“We must disabuse ourselves of the myth that the
federal government is composed of three equal branches of government.
It isn't. It was never intended to be.”
---from The Quotations of Chairman
Joe
In an interesting essay appearing recently in The New
York Times, Yuval Levin agrees with House Speaker Pelosi that
the Congress is the preeminent branch of government.
Of course we were all taught in our grade school civics,
high school government and college political science classes that the
three branches of the federal government are equal, at least
theoretically. It turns out that this is but another piece of
balderdash passed down to us by our well-meaning school masters as
they made their contributions to our collective misunderstandings.
“(T)he structure of the Constitution and the words of its framers
contradict that view” writes Levin. “'In republican
government the legislative authority necessarily predominates,' James
Madison wrote in Federalist 51.
“Congress has broad leeway to make the laws, within
its enumerated powers, while the president has to enforce those laws
and the courts have to interpret them. (2) That means the second and
third branches are meant to operate within the frameworks created by
the first. The veto and judicial review can trim this power at the
margins, but they are far from making the other branches equal to a
Congress eager to assert itself.” (3)
It stands to reason why Madison would declare the
Congress the greatest of all the federal institutions. The
revolutionary experience was not led by a single man, nor a small
clique, but the armies were raised and appointments made by the
Continental Congress. It was to the Congress that Washington
reported, for the 'president' was then merely the presiding officer of the
body and served for only a year. And, since the continental congress
met only a few months of each year the tenure of the 'president' was
short indeed. In fact, the Continental Congress acted as an
executive committee of the whole, in effect, running the government.
It is worth noting that at the Constitutional Convention, convened in the wake of Shay's Rebellion in
order to strengthen the central authority, that the drafters of the Constitution came within a vote of making the United
States Senate an executive committee of the whole. This, in effect, would have made the Senate the
executive branch with the president reduced to head of state who
would preside over the body. The revolutionary experience posited
the authority of the conventions and the congresses it created on the
will of the people, in whose name they acted. Accordingly, the power
of the people being most directly represented in the conventions and
then the House of Representatives made the House the most powerful
organ of government. Indeed, it is also worth noting that when peace
was finally at hand and freedom won, Washington repaired to his home
at Mount Vernon and went, for seven years into political
retirement. No, this was not a twentieth century-style revolution
led by charismatic figures, it was a revolt informed by the voice of
the people in whose name it was conducted.
Accordingly, it was the House, being most representative
and most accountable (elected every two years) that wielded the most
significant power until well into the middle of the 19th
century. Indeed, when John Quincy Adams was turned out of the White
House, he returned to the Congress where the real power lay. And, speaking of the Adams' family and Congress, John Quincy's father John, the second president of the United States lost re-election and was widely reviled for signing the alien and sedition acts; bills passed by Congress designed to keep the country out of the Napoleonic Wars. John Adams signed the bills into law not because he agreed with them but because he felt they were an expression of the will of the people as embodied in acts passed by both houses of Congress. John Adams, therefore, felt that he couldn't veto the bills and thwart the will of the people, so powerful were the views held by the founders that the veto, in this case, was seen by one of the authors of the Constitution to be wildly inappropriate. Congress wasn't seen by our founders nor our early practitioners of
republican rule to be a mere appendage to the executive, it was seen as
preeminent among the institutions of governance, representing the
will of the people to whom all others are accountable.
To re-assert it's authority this means, according to
Levin, that the congress must take oversight seriously, must
decentralize decision making so as to involve members in legislating
rather than grandstanding and doing running commentaries. Congress must once again empower committees to draft legislation. It also means calling to account an
administration that contends, with a straight face, that the congress
has no business interfering in foreign affairs nor conducting
'presidential* harassment' by conducting investigations.
It means reigning in on Disgustus, forcing
confrontation, compelling compliance with legislative oversight and,
if the courts interfere, impeaching judges and justices who get in
the way.
We have a constitutional crisis on our hands and, while
the Republic is slowly being strangled, the Congress, like the ancient
Roman Senate, dawdles. Michelle Goldberg, also writing in The
Times, quotes from a new book written by Michael Wolff. Wolff
says that “Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist,
suggests that Pelosi has been waiting for the president to
self-destruct ever since he was inaugurated. 'Pelosi, Bannon felt,
saw the greater truth: The Trump administration would undo itself,'
Wolff wrote.
“Perhaps he will, but meanwhile, Trump is undoing
American governance” observed Goldberg. (4)
He is also making the United States a pariah in the
community of nations.
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison
_______________- Levin, Yuval. “What if Congress Did Its Job?” The New York Times. Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Page A23
- The courts routinely consult, through statements made by members of Congress during floor debates among other records, the intent of Congress as it passes laws in order to reach judgments about applying law. Additionally, as the framers outlined the powers and responsibilities of each branch of government it was the legislative that was listed first, followed by the executive and judicial in that order.
- Op. Cit.
- Goldberg, Michelle. “Democratic Voters Want Impeachment. The House Dawdles” The New York Times. Tuesday, June 4, 2019. Page A26.
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