Can Americans Trust Their Government?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns how much trust the citizens can have for their government. The Founders of the United States of America organized and set up the foundation for a democratic republic. The U.S. Constitution divided governmental power into three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial – to provide checks and balances against a tyrannical government.

Such steps were taken to enable the citizens to maintain control of their government. The Bill of Rights was added to guarantee certain freedoms for the citizens. The Constitution did not provide rights, such as freedom of religion and Second Amendment rights, but guaranteed protection of rights from abuse by the government. As Abraham Lincoln stated, it was to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The government set up by the Constitution was nearly perfect, or as perfect as it could be made by mere mortals. Where there was less perfection, amendments were made to make corrections. If the three branches had remained as separate entities, there would be fewer problems for our day. Instead of being checks and balances against abuse in other branches, executives, congressional members, and judges joined together to take power from the people.

This weakening of the Constitution has brought our republic to the constitutional crisis that we have today where one administration works against a future administration and/or prosecutes a previous administration.

With declassification of records taking place on nearly a daily basis, Americans are being told that the Obama administration set traps for the first Trump administration and that Obama even ordered the assassination of Trump. Then the Biden administration prosecuted Trump and members of his administration, some of whom spent time in prison. Now the second Trump administration is claiming that Obama led a coup against Trump, and the Department of Justice is investigating to determine if prosecution is in order.

What is the truth? Are there any governmental authorities that Americans can trust, or is the Constitution truly in danger of being destroyed? The best thing to do – usually – is to wait to hear all the evidence. However, it may be too late if evidence continues to trickle out and people are saved from prosecution by time.  After all, some of the so-called evidence coming out now is about nine years old.

Americans should not jump to conclusions, but neither should they believe everything that they are told. They should understand that ancient prophets foretold that secret combinations would be in every land in the latter days, seeking to destroy governments and to bring citizens under the control of evil people. The trick is to figure out who is evil and who are mere mortals trying to do the best job that they can to sustain the Constitution and keep America free. The absolutely best thing that any of us can do for America is to pray for God’s protection over the nation.

What Is A Constitutional Crisis?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns constitutional crises. Leftists tend to scream about constitutional crises because the Trump administration is moving extremely fast in an attempt to save the United States and bring peace to the world.

One of the tasks of the Trump administration is to cut federal government costs. The nation can wait no longer to bring the debt under control, or the United States of America will go bankrupt. Trump brought in Elon Musk and his team of geniuses who are finding much waste and possible fraud, and Leftists are screaming about constitutional crisis. Jacob Hess, staff writer for the Deseret News, discussed the situation. 

No one disagrees that the new White House administration is moving very quickly. But do steps being taken amount to a legitimate constitutional crisis, as many are now alleging?

“I think we should be careful in describing our situation as a constitutional crisis. It’s a term that we should save for a real emergency,” said Yuval Levin, director of Social, Cultural and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in a recent interview with Deseret News executive editor, Doug Wilks.

“It has to mean something, and I don’t think we’re in a place where we can say that.”

Levin explained, “A lot of our constitutional politics is a matter of action and reaction. We’ve seen a lot of actions from the president so far, and the question of what reactions are going to look like is still an open question. So, I think it’s much too soon to talk about a constitutional crisis. We have to see how the system responds to the pressures it’s under.”

When Levin was asked about whether he worried about the U.S. and its current resilience, the scholar acknowledged, “It makes sense to worry in a moment like this, when there’s a lot of pressure being put on the system.”

But he qualified: “I don’t think it makes sense to panic in this moment. We’re not in a place where the fundamentals of the system are being undermined. We’re in a place where the structure is being challenged, and that happens on a fairly regular basis in the American system of government.”

Levin’s views are aligned with other political science experts we’ve spoken with at Deseret News in recent weeks. …

What is it, then, that constitutes a true constitutional crisis? And what are the factors and relevant context to help us know if and when that’s taking place?

Those we spoke with pointed to the founders’ original design for a system allowing for vigorous push-and-pull between competing powers as backdrop for what we’re witnessing….

“I’d consider it ‘crisis,’” Curry said, “if over the long term power is overwhelmingly and broadly handed to one branch to such a degree that the other branches become meaningless or unimportant to governance.”

“A constitutional crisis is when there is extreme ambiguity and open conflict over the prerogatives of the three major branches of government designated by the U.S. Constitution,” said Self, adding that such a crisis could be recognized when institutional rules outlined in a constitution “no longer constrain” the most powerful actors, specifically the central executive. “We can think of this as whether there is the Rule of Law or not.” …

Constitutional Crisis

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is a question, “Is the United States in the middle of a constitutional crisis?” Some politicians, particularly Democrats, are saying that there is. Others are saying there is a need to learn the truth.

