( CNN ) -- Be bold ! Think big ! Barack Obama wants to do just that . An $ 800 billion economic stimulus plan . Three million jobs . Health care reform . A restructured automobile industry . Obama 's popularity with voters will win him influence with political opponents . Obama won the biggest Democratic majority for president in 44 years . His party made big gains in Congress . Democrats now have a majority of nearly 60 percent in both the House and Senate . President Obama 's got a mandate . And a majority . What 's to stop him ? Just this : the U.S. system of government . It is set up to make it difficult to get things done . The Constitution was written 222 years ago by men who did n't trust government . They had just waged a revolution against a king . To the founders of the American republic , strong government meant despotism . So they set up a system with an elaborate separation of powers . The idea was to ensure weak government . The dirty little secret of American government is that it was designed not to work very well . As president after president has discovered , there are innumerable ways opponents can stop measures from getting passed , even if the president 's party holds a majority in Congress . The Senate has its own rule that 's not in the Constitution requiring a super-majority of 60 Senate votes to control the agenda . A minority of 41 senators can `` filibuster '' a measure and prevent it from coming up for a vote . How many votes will Republicans have in the Senate ? 41 or 42 , depending on the outcome in Minnesota where ballots are still being counted . Presidents often have problems holding their own party together . That 's because members of Congress are elected by local constituencies and they are expected to represent local interests . American politicians are independent political entrepreneurs . They are not foot-soldiers of a party . When Bill Clinton first became president , he had a solid Democratic majority in Congress . But he could not get his health care reform plan passed . After an intense advertising campaign by opponents , many Americans were worried that the Clintons were planning a government takeover of the health care system . The Clinton plan failed , and within two years , Democrats lost their majority in Congress . One-party control did n't work any better for George W. Bush . Bush had trouble getting what he wanted -- notably , immigration reform -- from a Republican Congress . Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 2006 . But here 's another dirty little secret of American government : it often does work . Very well in fact . Under the right conditions , barriers fall away and things get done , sometimes with amazing speed and efficiency . What are the right conditions ? An overwhelming sense of public urgency . That sense of urgency certainly existed after 9/11 , when Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act . Getting anything big done in American government requires a sense of crisis . That 's why politicians in the U.S. are always declaring crises -- a drug crisis , an education crisis , an environmental crisis . Or they 're trying to rally the country to fight a war on something -- a war on poverty , a war on crime . If the public urgency is not authentic , however , opponents wo n't have much trouble stopping things from happening . Obama certainly takes office at a time of crisis , just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt did . Like them , he has the opportunity to transform American government . Members of Congress who try to block President Obama 's program may find themselves in political trouble . Because there is yet another dirty little secret of American government : the United States is the most populist democracy in the world . Here , the people rule . When the people want something , they will get it , whether it 's the death penalty or gun rights or lower taxes . Why does n't the United States have a metric system or dollar coins like other countries ? Because the people wo n't use them . Obama 's popularity is soaring right now . When a president is popular , he has clout . Everyone wants to be on his side , even members of the opposition party . They 're in business for themselves , and supporting a popular president is good for business . Standing in his way could drive them out of business . American government is not an efficient , well-oiled machine . It was never designed to be . It has to be lubricated by public pressure . If the people are shouting `` Do something ! '' -- as they are right now -- then something will happen . Even if it means a lot more spending and a lot more government . The people reserve one key right : they will let the government know , rather quickly , whether or not it 's working .
Three secrets behind the way U.S. government works . It was designed to ensure weak government . In times of crisis usual barriers fall away . If voters want something done , it will get done somehow .