Balanced Center

                    The topic of discussion for this Freedom Friday is why our government must maintain a balanced center.  The Founders understood well that the government of their new nation needed to be firmly in the center of the political spectrum, neither moving to the left and tyranny nor to the right and anarchy.

                    James Madison described the duties of the central and state governments:  "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite….  The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

                    W. Cleon Skousen explained why the Founders wanted to keep the "American eagle" sitting firmly in the center of the political spectrum.  He said that the "fixing of the American eagle in the center of the spectrum was designed to maintain this political equilibrium between the people in the state and the federal government.  The idea was to keep the power base close to the people.  The emphasis was on strong local self-government.  The states would be responsible for internal affairs and the federal government would confine itself to those areas which could not be fairly or effectively handled by the individual states." 

                    Skousen included a wonderful picture with the "American eagle" in the center of the Founders' "yardstick" marked with tyranny on one end and anarchy on the other.  He explained that other men advocated for a separation of the functions of government into three departments - legislative, executive, and judicial, but the Founders were the first to build a government that might be considered to be a three-headed eagle, with each head representing a department.  Here he included another great picture of an eagle with three heads - one head facing left, one head facing forward, and one head facing right.

                    Skousen explained that the central head represents the legislative branch and has two eyes representing the fact that the House of Representatives and the Senate must work together and see eye-to-eye.  A second head represents the executive branch and its authority centered in a single, strong President.  The third head represents the judicial branch with the responsibility to guard the Constitution and interpret its principles.

                    "The genius of this three-headed eagle was not only the separation of powers but the fact that all three heads operated through a single neck.  By this means the Founders carefully integrated these three departments so that each one was coordinated with the others and could not perform independently of them.  It was an ingeniously structured pattern of political power which might be described as `coordination without consolidation.'"

                    Skousen continued with his description of the Founders' new government by using the symbol of an eagle.  He indicated that the eagle's two wings are to be used together in order to keep the eagle flying straight.  One wing "might be referred to as the problem-solving wing or the wing of compassion.  Those who function through this dimension of the system are sensitive to the unfulfilled needs of the people.  They dream of elaborate plans to solve these problems."

                    The second wing "has the responsibility of conserving the nation's resources and the people's freedom.  Its function is to analyze the programs of wing #1 with two questions.  First, can we afford it?  Secondly, what will it do to the rights and individual freedom of the people."

                    I think that you can agree with me that the American eagle is no longer flying straight.  The head representing the executive branch has grown too heavy with usurped responsibilities, such as the President issuing Executive Orders, making "recess" appointments when Congress is not in recess, and even refusing to answer a subpoena to appear in a court hearing in Georgia over his eligibility to appear on the state's ballot.  Our current President has actually asked the Legislature to give him more authority!  The Legislature is not functioning properly as shown in their failure to pass a budget for over 1000 days; the two Houses are definitely not working together or seeing "eye-to-eye" as they argue over everything and complete few issues of the peoples' business, becoming the least effective legislature in history.  The Judiciary continues to legislate from the bench instead of just guarding and protecting the Constitution.  The compassionate wing has pulled some of the feathers out of the conservation wing and caused our nation to go deeply into debt as well as destroy some freedoms of the people.  Our American eagle is definitely not flying straight!

The Founders clearly outlined the responsibilities and powers of each part of the government when they framed the Constitution; if the government was working properly the American eagle would be flying straight and strong.  It is way past time to move the balance of power in the government back to the center.  We need to elect more representatives who are constitutionalists and will obey the law of the land.  The most important thing we can do is retire the current occupant of the Oval Office and replace him with a constitution-loving American!

Many of the ideas and quotes for this article are from Skousen's The Five Thousand Year Leap - 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World, pp. 22-24.  Do you own a copy of this book yet?  I recommend that you obtain one as soon as possible and that you study it until you thoroughly understand it.

Three Branches

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that the powers of government should be divided into three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Throughout the history of mankind, there have been many types of governments. Some nations have been ruled by a single powerful ruler in a monarchy. Other nations were ruled by an aristocracy or the wealthy. Still other nations operated under a pure democracy where all the people joined together to make decisions. The Roman Empire operated as a republic and ruled over millions of people. All of these types of governments have some merit that was taken into consideration when our government was organized.

In a monarchy, the government is administered by an executive head. An aristocracy represents the wealth and resources of the nation. A democracy represents the people. The Founders of our nation created a three-headed eagle with all three types of government to control our republic. They created a three-branch government - executive, legislative and judicial - and divided the powers of government among the three branches. The doctrine of "separation of powers" was not readily accepted by Americans.

John Adams was apparently the first of the Founders to recognize the need to separate the powers of government. He was advocating for separation of powers even before the Declaration of Independence was written. Somehow, Adams was able to convince his state to adopt a constitution based on separation of power. Consequently, the constitution of his state was the first in history to read: "In the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the legislative, executive and judicial powers shall be placed in separate departments, to the end that it might be a government of laws and not of men…."

Benjamin Franklin was one of the last to be won over to the idea, but he "finally acknowledged that the Constitution of the United States with its separation of powers was as perfect as man could be expected to produce." (W. Cleon Skousen).

John Adams said it was his goal "… to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and the prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them."

The three-headed eagle has served the United States well for over two hundred years. If the executive, legislative and judicial continue to operate separately, we will be able to protect the liberty of Americans. If they join their powers into one head, it will be as though we live under a tyrant. It appears to me that our three branches of government are being merged into one that operates directly under the authority of the President. The current administration and Congress are making laws and regulations that take away the benefits of the separation of powers. For the good of our Republic, we must seek out and elect leaders who are good and honest men and women and understand and support the Constitution.

Ideas and quotes for this post came from The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.

Three Branches

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that the powers of government should be divided into three branches: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Throughout the history of mankind, there have been many types of governments. Some nations have been ruled by a single powerful ruler in a monarchy. Other nations were ruled by an aristocracy or the wealthy. Still other nations operated under a pure democracy where all the people joined together to make decisions. The Roman Empire operated as a republic and ruled over millions of people. All of these types of governments have some merit that was taken into our government. In a monarchy, the government is administered by an executive head. An aristocracy represents the wealth and resources of the nation. A democracy represents the people. The Founders of our nation created a three-headed eagle with all three types of government to control our republic. They created three branch of government - executive, legislative and judicial - and divided the powers of government among the three branches. The doctrine of "separation of powers" was not readily accepted by Americans. John Adams was apparently the first of the Founders to recognize the need to separate the powers of government. He was advocating for separation of powers even before the Declaration of Independence was written. Somehow, Adams was able to convince his state to adopt a constitution based on separation of power. Consequently, the constitution of his state was the first in history to read: "In the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the legislative, executive and judicial powers shall be placed in separate departments, to the end that it might be a government of laws and not of men…." Benjamin Franklin was one of the last to be won over to the idea, but he "finally acknowledged that the Constitution of the United States with its separation of powers was as perfect as man could be expected to produce" (W. Cleon Skousen). John Adams said it was his goal "… to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and the prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them." The three-headed eagle has served the United States well for over two hundred years. If the executive, legislative and judicial continue to operate separately, they will be able to protect the liberty of Americans. If they join their powers into one head, it will be as though we live under a tyrant. For the good of our Republic, we must seek out and elect good and honest men and women to be our leaders. Ideas and quotes for this post came from The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.