Time for Ethical Reforms of Executive Branch Slips Away

Congress must act.

The previous president plowed through the guard rails protecting our Constitution and painted gray areas with his own personal logo. My reoccurring thought during the rough years of his presidency was we need serious ethics reform of the Executive Branch.

Scattered, unfocused and undisciplined, his presidency faltered, but we survived. The red flags flew. Another smarter, ambitious, insidious personality might exploit weak ethics to destroy our democracy.

They wrapped the Congressional Effort to reform Executive Branch ethics into the ‘For The ‘People voting rights act. But Republicans see voting rights as a Last Stand. Efforts to insure Americans vote are a pernicious blow to the minority rule tactics of Republicans. Voting Rights block their preferred passage to power. The hard work of planning and pitching policy is less attractive than the performative politics of the current generation of Republicans.

Getting the ‘For The People’ Act through the Senate might be impossible. Where does that leave the push for the reform of presidential ethics?

Elizabeth Williamson, writing in the New York Times, identified the ethical reforms written into the voting rights legislation.

Major party…