@STP @curtosis @mattyglesias I think the US Constitution foresees the Executive being the more active part, but tries to cabin the nature of the activity. Congress is supposed to be slower, but the constraint-setter, the “first mover” in the sense that the Executive colors inside the lines it sets, fills the gaps in a bigger picture it draws. 1/

@STP @curtosis @mattyglesias I don’t think the scale of the Executive is the problem so much as the torpor of the Legislative. The Executive needs all those people. Congress is not tasked with high-frequency work, but it is tasked with work. It has to define those lines, set those directions, each session, and actively push back against usurpations by the Executive and Judicial. 2/

@STP @curtosis @mattyglesias The combination of highly factional Executives and a sclerotic, poorly representative Legislative renders the system unable to function as intended. What emerges is an improvisation pretending to adhere to an institutional structure it must actively undermine in order to function at all, but that then functions factionally and with little legitimacy. /fin