Posted on 12/10/2014 7:00:01 AM PST by Jacquerie
“No nation ever continued happy, whose chief magistrate was its absolute master; and no nation miserable, whose supreme power was properly checked and divided.”
These words were written by Thomas Gordon in 1722. Perhaps he picked them up from John Locke’s 1689 Two Treatises of Government. In any event, our framing generation certainly understood what to do with power in a republic, for their design “properly checked and divided” powers. They first divided it vertically between member republics and the government created by those republics. Second, authority was carefully parceled out horizontally among three branches.
This past month, depending on the speech, Obama variously claimed he rewrote immigration law, or that he would issue an executive order to accomplish the same thing. He lied once again of course, for there is no EO, no color of law, just a vague memo to Jeh Johnson of DHS to implement His will.
Misery under arbitrary power, or Happiness in divided government.
It is that simple.
Article V.
Interesting proposals. They would certainly make for fiscal sanity and promote freedom.
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