By distributing the essential business of government among three separate but interdependent branches, the Constitutional Framers ensured that the principal powers of government – legislative, executive, and judicial – were not concentrated in the hands of any single branch. This balancing of power was intended to ensure that no one branch grows too powerful and dominates the national government, possibly overpowering the individual state governments.

Today, however, our system of separation of powers has become a structure that encourages gridlock or stalemate. I believe the Framers knew this was likely to happen and they felt it was all a part of separation of powers. Today, gridlock is treated like a bad thing when in reality it is a protection for the people. If there is no general consensus in promoting what is best for the nation as a whole, our representatives are better off doing nothing than doing the wrong thing. My mother’s most valuable saying was “when in doubt don’t”. Following this axiom in my life has proved her right. Most of the time by being pressured to act quickly just to look like you are solving a perceived problem results in unintended consequences on down the road that hurt people and the nation.

Sadly, today not being able to accomplish a desired agenda because of gridlock is being accomplished by the court system. Special interest groups are willing to put the judiciary in the role of legislators to accomplish their goal of changing the Constitution little by little. Thus the judiciary are circumventing the legislative process, and in so doing, making a mockery of “we the people.” They have also become the most powerful branch of government, whereas originally, they were intended to be the weakest.

      “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one,a few,     or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
-James Madison

The greatest concern for our system of separation of powers is that all three would be controlled by the same ideological bent or one political party. The founder’s went to great lengths to prevent this from happening. But when “We the People” are not as educated as we should be about our heritage and our wonderful miraculous Constitution, we can be easily led by deceivers who both look and sound good.

The price for liberty is eternal vigilance. When we have been lulled to sleep and not taught the basics of good government, vigilance takes a back seat to our daily schedules and activities. Until the most recent elections, “we the people” have always been more comfortable with splitting the powers of the legislative and executive branches by voting in different parties and that is a good safeguard or check and balance unless you have an Executive willing to ignore the Constitution and make law.

With the election of 2008, the Legislative branch, Executive branch and over one half of the judiciary were all of the same ideological bent. Currently, we have the normal split between one party controlling the Congress and the other one the Executive Branch. The sad truth is that most in Congress are of the same “statist” bent to one extent or the other. A “statist” is someone who believes in big government over a limited smaller government. In other words they believe the state should solve all problems, even those that rightly belong to the people to solve. One party purports to support limited government but is just a more moderate version of the other party that openly admit they are statists. This only serves to grow government and our debt. The only difference between the parties is how fast the government grows and reduces our essential liberty.

Important Reminder: Michael Boldin, founder of The Tenth Amendment Center says regarding the Constitution, “The best way to look at it is that it does not apply to you. It doesn’t apply to me. It doesn’t apply to any person at all. It applies to the government, and it sets the boundaries of what government is supposed to do.”

Next Week: The Electoral College and Separation of Powers

Dinner Table Discussion Question: What can be done to return the proper balance of power to the federal government? Brainstorm ideas keeping in mind what the proper role of government is.