- Jul 21, 2009
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The Founders knew full well what they were dealing with. They knew full well what the natural inclinations of tyranny are. And they knew that this country was going to be attacked from the moment it was founded. They believed in what they were doing. They believed in what they were doing so much they pledged everything to make it happen, their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor. And when given the opportunity to withdraw and retract, they didn't. They hung in.
During the Revolutionary War many of them saw their children kidnapped and killed as prisoners of war. They were blackmailed. "Recant this revolution and we'll release your kid." They didn't. They were dead serious. Read the Federalist Papers. They were very proud. These were smart people. These were miraculously brilliant people. They knew exactly what they had done in creating this country. They knew exactly what they'd done when they wrote the Constitution, and they knew, human nature being what it is, that it was gonna be under assault from the moment it was enacted, so they built safeguards into it.
They built self-protective measures into it that they rooted in their understanding of human nature. And separation of powers is one of the first, and in their intentions, most powerful safeguards. What got me thinking about this was a call in the latter months of last year in discussing how Obama's breezing past the Constitution, ignoring it wantonly, purposely, and somebody called and said, "Well, what's stopped any leader before Obama from doing this? Why is he the first?" The caller said, "Is it the honor system? Have we just been lucky that we've elected people who decided, because of their own morality and all that, to honor the Constitution?"
I said, "Well, you'd like to think that, but no." There are many safeguards built in to protect the Constitution and to make sure that it is something that remains in force. The way separation of powers is designed to work and rooted in human nature is, the Founders understood that human beings, particularly human beings who seek leadership positions in the world of politics, want power. That's why they divvied it up. It's why there is no king. You've got the judicial branch -- the judges, the courts, the Supreme Court.
You have the legislative branch, which is the House and the Senate. And you have the executive branch, which is the president and all the cabinet offices. I imagine some of you listening today are hearing this for the first time, given how woeful our education is on this. The Founders believed that the legislative branch, because of human nature, would be trying to secure as much power away from the president and his branch as they could. And by vice-versa, the founders believed that presidents would be doing everything they could to steal power from the legislative branch.
Their belief was that people steeped in, invested in, desirous of power, would go to any length to hold on to theirs and thereby preserve the separation of powers and prevent any one branch from becoming essentially dictatorial. They believed that the president would do everything he could to keep Congress from overrunning him and vice-versa, that Congress would do everything it could to stop some president from taking over their power.
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So the president has been allowed to usurp all of this congressional power because Congress has not fought to protect their own. The Democrats didn't care. It's all the Democrats saying, "Obama's Democrat, we're Democrat, if he's got the power, we've got the power, we don't care where it is." The Republicans -- this is why everybody's so upset. The Republicans didn't really fight to preserve their power in the House because they didn't want to be called racists by the media.
They didn't want to be criticized as racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes, and so this natural safeguard, separation of powers, is itself under assault right now. Then the judges that the Democrats have put in office are themselves people who think they should have and do have the power to write law from their courtrooms. Now, add to that something that was never provided for in the Constitution, and that's all of these regulatory agencies out there that are in the executive branch, such things as the Fish and Wildlife and the EPA.
These people are writing regulations left and right, 14, 15,000 a year that are becoming, effectively, law in this country without going through the process of becoming law.
That's one of the greatest violations of the separation of powers ever. There's no oversight over these regulators. The regulators at EPA, if they want to be in charge of regulating CO2 because they believe it destroys the climate, then, by God, they're gonna be in charge of it. And if they want to fine you for exhaling or if they want to fine you for using more than your share, there's nothing to stop them from doing it. Congress hasn't even played a role in any of this, and yet none of this is technically constitutional. Everything coming out of these regulatory agencies -- not everything -- but the vast majority of it, in real terms, is not constitutional.
But if the people who are having power taken from them do not stand up and defend it and try to secure their own power and make sure that it isn't stolen, then the separation of powers kind of drifts away, loses some of its unique strength or power itself. And so it's now left to other safeguards, and other safeguards, if you read the Federalist Papers, it's why Madison spent so damn much time talking about the importance of character in the chief executive, character in elected leaders, morality and character, all the things that are laughed at today by people that are uninformed and all this stuff in the pop culture.
But that's why so many people are concerned. The safeguards have worked for over 200 years to protect and defend the Constitution and keep it from being basically used as toilet paper, and now it's under assault and there doesn't seem to be anybody standing up and defending it. That's what really upsets so many people when you get down to it. It upsets the Tea Party. The Safeguards of the Founders Are Failing - The Rush Limbaugh Show
So essentially, we're in this boat because Democrats and some Republicans, didn't care if Obama took some of their power away. But what does this mean....continued.