democracy” will still be spoken. But the meaning behind them will be gone.
It doesn’t have to end that way. The Constitution hasn’t failed. The people must remember that their government was never meant to operate on autopilot. Power belongs to those who exercise it, and when we stop demanding accountability, someone else will gladly take it.
GANA 
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