Recent events have forced me to rethink a couple of long-held assumptions, and anyone who knows me knows I don't do that lightly. Not about parties or personalities, but about power itself, how it's structured, and how easily it can be stretched beyond what feels healthy for a democracy.
First is the power of the presidency. Over time, the office of President of the United States has accumulated an enormous amount of unilateral authority. Executive orders, emergency powers, tariff controls, agency directives. All tools that were meant to be scalpels, not sledgehammers. Tools that were often intended for limited or urgent use now feel like levers that can reshape massive portions of government with the stroke of a pen. That concentration of power makes me uncomfortable, regardless of who holds the office.
In Starfleet, even a captain commanding a starship doesn't operate without guardrails. There are regulations, oversight, and the possibility of being relieved of command if judgment fails. Absolute authority sounds efficient, right up until it isn't.
This isn't about Republicans or Democrats. It isn't about Trump, Biden, or whoever comes next. The concern is structural. One individual should not be able to make sweeping economic decisions, reorganize federal agencies, or redirect national policy without meaningful legislative oversight. Especially in times of peace. Decisions involving money, trade, and taxation should run through Congress. That's where the constitutional authority over the purse was designed to live. Invoking emergency or war-adjacent powers when there is no declared war blurs lines that were originally put in place as guardrails, not suggestions.
Government departments should be independent of whichever political party is in power. I want the best doctors in charge of the CDC. I want career educators shaping national education policy. I want experienced economists guiding commerce and trade decisions. I want seasoned investigators overseeing federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI. I want climate scientists directing environmental policy, engineers and urban planners leading infrastructure and transportation, energy specialists managing the power grid, banking and securities experts regulating financial markets, and scientists running federal research institutions.
These roles affect public safety, financial stability, and long-term national planning. They require institutional knowledge and technical expertise that takes years, sometimes decades, to develop, and they shouldn't turn over simply because a new administration wants ideological alignment at the top. I don't want politicians playing musical chairs with positions that require a lifetime of expertise.
If the Enterprise is in a medical crisis, you want Dr. Crusher in Sickbay, not someone appointed just because they're politically loyal to Captain Picard. Competence matters more than allegiance when lives are on the line. When the warp core is destabilizing, you want Scotty running the diagnostics, not someone assigned to the engine room because he was buddies with Kirk at the Academy.
Leadership continuity in these areas matters. These positions shouldn't be subject to abrupt dismissal on the whim of a president, or the mood of a news cycle. If anything, appointments at that level should require broader legislative approval and oversight, ensuring that competence, not partisanship, is the primary qualification.
The second shift in my thinking involves states. For years, I've questioned whether state governments were still necessary in their traditional form. They originated in a very different era, when communication was slow, travel was difficult, and real-time updates meant waiting three weeks for a letter. Regional governance filled logistical gaps that no longer exist in the same way. But I've come to see value in a secondary layer of government.
Not necessarily states as we know them today, but some form of regional authority capable of acting as a counterbalance to federal overreach. When national power becomes too centralized, there needs to be an intermediate structure with the legal standing to push back, slow things down, or chart a different course. In other words, a pressure release valve.
I'm not convinced the historical state map is the best model going forward. Larger regional or metropolitan coalitions might make more practical sense. Think in terms of major population and economic zones rather than borders drawn centuries ago. But the principle remains important. Two meaningful levels of government create friction, and friction, in governance, is often a feature rather than a bug. It prevents abrupt, sweeping change driven by a single office. It forces negotiation. It distributes power. It slows bad decisions down long enough for cooler heads to prevail.
The Federation itself is layered this way. Starfleet answers to civilian leadership, member worlds retain autonomy, and major decisions require consensus. It's slower than unilateral command, but it prevents one office from steering the entire quadrant off course. Tolkien built an entire mythology around the corrupting nature of concentrated power. The One Ring didn't just grant authority, it eroded judgment. Systems need safeguards for the same reason Middle-earth did.
So where I've landed, at least for now, is this: The presidency is too powerful and should be more tightly constrained, particularly in domestic and economic matters. Congress should reclaim more authority over money, trade, and structural agency change. And some form of strong regional governance is necessary to keep federal power in check, even if that structure evolves beyond traditional states. None of this is about scoring political points. Abuse of power is a risk inherent to power itself, regardless of ideology, party, or country. Systems matter more than personalities.
And when systems concentrate too much authority in one place, history suggests it rarely ends well. It reminds me of Rush's 2112, where the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx govern every aspect of society under the reassuring promise: "We've taken care of everything." Concentrated authority always sounds efficient... especially to the people holding it.
LLAP
RR
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