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I know this sounds corny, but people are the recourse. We are part of the checks and balances.

Whether it is as overt as a soldier refusing to follow an illegal order knowing they are risking court marshal, or as clandestine as mid-level bureaucrat slow-walking damaging policies, or people actually voting in local-to-national elections.

Democracy is not a passive form of government.

I completely agree, which is why I’m very pessimistic about the outlook. I have no faith that the American public is up to the task. It will demand too much discomfort, and sacrifice, while the alternative will ask only that they do nothing.
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don't forget that Guatemala had their paro nacional (national strike) a few years ago.

https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-protest-indigenous-giam...

Only recently has it become placid in the US. I expect social media also removes the desires to actually march or do something even louder. If Biden was this busy we'd be hearing a lot more "2nd Amendment!" talk.
as clandestine as mid-level bureaucrat slow-walking damaging policies

Or stealing papers from the President's desk in order to prevent him from signing them.

> I know this sounds corny, but people are the recourse. We are part of the checks and balances.

By "we" here, it seems you mean bureaucrats. But what if your opinions, as an individual, unelected bureaucrat are bad? I don't care what a mid-level bureaucrat's opinions on what policies are damaging is. He could be a neo-nazi for all I know. Constitutionally, we should go with the opinions of the people who won an election, instead of some random dude. I was taught that was what "democracy" was, not some random person taking advantage of their position to advance their personal goals.

When the guy paid to guard the door starts making his own decisions about who should get to come in, it's not good. It's corruption.

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>Constitutionally, we should go with the opinions of the people who won an election

That’s literally not how the constitution has ever worked.

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