Executive orders can be overridden by a congress with some gonads.......judges can just not be confirmed.....rogue judges can and should be impeached.....bills for the good of the country can be sent to his or her desk, FORCING them to reveal to all of america their true stance on the issues ( remember, socialism must be kept in the dark in order for it to work )....
No, the president is not irrelevant, but can effectively be neutered, IF the congress has the gonads..
Good luck getting a supermajority of Republicans in both houses of Congress, much less a supermajority of conservatives.