Yet the president’s increasing unilateralism shouldn’t be cause for celebration. Bypassing Congress means bypassing democratic checks. It also means giving up on government’s ability to effectively address serious long-term challenges. The solution to a dysfunctional Congress isn’t an unchecked executive; it’s a Congress that actually works.

A first step in that direction was taken recently with the banning of filibusters for executive branch nominees and federal judges below the Supreme Court.

The filibuster is not part of our nation’s constitutional design. To the contrary, the framers rejected supermajority requirements except in limited circumstances, such as impeaching the president and ratifying treaties. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 22 that if “a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority,” there would be “tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; contemptible compromises of the public good.” As a result, the government would often be “kept in a state of inaction.” Sound familiar?

However, the framers certainly wouldn’t have approved of the president responding to this “state of inaction” by simply going around Congress and exercising unilateral powers.