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Ravaging the Republic (Part 4)
By davidjeffers | August 14, 2008
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
So begins the Declaration of Independence whereas thirteen colonies unanimously decided to throw off the chains of tyranny and chose liberty. Fifty-six men from varying backgrounds pledged “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Each man kept their sacred honor, many at the expense of their fortunes, and some with their lives. These men epitomized moral courage, the type that is lacking in our three branches of government as a whole.
So what are a free people to do when its elected representatives lose their collective moral courage? Let’s revisit the Preamble to the US Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Did you catch that? It is “We the People”, the citizens of the United States, who ordained and established our constitution…OUR CONSTITUTION! And when OUR elected officials do not carry out their sworn constitutional duties, it is the responsibility of the citizenry to either infuse the elected with moral courage, or replace them with others already possessing it.
Why do the elected virtually ignore the electorate? Because the electorate are no threat to the elected! The electorate go about their workaday world running little Johnny to soccer practice and little Suzie to ballet lessons, text messaging this and that contact, that most Americans do not have the time nor the desire to pay attention to Washington D.C. Most Americans think it is a waste of time because the elected do what they want once they get inside the Beltway. Well that much is true but it is OUR fault, the electorate, not the elected. The elected only get away with what the electorate allows.
A look at Federalist Paper #1 by Alexander Hamilton explains the important role the electorate would play with respect to constitutional powers:
It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.
My fellow Americans, we have once again arrived at a crisis. We are rapidly coming to a decision that will not only determine the outcome of our republic, but also affect mankind in general. We are the greatest nation in history; I know many America-hating leftists will scoff at this belief, but history proves this to be true.
And yet We the People sit back and have allowed this republic to be turned on its head. The legislature was designed to be the most powerful of the three branches of government. It has the power to pass laws, to override any vetoed legislation by the executive branch, and to seat and unseat judges. Look at our US Congress today; it is totally incapable of passing legislation that will secure our nations borders and use our natural resources. The legislative branch today is the weakest branch of government!
The executive branch was designed to be the sword of the government, to enforce laws and protect the citizenry. And yet we have a President who refuses to use the bully pulpit to its full advantage, who refuses to call the Congress back into session because “it won’t make a difference if Democratic leaders are unwilling to bring up a bill for an up-down vote.” It would make a difference if the most powerful man in the world began acting like it, demanding publicly that the Speaker of the House allow an up or down vote on domestic drilling. Why not call a joint session of Congress and demand this action?
And then we have what was designed to be the weakest of the three branches of government, the judiciary, who is clearly the most powerful in the minds of the elected. We have seen this President allow the Supreme Court to dictate to him how he is to conduct the war on terror. If ever the United States Supreme Court needed to be ignored it is when it believes it can tell the Commander-in-Chief how to conduct war.
But this too is seen at the state level with Governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California kowtowing to its respective state supreme courts.
If We the People do not hold our elected officials accountable to their constitutional duties then we have no reason to complain about our government. It is past time for us to rise up and be counted once again, but we must give up at least one 30 minute television show to do some research every day, keeping up with the important issues of our day at the local, state, and federal levels.
And we can no longer rely on the mainstream media to keep our politicians honest; they have clearly aligned themselves with the Democratic Party. As an evangelical Christian, I can no longer trust the leaders of the pro-family movement to do what is best for America. The MSM and the pro-family movement have their best interests at heart.
More on both of them in the conclusion of “Ravaging the Republic.”
Topics: David Jeffers |
One Response to “Ravaging the Republic (Part 4)”
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August 14th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
David,
This just keeps gettign better and better.
May I note in support of your point that the SCOTUS has become the most important Governmental branch the fact that even in our current presidential campaign, many poeple (including Conservatives) consider the most important issue “what kind of Justices will he appoint?”