This wasn't a "guardrail": it was dumb luck.

"with much of the GOP’s leadership class...empowering Trump to lay waste to the country’s foundational democratic norms, an obscure lawyer from west Michigan stood on principle."

USA: DO NOT CONGRATULATE. https://politi.co/39gMGm6 

Had just *one* of the eager hordes of GOP w/zero morals or spine occupied his job, this would have gone the other way.

*Actual* guardrails would have blocked Trump 4 yrs ago, or removed him.

If you can't see that, you have your head deep in the sand of American exceptionalism.

If your "guardrail" can be removed by an individual of bad faith or corruption, that is not a guardrail.

It's a wish and a prayer.

A real guardrail is hand-counted paper ballots. A real guardrail is enforceable congressional subpoenas. Indicting POTUS. https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1330945182695522304

The guardrails were all smashed through long ago, instead of doing what they were intended to do: stop a self-interested despot backed by foreign powers from seizing power in the first place. Remove an office holder who commits crimes & enriches himself. https://twitter.com/chargrille/status/1019966733099065344

Hundreds of children were torn from their families, put in concentration camps on U.S. soil, & purposely LOST. For years.

The guardrails did not work for them; therefore they did not work for us.

A real guardrail is a new Voting Rights Act. A real guardrail is universal automatic suffrage that applies to all people, including those convicted of crimes, so the GOP can't harness the prison & court system to suppress votes. https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1331480382961823745

Historians can see the acute fragility of historical contingencies.

Can you?

Do you want your grand/kids' democracy to depend upon them? Or do you want to fix some things NOW?

Structural changes are required. Big ones.