When norms fail, laws must lead.
Our norms are norms because we have respected them as such, not because they were written in stone, but because we believed in them.
They are the invisible architecture of our democracy, the guardrails of conduct, decency, and restraint that have guided us through peace and peril alike.
But today, those guardrails have been battered. The unwritten rules of governance, once sacred, have been stretched, bent, and in some cases, abandoned altogether. We have learned the hard way that when norms are no longer respected, they must be memorialized in law.
Tradition alone is no longer enough to protect the Republic.
It is time to codify not just the outcomes of government, but the manner in which we govern, our rules of engagement. We must limit the gray areas that invite abuse, regardless of who holds the Oval Office or controls Congress. The presidency should not be a blank check for power, and Congress should not be a spectator to executive excess.
This is not a partisan call; it is a patriotic one. The erosion of norms is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem; it is an American problem. If we fail to act, we leave the door open for future leaders of any party to exploit ambiguity and undermine trust.
Let us now turn lessons into law.
Let us enshrine the expectations of honor, transparency, and restraint that once needed no reminder. For if democracy is to endure, it must rest not only on the will of the people but on the character of the rules that govern those who lead them.
REP. TROY A. CARTER SR. Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District