I moved from Bethesda several years ago, bought a house in Dorchester County, and found that large areas of my lawn were choked with wiregrass.
It’s a thuggish weed that had dominated every sunny area of lawn, excluding more desirable plants. Wiregrass was new to me, but I recognized the wiregrass strategy for success.
Like all invasive plants and animals (and some politicians), wiregrass pushes its way into an area; its fast-spreading roots and runners rob existing plants of moisture and nutrients.
I spent a large – and important – part of my career as a senior official in a federal agency, including a year on loan to the U.S. Senate as a staffer working on science education policy.
I saw how the government, like my lawn, is an integrated system of processes and resources. As I watched the events of 2025 unfold, I could see some similarities between wiregrass and Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Since taking office in 2025, the president and his enablers have been relentless, organized, and thuggish in their efforts to undermine the system of checks and balances. Their behavior is trampling on our constitutional freedoms, the rule of law, and the right to due process that have served us well (with some notable failures) for almost 250 years.
The Trump Administration seems to operate under the assumption that all acts that aren’t explicitly prohibited by the Constitution or federal law are permissible. If any of them are ambiguous, the administration has pushed ahead until someone objects and tries to stop them, primarily through lawsuits.
Here’s a short list of examples. Seizing power by claiming emergencies, without specifying the emergency beyond short talking points (usually involving the words “terrorism” and “radical”).
Withdrawing from our treaty obligations and insulting the contribution of NATO allies to American security after 9/11. Ordering federal agents to apprehend, incarcerate, deport, and even place individuals in foreign prisons without due process, commonly violating their Constitutional protections of assembly, free speech, protest, and freedom from unlawful search and seizure.
The administration has swept these protections aside by stating, incorrectly, that legal search warrants aren’t needed by agents carrying out laws, and that the agents involved in outrageous tactics, including murder, have “unconditional immunity.”
We saw scores of other examples last year. By “flooding the zone,” the President and his Administration left us as confused and helpless as Lucy and Ethel as they tried to keep up with the conveyor belt of chocolates.
I consider each attempt by the White House to overstep its authority as a technical failure of the system, like a circuit breaker that doesn’t pop when it’s overloaded, or the speed control on the conveyor belt. There were controls in place, but they either didn’t work as designed, or they were simply ignored by the President and ‘his’ government (no longer ‘our’ government).
The administration’s alleged illegal acts have led to dozens of lawsuits that will be adjudicated in due time. Regardless of which side prevails in court, these technical failures are having their intended effect on Americans and American institutions such as universities, corporations, and non-profits: fear, confusion, and appeasement.
The responsibility for these acts lies with the President, and his unelected enablers have shown no regard for the intended uses of government, enshrined in the Constitution by the Founders.
Consider the cancellation of funds for research and education that have been revoked on a presidential whim. Each underwent expert review and was judged meritorious and valuable to the country. Each grant was authorized by a formal agreement between an agency and the institution responsible for the lawful use of the awarded funds.
The Executive actions that cancelled this research were used to pressure universities and research institutes into policy changes, without regard for potential harm to the nation’s health and well-being.
Technical failures like these are normally avoided with existing checks and balances, but not if a large political faction operates in bad faith. Wiregrass will always continue to spread if no one enforces appropriate and effective limits.
The fear that has kept Republican members of Congress silent about these misuses of Presidential power is understandable, to a degree. Some Republicans have been threatened with violence for opposing the MAGA movement.
The president has been quick to intimidate them by threatening to support opponents in primary campaigns. It’s therefore worth noting that almost all his recently hand-picked candidates have been rejected by voters.
Major campaign donors are also starting to reconsider their future support. The risk that Congressional members feel may finally be ebbing.
For these reasons, the upcoming midterm elections could slow and even reverse the systemic failure we’re seeing. Voters will have the opportunity and responsibility to push our country in one direction or the other. It’s very tempting to focus on the system’s frequent technical failures, triggered by the Administration.
They are the symptoms, not the cause of the much greater failure. I try to focus instead on the causes and cures for the Constitutional Perfect Storm that we’re experiencing – a failure caused by the abdication of responsibilities to the Constitution, not a failure of the Constitution itself. Checks and balances are only as effective as the elected officials who use them properly.
What, as individuals, can we do? The seven Articles of the Constitution specified the technical framework for America’s representative democracy, but the Founders also put a very brief mission statement before them.
The Constitution’s one-sentence Preamble tells our government to “establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.” Everything else in the Constitution just specified a mechanism for this mission.
These are the guiding principles that I hope all voters will use in casting their ballots. Will they start the process of stopping and replacing the wiregrass that has invaded our government, or will they let it continue to grow?
David Schindel is a retired research scientist in the fields of evolutionary biology and paleontology. He has taught at Yale University and worked for the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. He lives in Hurlock, MD.