Time to check Trump and his ilk by voting

Vladimir Putin to swing the election his way.

All this would be bad enough even if the two other branches of government behaved as the framers of the Constitution expected — as checks and balances on a president. But under Republican leadership, they refuse to play this role when it comes to Trump.

House and Senate Republicans have morphed into Trump sycophants and toadies — intimidated, spineless, opportunistic. The few who have dared call him on his outrages aren’t running for re-election.

Some have distanced themselves from a few of his most incendiary tweets or racist rantings, but most are obedient lapdogs on everything else.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has emerged as Trump’s most shameless lackey, one who puts party above nation and Trump above party. The House leadership is no better.

And now that Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court, you can forget about the court constraining Trump.

Kavanaugh’s views of presidential power and executive privilege are so expansive that he would likely allow Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, shield himself from criminal prosecution and even pardon himself.

So how are checks and balances, a constitutional imperative, to be salvaged when they’re so urgently needed? The only remedy is for voters to flip the House, Senate or both on Nov. 6.

The likelihood of this happening is higher now, with Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court and Trump so manifestly unchecked. Unless, that is, voters have become so demoralized and disillusioned that they just give up.

If cynicism wins the day, Trump and those who would delight in the demise of American democracy will get everything they want. They will have broken America.

For the sake of the values we hold dear — and the sake of the institutions of our democracy that our forebears relied on and our descendants will need — this cannot be allowed.

It is now time to place a firm check on this most unbalanced of presidents.