Independence Day should remind
Americans where our nation came from and what it should be…and how we’ve strayed
from what was intended.
Students of American history will
recall the many grievances against King George III that were called out in the
Declaration of Independence. Among them were the following:
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices,
and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their
substance.”
“ …imposing Taxes on us without
our Consent”
“…depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury”
“He has combined with others to
subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by
our laws”
I cite
those indictments because they represent just a few that still affect us to
this day.
But,
rather than a monarch being the source of such unconscionable anguish, it is our
very own Presidents who have been guilty of such crimes against our people.
It was
never intended to be this way.
In the
years that followed the signing of that sacred document on July 4, 1776, the
Founding Fathers utilized their newfound independence to fashion a government that
was beholden to the people -- rather than a people that were beholden to the
government.
Knowing
full well the flaws that come with Kings, they created a republic, and for it a
Constitution that clearly called out the limited powers and responsibilities of
our federal government. In just over 1,000 words they defined the role of the
Executive – the President – someone who theoretically replaced the role of the
King, but unlike a King, had almost no powers. The President could not make
laws, create taxes and fees, and declare war – all powers that Kings took for
granted. A President’s duties were very few: He was to be the face of our
nation, the Commander in Chief of our armed forces, the appointer of judges and
ambassadors, and he was to execute the laws created by Congress.
Although
the ultimate law of the land – the Constitution – clearly and concisely
identifies the legal role of the President, we regularly see the office stray
from those limitations.
Despite
protestations by the Democrats, this is nothing new to the office since Donald
Trump came into power. Every President of our lifetimes has been as despotic as
kings, including alleged small government types like Ronald Reagan and others like
Barack Obama who said they were doing the people’s will.
This
addiction to centralized, unconstitutional power has become the norm and dates
back to the days of Lincoln, a man who had no consideration for the
Constitution. His efforts to stifle a crisis of national identity and integrity
opened the floodgates that led to the modern and popular interpretation of the
presidency that allows Presidents to declare war (our last Constitutional war
and occupation was World War II), suspend trial by jury and exert indefinite
detention, and use their administrative offices to make regulations (which are
laws), impose taxes (fees and fines), and infringe upon the rights of the
people and the sound operations of the free markets. They have grown beyond the
boundaries of their duties and have assumed the powers that were once - and are
elsewhere – bequeathed to monarchies, doing everything, unchecked, that a Congress
should, thus taking power away from the people and keeping it for themselves.
The
people fail to see that the ultimate power should be in their hands, through
our representative form of government. The nation was founded so that the
Congress was the most powerful branch of government. The general belief is that
all branches share equal power; this is not so -- the Executive Branch should
only be a check and a balance to an overreaching Congress, as are our courts to
both. Our nation was founded this way so that the masses were equally
represented and the development of laws and budgets came from a governing body
directly accessible to the common man and which could actually be comprised of
the common man. The rights and consent of the governed were paramount.
Yet, sadly, that is not what the people seem to want anymore. Carefully observe how Trump supporters cherish his actions. Watch what voters now demand of their candidates in this new election cycle. They want to know what the President and presidential candidates will do for them. They expect them to fix the economy, regulate industry, exert social mores upon the masses, assume war powers, make laws, control the Congress, create tax policy, intervene in foreign affairs, and suppress liberty in the name of security.
They
think the President is -- and they clamor for -- a singular power, a central
office...in essence, a king.
Isn’t
that what our forefathers declared independence from?
From the 03 July 2019 Greater
Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News
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