The Founders Were Geniuses
I have a B.A. in History and am working on my M.A. in Government with focus on International Relations. I have studied with great care the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers and the Articles of Confederation. I have read many of the personal communique’s of our founders, and have also studied the writings of the 18th century British MP Edmund Burke, who is fondly referred to as the Father of Conservatism, and written a collegiate essay on his views of the American Revolution.
The idea of separation of powers within a government construct has been around since at least Aristotle. When the founders of the United States gathered to throw off the yoke of the British Empire, they were keen on doing all they could to bring as much immunity from a tyrannical government as possible. They were well aware of historical precedents, political philosophies, and current events of social upheaval within Europe. All of their personal experiences were combined with their own knowledge and wisdom, along with history and political philosophy.
What they came up with has stood the test of more than two-hundred and forty years. To say it is perfect would be foolish at worst, naive at best. No form of government run by man will ever be classified in such a term. To denounce our form of government because the men who formed it were slave owners, economic opportunists, conquerors of native peoples, elitists, and held the view that men were superior to women; is to think men of the 18th century should be judged by 21st century standards and that these aspects of their character should be a stain on what they created. People should always remember that the only one who was qualified to throw the first stone...didn’t.
No, our form of government should be judged on its merits over the last nearly two and a half centuries. Of course, liberal progressives will laugh at this statement, mainly because they live their lives looking through rose colored, utopian scented spectacles that only allow them to see the positives in their dreams and smell the lilacs of impossibilities. What they fail to see is what is transpiring right before their lying eyes, in real time...right now. For there is a concerted effort to oust a duly elected president at any cost, by any means, through any charge...manufactured or not. This is fascinating to watch the genius of our founders play out. No other impeachment ‘process’ has taken this perilous of a route. What is happening in D.C. right now is more dangerous to the foundation of our Constitution than the Civil War was. This isn’t an outside force of arms marching to overthrow the United States. No, this is an attempt at an inside coup to tell sixty-three million Americans their vote doesn’t matter; due process doesn’t matter; innocent until proven guilty doesn’t matter; the right to face your accuser doesn’t matter; the right to see the plaintiff’s evidence doesn’t matter; the right to cross examine doesn’t matter; the right to call your own witnesses doesn’t matter; and the powers invoked to the president of the United States by Constitutional mandate doesn’t matter. And I could go on, but those are the high points. And if these enemies of the State are successful, then all of us...ALL of us...are in the same sinking boat. The rule of law in this country will be in tatters and its destiny placed in the hands who think laws don’t matter. And this is where the genius of our founders will be seen, and at its finest hour.
The House of Representatives, the founders declared, would be the only branch of our government who could wield the power of impeachment. The executive and judicial branches of the government are not allowed to do so. Once the House approves articles of impeachment, their job is OVER as a body. It only takes a simple majority in the House to approve impeachment articles. Only the House counsel(s) are in the Senate to act as prosecutor before them. This is as it should be. The House of Representatives is made up of legislators who are placed in office by their district constituents in the state they are from. The number of representatives from each state is based on population. The Senate is made up of two senators from each state, each being elected by voters in their respective states. In other words, these two groups are as democratically elected as we get. With Representatives and Senators, mob rules. Popular votes are all that matter in these races. When they go to the capitol, those who voted them into office are then to have their best interests at the heart of the legislators selected. It doesn’t work out that way, but then again...what government is perfect.
The United States Senate is another aspect of the founders’ genius. Articles of Impeachment, once passed, goes to them. The trial of the impeached president takes place in this chamber. The House has no more say as a body. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sits in as judge, but has no power over the proceedings other than in a ministerial capacity to arbitrate dissensions for both sides. After the case has been presented, it takes a two thirds super majority to convict. This assures that no matter which party controls the Senate, it will be a hard mountain to climb to remove a duly elected president unless the charges of high crimes and misdemeanors are clear and concise.
What Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler are doing, along with their other criminal cronies, is beyond the pale of just practices. Secret meetings? Unknown witnesses with third party information? No questions allowed from the other side? Selected leaks to the media? Hearsay being included as evidence? Transcripts being put in the public record when read as a parody? Since when did ‘reading between the lines’ become valid evidence of wrongdoing? If they can do this to a president, and open this Pandora’s Box of making up the rules as you go; do not think for one minute this will never trickle down to the common citizen. It’s almost there now.
Our founders need to be revered, not reviled. For not only did they separate the legislative branch powers, but they kept the judicial branch out of impeachment altogether, except for the Chief Justice being involved in nothing more than a figure head position during the senate proceedings. Even the Chief Justice has no vote in the matter. Hamilton was adamant in an independent judiciary, and that is why no federal judges are elected. Federal judges have no skin in the game of politics. For if they did, then they would be beholden to the ones who put them on the bench.
So what we are seeing is a blatant attempt to circumvent the Constitution by a political party establishment who knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they have no candidate among them who can defeat Donald Trump. The only way to defeat him is to remove him by establishing the best kangaroo court they can muster and hope beyond all hope that it will work. Maybe even make him so tired of the fight he’ll just resign like Nixon did. The difference is Nixon knew the jig was up. Trump knows there isn’t a prayer the senate can snag a two thirds majority to oust him. The only other hope they have is to damage the public perception of Trump to such a degree people will get tired of it and simply not rally around one so tarnished over the last four years. What they don’t realize is that the majority of the American people do not approve of what is going on, and the massive decrease of money going into the DNC and to the poor losers running for the Democratic nomination is a sign of their political anemia.
The final thing the Democrats have missed out on, is that the founders...even though they lived in the 18th century and owned slaves and were economic opportunists and Indian conquerors and misogynists and elitist snobs...were even then FAR smarter and vastly more intelligent than the likes of them. And all of us are going to be better off for it in the long run.
