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What happens when the people holding power decide the limits no longer apply?
Americans are constantly told not to worry when new government powers appear. The reassurance always sounds the same. There are safeguards. There is oversight. Inspectors general exist to investigate abuses. Congressional committees monitor the system. Courts remain available if something crosses the line.
On paper, that sounds responsible and orderly.
But that reassurance rests on an assumption that many Americans no longer accept without question: that the institutions responsible for enforcing those limits will actually do so when it matters.
The real issue is not whether a directive or law contains oversight language. Nearly all of them do. The real question is whether anyone exercising that power still feels bound by those limits once fear, crisis, and political pressure enter the equation.
History suggests that answer is …