            The “crisis” at hand is the publication of proof that Hillary Clinton and the Democrat National Party colluded with the Russians for political purposes. There is also proof that leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) were in on the collusion.

            According to Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal, it seems that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded some oppositional research against Donald Trump, and Barack Obama’s administration spied on a Trump associate. This is the gist of a declassified memo that was released by the House intelligence committee on Friday, February 2, 2018. The memo states that the FBI and the DOJ officials did not tell a federal judge how they got the information to justify a surveillance warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The instigators wanted to spy on Carter Page, who once worked as a campaign aid for Trump.

            The FISA court approved the warrant on October 21, 2016, which was just a few weeks prior to the presidential election on November 8. Trump won the election and took office on January 20, 2017. The resulting surveillance prompted an investigation on Trump, and he and/or people that worked for him or once worked for him have been under investigation for more than a year because of a false Russian dossier. This is the basis for the ever-widening investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

            Representative Devin Nunes (R-California) is chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He wanted a memo written by the committee to be released to the American people. Democrats, the FBI, and the DOJ did not want the memo released. The four-page memo was released. Nunes wanted the American people to know something important.

The committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes…. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies exist to defend the American people, not to be exploited to target one group on behalf of another.

            Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) is the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, and he obviously had a different opinion. He tweeted the following message: “The President’s decision to publicly release a misleading memo attacking DOJ & FBI is a transparent attempt to discredit these institutions and undermine Mueller’s probe.”

            For a more in depth view of the situation, follow this link to Lucas’ essay. You can also get a better idea of the importance of this matter by linking to this site where the memo is reviewed and the misinformation is exposed. Then you can decide whether you think there is a constitutional crisis or just the exposing of part of the secret society of the FBI.

Constitutional Crisis

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is a question: Does the United States of America have a constitutional crisis? In November 2016 a majority of Americans elected Donald Trump to be the President of the United States. As soon as the results of the election were made known, paid protesters began rioting. The riots and other problems continued through Inauguration Day on January 20, 2017. As soon as President Trump was inaugurated, Democrats and liberals of both parties began to sabotage him in every way possible, including the length of time involved in approving cabinet members and claiming that Trump and his cabinet members were working with the Russians. He has too few of people approved by the Senate for important positions. On Saturday President Trump accused Barack Obama of tapping the telephones in Trump Tower.

            Lester Jackson at Restoring Liberty thinks that the Republican Party is worse than the Democrat Party. We sort of know what to expect from the Democrats, but the Republicans keep lying to Americans. He claims that the Republicans are just as upset as the Democrats because Trump is keeping his campaign promises.

We now have a non-politician president for a very simple reason: voters are fed up with being lied to by Republican politicians. Having learned little, Republicans are still trying to betray the very people who voted for them. Just last week, Alfred S. Regnery declared that Senate Republicans are the “Best Allies” of obstructionist Democrats: “the Senate has confirmed 14 of the 549 senior federal positions that President Trump needs to run the government and who need Senate confirmation.

            Jackson claims that there is an “unprecedented” but “organized Democrat effort to prevent the new president from governing with his own people.” If you combine this effort with the Republicans in the Senate “dragging their feet, taking time off and delaying even hearings on nominees,” you get a big problem. Republicans could use rules in place to get the confirmations. They could also use an “unprecedented” action contained in the Constitution that would bypass the Democrats. The Constitution says, “Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.” This has never been done previously, but it would get President Trump some help in governing our nation with people he can trust.

            Then there is the problem of Barack Obama. Did he spy on presidential candidate Donald Trump? Did he use the intelligence agencies to collect information to use against Trump? Is he setting up a “shadow government” to force Trump out of office? Conservative radio host Mark Levin  thinks that “former President Barack Obama undoubtedly spied on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign.”

            Levin was recently on "Fox and Friends" where he laid out “the evidence for why he believes Obama is guilty, including reading reports directly from mainstream media outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, McClatchy and the Guardian.” According to Levin, “the evidence is overwhelming.” He says that “The issue isn’t whether the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign or the transition or certain surrogates, the issue is the extent of it.” Levin also says that Trump, his cabinet members, etc. are victims. Levin is calling for congressional investigations and public hearings.

            What is a President of the United States to do when the former President is sabotaging him and Congress and the Judicial Branch are working against him? If anyone can handle it and save our nation, our non-politician President Trump would be the man. May God bless America and may God bless President Trump!