Federal Government Slow – By Design
By Bruce R. Booker
Many people today are frustrated by the slowness of the federal government to respond to issues prevalent in today’s America. Some go so far as to accuse one political party or another of being a “Do nothing Party” or of Congress being a “Do nothing Congress.”
I think it would be wise, before hurling such accusations, to be reminded that the slowness and difficulty of consensus of our government is actually a fundamental benefit that our Constitution provides us in protecting our rights.
“What?” You ask?
Yes. Built into our Constitution is the protection of the rights of “We the People of the United States of America.”
Our Founding Fathers placed these protections into the Constitution to guarantee that any one branch of our government does not become tyrannical and subjugate the people of the United States. Therefore, the Constitution provides for three separate branches of government: The Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.
Each branch, when working properly, holds the other two branches in check.
However, if there is over-reach by any of the branches, and the other two branches allow this over-reach to occur, then the rights of the citizenry are in jeopardy.
Let me give you an example: in Nazi Germany all three branches of their government were in collusion with each other and subject to the dictates of Adolph Hitler. What Hitler wanted done was done and we know the result of that.
We also saw, most recently, how the collusion between the three branches of our government brought about the legalization of Obamacare. Need I say more?
Our Founding Fathers had just come out from under the tyrannical rule of King George and his government and they did not want the same thing to occur here in the new government that they were laying the foundations of.
This means that “We the People” elect our representatives – all the way to our head of state: The President (not the King) of the United States of America.
If our government is to work properly, each branch MUST keep the others in check.
Sure, this slows the process of governing and legislating and judging, but that’s the way it should be – by design – else, with hasty decisions the rights of “We the People” will be trampled by an out of control federal government – and they ARE!
In such a government Judges and Presidents will be legislating and Legislators will be colluding with the other branches to expedite what they think our country should be like – and what some people think it should be like will one day bring us to another tyrannical government.
Some folks in this country believe that the Constitution of the United States is a “living document” and must change with the mores of Society. They insist that the armed citizen “militia” of the Second Amendment was only necessary during the infancy of the United States and is no longer necessary now that we have an established and trained military. Therefore, citizens do not have the right to keep and bear arms.
In rebuttal to this concept, the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once said, “the Constitution means what it says; it says it is the supreme law of the land; and all American judges have taken a solemn oath to be subject to what it says. It is superior to the jurists who interpret it. It is what it says, not as they might wish it say. Thus, all judges are bound by the text. Hence the word “textualism.”
Others view the Constitution as a pesky impediment to progress and should be done away with. They would do away especially with the Bill of Rights: the right to keep and bear arms, the right of free speech, the right of protection against unlawful search and seizure…
We who are Constitutional rights patriots must view the Constitution for what it truly is: A Document that establishes order, insures domestic tranquility, and protects our rights as citizens, as it so eloquently states:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.
So, next time we think that the federal government is slow to act upon what we think should be expedited, we can thank the Founding Fathers for building this into our Constitution to protect us.
