A CASE FOR SEPARATION OF POWERS

The Constitution to the United States of America begins with a proclamation for the separation of powers within government.

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” – Article 1, Section 1

That sentence constitutes the entire first section of Article 1 and should speak to the profound importance of who creates our laws.  But on Tuesday, January 14th Obama made this statement from the oval office prior to his first cabinet meeting of 2014:

“ . . . we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone, and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward . . . and so one of the things that I’m going to be talking to my cabinet about is how do we use all the tools available to us, not just legislation, in order to advance a mission–”

Four days later, on January 18th, Obama reiterated his intentions: “Where Congress isn’t acting, I’ll act on my own to put opportunity within reach for anyone who’s willing to work for it.”

And throughout the State of The Union (SOTU) address, Obama repeated the same outrageously unconstitutional messages:

"Some (issues) require Congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still – and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do....”

“To every mayor, governor, and state legislator in America, I say, you don’t have to wait for Congress to act... And as a chief executive, I intend to lead by example...”! (emphasis added)

The necessity for the ‘Separation of Powers’ among men and in government can be traced throughout ancient Greece. 

“If one neglects the rule of measure, and gives things too great in power to things too small – sails to ships, food to bodies, offices of rule to souls – then everything is upset, and they run through excess of insolence, some to bodily disorders, others to that offspring of insolence, injustice.”  –  Plato

“The better the constitution is mixed, the more permanent it is.” – Aristotle

“Such being the power that each part has of hampering the others or co-operating with them, their union is adequate to all emergencies, so that it is impossible to find a better political system than this.” – Polybius

Yet here stand we now, having learned nothing from Sparta? From Rome? From the fall of every great civilization admired by man?  Can we not learn, or at the very least remember, the words of James Madison so often recognized as the central founding father to ensure the constitution was enshrined in this philosophy?

“–the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others… Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man, must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.”  – Federalist Paper N°51

The words and actions of our current 44th President to the United States of America are such that undermine the balance of our beloved Republic, oppose the values upon which the nation was founded, and place at tremendous risk the freedoms earned through the sacrifice of life and limb by so many veterans.

Whereas Martin Luther King is remembered for the wisdom in his speech ‘I have a dream’, Barack Hussein Obama is known around the world for stating ‘I have a drone’. Shall we who stand-up against the merger of state and corporate power opposing fascism be judged ‘by the content of our character’ for having the courage and tenacity to do so, or be espoused as judgmental and ‘racist’ for opposing the words and actions of a man by saying without merit we did so merely because of the ‘color of his skin’?

The lackadaisical manner with which Americans are taking to this encroachment of their basic rights and unalienable freedoms is equally frightening. For those who are awake, you had best get your financial house in order, make your preparations and rise-up now. For if this ‘ObamaNation’ continues on its current trajectory, and the separation of powers is further eroded, we may see events come to pass which history begs we avoid repeating.