Congress Knew — And Chose Not to Act
We are not stumbling into danger by accident.
We are arriving here by design—through silence, delay, and political cowardice.
The United States is now standing at a moment of real global risk, and contrary to the convenient narrative, this situation did not appear overnight. It was allowed to grow, escalate, and harden into something dangerous because the one branch of government designed to stop it—Congress—refused to do its job.
This is not hyperbole.
This is not partisan rhetoric.
This is a constitutional failure.
The Job Congress Refused to Do
Congress was created to be the brake pedal. The firewall. The body that checks executive power before recklessness becomes irreversible. Instead, it has spent years outsourcing its authority, hiding behind procedure, and pretending that watching chaos unfold is the same thing as governing.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Yet military actions, threats, and destabilizing maneuvers continue to occur with little more than after-the-fact outrage and symbolic resolutions. Oversight has been replaced with press conferences. Accountability has been replaced with finger-pointing.
Everyone waits.
No one acts.
And the cost of that inaction is now global.
Instability Isn’t an Accident
The world is watching an America that looks divided, hesitant, and internally paralyzed. Allies are uneasy. Adversaries are emboldened. When leadership becomes unpredictable and Congress fails to intervene, instability becomes the norm—not the exception.
This is how wars begin.
Not with declarations—but with drift.
When Congress refuses to draw lines, enforce limits, or assert authority, power concentrates in the executive branch. History is clear on this point: unchecked power does not self-correct. It escalates.
And Congress knows this.
Political Theater Over Public Safety
Rather than serious oversight, Congress has prioritized partisan theater—investigations designed for headlines, impeachment threats aimed at fundraising emails, and endless procedural delays that allow dangerous situations to worsen while responsibility evaporates.
This isn’t leadership.
It’s negligence disguised as process.
Every time Congress “waits to see how things play out,” it sends a message—to the executive branch, to foreign governments, and to the American people—that accountability is optional.
It isn’t.
Inaction Is a Decision
There is a lie Congress tells itself: that doing nothing is safer than acting. That confronting instability is riskier than allowing it to fester. That political survival matters more than constitutional duty.
That lie has consequences.
When instability goes unchecked, it spreads. When warning signs are ignored, they don’t disappear—they compound. And when Congress refuses to act, it becomes responsible not just for what happens next, but for allowing the conditions that made it inevitable.
Silence is not neutrality.
It is participation.
This Is the Tipping Point
We are past the stage of polite concern. Past the stage of “monitoring the situation.” Past the stage where speeches are enough.
This is the tipping point.
Congress can still act—assert its authority, enforce constitutional limits, and put real guardrails back on power. But time is no longer on its side, and history will not accept excuses.
If this moment ends in disaster—military, economic, or humanitarian—it will not be because no one saw it coming.
It will be because the people entrusted to stop it chose not to.
And that failure will not stay in Washington.
It will land in every community, every economy, and every future this country hoped to protect.
The question is no longer whether Congress has the power.
The question is whether it has the courage.
Written by Scott Randy Gerber for The Tipping Point Tampa Bay ©2026 All Rights Reserved.
