Editor's note: This excerpt is from a Thomas B. Edsall Op-Ed in the New York Times.

Sam Issacharoff, a law professor at N.Y.U., described by email his view of the damage Trump has inflicted:

"Government stretches the time frame for decision making. Long-term investments, collective needs like roads and defense, these are all matters that require long-term investment and expertise. Experience creates what the Swedish political scientist Bo Rothstein calls “knowledge realism,” the know-how created by experience and repeat efforts.

The dismissal of career experts, the dismantling of long-horizon science projects are examples of what cannot be recreated. What happens if tensions resurface between North and South Korea or between India and Pakistan? Who guides policy if the State and Defense Departments lose their experts? This is something where the next administration cannot simply reopen the spigot and recreate. Expertise is long to create and fast to destroy."

Even if the Democratic Party wins control of the House next year, its ability to limit Trump will increase only modestly, Issacharoff wrote:

"In the first 100 days of his administration, President Trump signed into law only five pieces of legislation, the lowest since F.D.R. By contrast, he issued 145 executive orders, more than the combined total of G.W. Bush, Obama, Trump 1 and Biden combined.

The House may shift hands, but this administration rules by appointments (the purview of the Senate) and by presidential decree. A Democratic House would have the power of investigation and the right to subpoena. But there is so little legislation that this is no longer the locus of political power."

Even so, Issacharoff continued,

"Congress has not resisted. Republicans have acquiesced. Democrats are hemorrhaging support. It leaves a vulnerable democracy increasingly dependent upon the courts. This is not how democracy is supposed to work."

Read the full piece by Thomas B. Edsall here.