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Steven Rowe is a lawyer, former Maine attorney general, and U.S. Army veteran. He lives in Portland.
When President Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20, 2025, he swore to “faithfully execute the Office of President” and “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” It’s clear to me that Trump had no intention of being bound or guided by that oath.
Instead of preserving and protecting the Constitution, the president has sought to transform our constitutional democracy into an authoritarian regime. The result includes corruption, cruelty, self-dealing, chaos, loss of respect and trust among our allies, and rising economic insecurity among American families.
The framers of the U.S. Constitution would be horrified by Trump’s abuse of power. Having just fought a war against a king’s authority and tyranny, they were suspicious of executive power. That’s why they placed Congress first in the Constitution, assigned more powers to it than to those of the presidency, and gave it the power to stop abuses by the president. They intended Congress to be the central law-making body to which the executive and judicial branches would respond. Congress would write and debate laws and could override presidential vetoes. The president was required to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” and to “abide by, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of our nation.”
During the past two years, Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have largely abdicated their constitutional duty to control executive branch abuse. They have acted as a rubber stamp for Trump’s authoritarian, regressive, and cruel agenda. Examples include draconian cuts to health care, food assistance, and education; changes to the tax code disproportionately benefitting billionaires and corporations; mass deportation policies involving workplace and community raids; dismantling of environmental, labor, and consumer protections; and starting a Middle East war without a clear purpose or strategy for ending it.
Moreover, congressional Republicans have largely acquiesced to Trump in everything from blocking release of all Epstein files, reducing military aid to Ukraine, breaking alliances with long-standing allies, misuse of federal agencies to undermine voting, and Trumps’ habitual use of his government office for his and his family’s personal financial gain. Indeed, Trump’s conflicts of interest, cronyism, and patronage have gone mostly unchallenged by Republicans in Congress.
It’s high time that our federal government returned to honoring the Constitution and the rule of law, which holds that no one is above the law and everyone is treated equally by the law.
The quickest and surest way to put the brakes on Trump’s corrupt practices is to end Republican control of the U.S. Senate and House. The Nov. 3 election results likely will be close in both chambers and, according to election forecasters, it’s likely that Maine voters could decide the outcome.
In other words, your vote matters — more than ever!
If you are pleased with Trump’s authoritarian, repressive, and cruel agenda and want to see more of it, then you should vote for Susan Collins for the U.S. Senate and Paul LePage for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2nd District. I believe their mere presence in the next Congress will likely mean a continuation of Trump’s repressive agenda.
However, if you want to end Trump’s control of Congress, restore the rule of law, and ensure that our federal government functions according to the Constitution, then you should vote for Troy Jackson for the U.S. Senate and Matt Dunlap for the U.S. House of Representatives. I believe their sole allegiance will be to the Constitution and the people they represent.
In this election, the most important of our lifetime, our constitutional system of government is at risk. Please vote to save it.