Congress created our crisis. Presidents aren't supposed to matter this much.

• Thomas Laehn is the Greene County attorney.

Our nation’s two major parties are failing us. It is evident that the likely Republican and Democratic nominees for the presidency are both unfit for the office. One lacks character, displays despotic tendencies, and has previously called for the termination of constitutional provisions that stand in the way of his return to power; the other has now shown that he lacks the mental acuity necessary for the office.

While the parties themselves have played no small role in the corruption of our republic, the ultimate cause of our current constitutional crisis is Congress’ complete abdication of its constitutional responsibilities.

Members of Congress have steadily shifted the power to make war, the power to enter into international agreements, and indeed the legislative power itself to the presidency. Presidents now make law unilaterally through executive orders and presidential memoranda; enter into international agreements — such as President Joe Biden’s recent security pact with Ukraine — without seeking Senate ratification; and launch wars without first securing declarations of war from Congress.

Rather than defend their constitutional prerogatives, members of Congress have been all too happy to transfer responsibility for our nation’s welfare and security to the president so they can focus on activities more likely to enhance their electoral prospects, such as fundraising, providing constituent services, and engaging in pork barrel politics.

The president today has far more power at his disposal than the power that was possessed by King George III when we rebelled against the British throne nearly 250 years ago. And as the power of the presidency has grown to imperial proportions, the importance of our presidential elections has increased in equal measure, such that our quadrennial elections for our nation’s chief executive now generate almost apocalyptic fears.

The presidency has escaped the system of checks and balances that was meant to prevent the exercise of arbitrary power and, thereby, to serve the ultimate goal of our constitutional system, namely, the protection of our liberties. Indeed, there is no greater threat to our freedom than the exercise of unchecked power. Members of Congress, however, have sacrificed our republican system of checks and balances at the altar of their own petty ambitions.

Our presidential elections were not supposed to matter this much. Our nation’s fate, let alone the fate of the entire free world, was not supposed to hinge on the outcome of any single election. But, due to the total failure of our members of Congress to do their jobs, the presidency now possesses power without precedent since the days of the emperors of Rome, and we face the prospect of an election between two men who, for very different reasons, cannot be trusted to wield such power in a manner consistent with the preservation of our rights.

Thomas Laehn is the Greene County attorney. He is the only Libertarian to hold an elective partisan office in Iowa.