An Open Letter to The Congress of the United States
By a Concerned Citizen :
The Wisdom of our Founding Fathers is seldom
doubted by Citizens of the United States, and rightfully so. They, having lived
under despotism, desired greatly to avoid instituting a government which would lead
their new nation to it. They took incredible pains to insure that we would not ever
have to endure that unpleasantness.
Today, we find ourselves in circumstances which the Founders wished
us to avoid. We have an Executive Branch which has rendered the Legislative branch
almost irrelevant. The President has decided to legislate using the device of 'Signing
Statements' - simply saying that he does not have to obey any law or part of any
law he so choses to modify by this device. We have an Executive Branch which simply
refuses to answer any questions put to it by the Legislative Branch, whose responsibility
it is to oversee the operations of the Executive - claiming 'Executive Privilege'
on even the most mundane of inquires. We have a Judicial Branch which simply follows
the will of the Executive without question, as if it was subordinate to the Executive,
and not a co-equal branch of our government. The Executive Branch chooses to put
forth the most un-American of concepts - that of a 'Unitary Executive' - a polite
euphimism for a dictator (who is also a 'Unitary Executive' !)
I remind you of the words of our nation's first President, George Washington,
who warned us of this very situation in his farewell address to the earliest citizens
of this then new nation :
"It is important, likewise,
that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted
with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional
spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon
another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers
of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government,
a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness
to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us
of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise
of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories,
and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by the others,
has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country
and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them.
If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional
powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way,
which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation;
for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary
weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which
the use can at any time yield."
--- George Washington, in his farewell address.
It is
this fear and concern which prompts this letter to you now. We have been warned.
Unless Congress acts immediately to recover the power and responsibilities
invested in it by the Constitution, it will lose them forever,
and, the citizens whom you represent will find themselves living under the very
despotism of which our first President spoke. If you are waiting for this administration
to end, believing that the problem will end there, then you are being niave. Power
once obtained by the Executive Branch, will not be given up by it so easily, and
allowing this behavior without consequences to the Executive Branch will set a dangerous
precedent that will not be easily undone. Other Presidents will be able to assert
the same behavior, citing this Administration as precedent. It is absolutely
imperative that Congress act immediately and effectively to stop this
usurpation of power by the Executive to preserve our democracy and it's legacy,
as well as to prevent it's impending impotence. I am sure that no member of the
110th Congress wants to be remembered as a member of the body responsible (through
it's inaction) for the death of democracy in America.
I implore you to act now . . . before it is too late.
Publius - A concerned citizen.