We’re in the midst of the holiday season where friends and families gather to spend time with each other and celebrate. It’s a time to reflect on the past year and be grateful for our blessings. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, preparing our home for a family gathering and cooking holiday dinners, this can also be a stressful time. For me, Christmas Eve was one of those stressful times.
In our family, Christmas Eve was the day of celebration and Christmas Day was for laid-back time. After opening a few presents on Christmas Eve, the kids would be off to bed. And then...it was time for the exhausted adults to get back to work! This is where the phrase “some assembly required” became three of the most despised words in the English language – especially, at 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning. Here the stress doth enter.
Having followed my father’s lead, assembly instructions were just extra packing material. I’d open the first box; dump everything onto the floor and then get to work. The picture on the box would suffice. By studying it from every angle I then knew how the finished product was supposed to look. Tab A would go into Slot B. These nuts and bolts would connect these parts. Eventually, the pile of parts would begin to resemble the picture on the box. And, viola! Toy number one was now assembled!
But wait a minute… What are these parts laying on the floor? Are these extras to use if a screw or a bolt is lost? Ugh, oh. This thingy looks like it might be important, but I don’t see it in the picture on the box. Hmmmmm.
About that time, I’d hear that voice. “Have you read the instructions?”
What a terrible thing to ask! There are bright, colorful pictures right here on the box. Perhaps the instruction packet was not intended to be packing material after all?
Fast forward…Isn’t this how our government is working today? Parts of it look the way they are supposed to, but there are all these extra parts. There are certainly parts that are not in their correct place. So, what do we do about it? Well, we can read the instructions.
The Declaration of Independence is the picture on the box in the example above. It shows us what our government is supposed to look like. It does not show us how our government is supposed to be put together though. We can make the toy look like the picture on the box, but will it function correctly? Reading the instructions improves the odds we'll end up with a functioning object.
The Constitution is our instruction manual. It tells us how our government is to be assembled to look like the government the Declaration of Independence describes. Each part must be in its correct place and put together in the correct order. This order increases the chance it will look the way it’s supposed to and function correctly.
For example, there’s a specific process that’s to be followed for the federal government to spend our money. Spending bills are supposed to originate in the House of Representatives. Why is this so important? Because all 435 members of the House are supposed to be accountable to the people they represent. These ‘representatives’ are up for re-election every two years. The Framers all agreed that this legislative body – tasked with spending its citizen’s property – should be most accountable to the people through the ballot box.
Now onto the Senate. The Senate holds an advise and consent role for presidential appointments and treaty approvals. Appointments to the judiciary, government agencies and ambassadorships do affect the public, but they’re not as immediate or as personal as spending our money. Therefore, Senators serve six-year terms with one-third of the Senate being up for election every two years.
The Chief Executive is charged with enforcing the laws that Congress passes along with spending most of the money authorized by the spending bills that originate in the House. The President has a more immediate impact on the people than the Senate, but not as personal an effect through spending authority. Consequently, presidents serve four-year terms with a maximum of two terms.
Members of the Judiciary are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Federal Judges are not elected by nor directly accountable to the people. This is an effort to maintain an independent judicial process that is not influenced by popular opinion or special interests. And, to hold judges accountable for their decisions, there are more provisions in the Constitution to impeach federal judges than any other federal official.
Even the length of the terms of office in our federal government progress in a logical manner. House members serve two-year terms, presidents in four-year terms and Senators six-year terms. This is designed to provide continuity of government and to enable us to live in a civil society. A civil society is predicated upon a relatively stable law over time. Imagine if each elected federal official served a term of equal length. This would increase the likelihood of dramatic shifts in policy and the direction of the federal government. It would compromise the stability of our government and our republic as well.
Just like the unassembled toy we purchased as our child’s Christmas gift, our government will not put itself together. The instructions are a guide. They are not a substitute for an informed person to assemble the product. This requires each of us to understand the process and how to assemble our government correctly so it will look and function the way it’s intended. Clearly, our federal government today neither looks nor functions correctly.
Keeping our citizens informed and helping ensure that our government functions as intended is the primary purpose of Convention of States Action. The Framers provided us with the instructions to follow in case our government began functioning outside of its constitutional authority. It’s our duty as active citizens to follow the instructions. Learn how you can participate by visiting https://conventionofstates.com/take_action.
In liberty,
Brett
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