Constitution 4

U.S. Constitution 4

The Founding Fathers’ Monumental Task Part 4

Structuring a Government with all The Power to the People

America’s Three –Headed Eagle

The American Founders were the first to carefully structure what might be described as a three-headed eagle. The central head was the law-making or legislative function with two eyes-the House and the Senate-and these must both see eye-to-eye on any piece of legislation before it can become law. (When was the last time they saw eye-to-eye on anything?)

A second head is the administrative or Executive Department with all authority centered in a single, strong President, operating within a clearly defined framework of limited power. Our current President thinks he can do whatever he wants against the peoples will and acting against the constitution itself.

The third head is the judiciary, which was assigned the task of acting as guardian of the Constitution and the interpretation of its principles as originally designed by the Founders. They sure have blown that assignment.

The genius of this three-headed eagle was not only the separation of powers but the fact that all three heads operated through a single neck. By this means the Founders carefully integrated there three departments so that each one was coordinated with the others and could not function independently of them. It was an ingeniously structured pattern of political power which might be described as “coordination without consolidation.” The President is acting without the three element of our government.

The Two Wings of the Eagle

The Founder’s view of their new form of government can be further demonstrated by using the symbol of the eagle and referring to its two wings:

Wing #1 of the eagle might be referred to as the problem-solving wing or the wing of compassion. Those who function through this dimension of the system are sensitive to the unfulfilled needs of the people. They dream of elaborate plans to solve these problems.

Wing #1 has the responsibility of conserving the nation’s resources and the people’s freedom. Its function is to analyze the programs of wing #1 with two questions. First, can we afford it? Secondly, what will it do to the rights and individual freedom of the people? They sure are ignoring these responsibilities.

Now, if both of these wings fulfill their assigned functions, the American eagle will fly straighter and higher than any civilization in the history of the world. But if either of these wings goes to sleep on the job, the American eagle will drift toward anarchy or tyranny. Both wings are failing to do their functions, so where does that take us?

The Founders Warn Against the Drift Toward the Collectivist Left

Since the genius of the American system is maintaining the eagle in the balanced center of the spectrum, the Founders warned against a number of temptations which might lure subsequent generations to abandon their freedoms and their rights by subjecting themselves to a strong federal administration operating on the collectivist Left.

They warned against the “welfare state” where the government endeavors to take care of everyone from the cradle to the grave. (Sound familiar?) Jefferson wrote: If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.

They warned against confiscatory taxation and deficit spending. Jefferson said it was immoral for one generation to pass on the results of its extravagance in the form of debts to the next generation. The Founders also warned that the only way for the nation to prosper was to have equal protection of “rights,” and not allow the government to get involved in trying to provide equal distribution of “things.” They also warned against pooling of property as advocated by the proponents of communism. American we better wake up. All this is going on now. We need to stand together as Americans not as separate ethnic groups. We are all Americans.

The Need of an “Enlightened Electorate”

To prevent the American eagle from tipping toward anarchy on the right, or tyranny on the left, and to see that the American system remained in a firm, fixed position in the balanced center of the political spectrum, the Founders campaigned for a strong program of widespread education. Channels were needed through which the Founders and other leader could develop and maintain an intelligent, informed electorate. What the Founders really wanted was a system of educational communication through which they could transfer their great body of fundamental beliefs based on self-evident truths. They knew they had made a great discovery, and they wanted their posterity to maintain it. As Madison said, it is something which “it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.”