worried about checks and balances? deal with it when your dude is in power

Heard a bit of an interview based on this essay by David Harsanyi in the Federalist:

Awesome/apt quote: "we’ve had (at least) two norm-busting presidents with authoritarian impulses in a row. Both believe in ruling with a pen and a personality, disregarding process whenever it suits their political purposes. One was a thoughtful-sounding, charismatic force, and a talented fibber; a virtuoso at erecting strawmen and offering false choices...The other is a clumsy and transparent fibber, an incompetent novice, pushing his party into whatever ideologically untethered position is catching his fancy at the moment. Only one of these men, however, was given a free pass by most people in the institutional media because his progressive ideological outlook pleases their sensibilities."

I also enjoyed his description of "whataboutism": "more serious than a gotcha...a cycle of partisanship that has truly corroded our institutions."

In sum, if you're worried about checks and balances, how about you wrestle with that when your dude is in power? How convenient-- and obvious? And why do so many selectively admire the Constitution?