Congressional Republicans remain the political actors best positioned to stop Donald Trump’s aggressive deployment of presidential power. Yet, instead, they have used the power of the majority to create a firewall to protect the president as he deports without due process, defunds scientific research and higher education, threatens and ignores the judiciary, and imposes a chaotic tariff system that has created the real possibility of recession in the United States.

In contrast to the limited tools that the federal courts have, Congress can leverage and direct the budget to create pressure on the administration or to stop policies. Congress can pass legislation that would reassert its authority over trade policy. Congress can conduct lengthy, high-profile televised hearings that can shine a negative light on Trump’s efforts and seize valuable attention away from him. The Senate could stall confirming judicial appointments. And Congress maintains the ultimate power of impeachment.

Congressional Republicans remain the political actors best positioned to stop Donald Trump’s aggressive deployment of presidential power. Yet, instead, they have used the power of the majority to create a firewall to protect the president as he deports without due process, defunds scientific research and higher education, threatens and ignores the judiciary, and imposes a chaotic tariff system that has created the real possibility of recession in the United States.

In contrast to the limited tools that the federal courts have, Congress can leverage and direct the budget to create pressure on the administration or to stop policies. Congress can pass legislation that would reassert its authority over trade policy. Congress can conduct lengthy, high-profile televised hearings that can shine a negative light on Trump’s efforts and seize valuable attention away from him. The Senate could stall confirming judicial appointments. And Congress maintains the ultimate power of impeachment.

By refusing to use any of this power, as in most of Trump’s first term, congressional Republicans have intentionally insulated the president from being held accountable for his actions.

As incredible as this possibility feels today, throughout congressional history, there have been points when legislators prioritized the health of democratic institutions even when there was significant political risk. This was even true at the height of one of the most dangerous periods in America’s past, the Second Red Scare in the early Cold War, when Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his right-wing allies ran roughshod over constitutional liberties. In 1954, a group of courageous Republicans finally stood up to him.

McCarthy was the product rather than the cause of the anti-communist frenzy of the early Cold War. After the triumph of communism in China in 1949, right-wing organizations and politicians who were determined to use anti-communism as a political bludgeon against liberalism intensified their efforts. “Who lost China?” became their rallying cry. While there were certainly communists situated in certain pockets of the U.S. government, most of the attacks during the Red Scare revolved around blanket accusations that were disconnected from evidence of national security threats. In his excellent book Red Scare, journalist Clay Risen shows that McCarthy was part of a much larger culture war that unfolded in response to changes brought by the New........

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