The Power of Our Republic – Are We The People Squandering It?

I believe this nation will only survive as a republic by upholding all the extraordinary and very thoughtful measures our Founding Fathers, of the late 1700s, established in our Constitution. I also believe, as they did, that “we the people” are the foundation of the process and that if we fail to do our part, the entire system will devolve into a dictatorship.

After our Founding Fathers defeated the oppression of English rule and taxation without representation, they put their minds to creating a government that would be just strong enough to protect ‘we the people’ from both internal and external abuse and yet not so strong that it becomes abusive. To do this, they created the Constitution of the United States, which included a combination of extraordinary measures after much thoughtful deliberation.

The primary thoughtful measure is embodied in the Preamble of the Constitution. It declares that certain specific powers are being granted to the government by the governed. The power owners are enabling a new form of government.

Preamble
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This was a significant departure from other governments of the time. To make sure this was clearly understood, they added the Tenth Amendment, powers of states and people:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

This Enumeration of powers limits federal government to what is granted by the Constitution and reserves all remaining power for the States or we the people. The doctrine of enumerated powers is our principal defense against an abusive government and being ruled by a dictator. If a power has not been granted, then it cannot be abused. That is, as long as we the people keep the government in its place.

What other thoughtful measures exist in the Constitution to protect we the people?

In addition to enumerating power between federal, state and we the people, the Constitution further limits the power of the federal government by splitting the enumerated powers between three branches of government. It then adds to that various checks and balances of one branch on the others. Examples of these checks and balances include:

• Congress can write new bills, but the President has to approve them before they become part of the law of the land.
• The President can veto bills, but Congress can override that veto with a supermajority vote.
• The Judiciary can monitor both the Executive and Legislative to make certain neither is exceeding their enumerated powers. The Executive and Legislative checks the Judiciary by choosing and approving the judges.
• Congress was given the power to impeach the President.
• The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the military, but Congress controls the federal/military budget

This may seem like enough measures, but the Founding Fathers were still concerned that the new government would seek more power by limiting the power of the people. They soon added The Bill of Rights to assure certain that specific rights/powers of we the people could not be taken away by this government. The Bill of Rights was a short and important, but limited, list. Since they couldn’t list all our rights and powers, they did the next best thing. The Ninth Amendment protected all the rest of our rights and powers.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

And one of those retained rights is the power of the vote. We can determine who manages our Constitutional government.

Our right to vote is so important that protecting it has required additional constitutional amendments:

• The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits limitations on voting based on race, color, or previous status as a slave.
• The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits limitations on voting based on a citizen’s sex.
• The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits requiring payment of a tax for the right to vote.
• The Twenty-sixth Amendment prohibits an upper limitation on voting based on age.

But the power of the vote also represents the primary weakness of this plan to control government power and protect the rights of we the people.

What happens if more and more of us stop voting? Who is left voting? What happens if we aren’t calling or writing to our representatives? Who are our representatives listening to? What happens if those elected into office either abuse or ignore their powers? Who is ultimately responsible?

Indeed, fewer and fewer voting age citizens are using their ballot box power to keep our republic on an even keel. See voter turnout chart below. This chart is based on data from Federal Election Commission, Office of the Clerk, U.S. Census Bureau.

So who is voting while more of we the people don’t? Based on a recent Pew Form survey and voting results for 2004, the social-issue voters represent about 22 percent of the voting age population and they are the most cohesive, most likely to vote and consistent voting block in existence. If the rest of the voting age population stops voting and this group keeps voting, this republic becomes a single-party state by default.

Since most of us don’t take the time to communicate with our elected officials, who are they listening to? According to the Washington Post in June 2005, just during GWB’s first term, registered lobbyists doubled “to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent.” If we are not communicating with our elected managers of the federal government and the lobbyists are, this republic will be only influenced by corporations and other special interests.

Now add to this lack of voter participation and a single-party state controlled by corporations a group of elected officials that either ignore or actually redact the Constitution they swore to uphold and we the people have a confluence upon us that greatly threatens our nation and reduces our power.

We are so close to losing all our power and witnessing the end of our republic.

It should be obvious that with all the power we the people have in this republic, we are also its weakest link. If only a few of us, who vote blindly by party, use this power, if those who were elected see that as an excuse to listen to lobbyists, if any one branch of our government stops performing it’s checks and balances duties while another abuses its limited powers, what do you think will result?

All members of the three branches of our government are required to take an oath to support, defend and protect the Constitution. Maybe we the people should take an oath when we register to vote. Maybe then we will be less likely to squander our power to control this great nation and let it fall into such disrepair.