I believe that our freedom here in America has been inversely related to a concept that is woven into every corner of our Constitution – yet never mentioned in the document -- the separation of powers concept. What do I mean by “inversely related”? I mean that the more we adhere to this separation of powers concept, the more free we become. The less we remember what the separation of powers represents, the less free we become. I quote James Madison on this topic in my 1998 documentary: “Impeach Clinton: Is it Justified?” [insert from film] This is what I mean when I constantly refer to the over consolidation of power – not only in the United States under our current president – but anywhere it occurs in world history. For example, what if the world would not have stood up against Hitler? This alliance of sovereign nations were able by great sacrifice to maintain the independence of smaller, sovereign nations, and thereby increase freedom to the average citizen. That’s why I stand against the European Union. It is a dangerous, velvet glove form of over-consolidation of power. It moves slowly in a boiling frog sort of way. For example, the United Kingdom is now awakening to the fact that over 80% of the nation’s laws are no longer in control of their Parliament. They are now made in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The counter argument you hear from the New World Order types who support this kind of over-consolidation of power is: “Well it will put a stop to the wars that have plagued Europe throughout its history.” Well, maybe, but at the price of a rapidly coming iron-clad dictatorship where the average person has no say in how they are governed – and, by the way – therefore will provide no buy-in to this form of governance. No, the nation-state should be the largest entity with political sovereignty. These nation states are connected by history for a number of reasons and if you love freedom, you have to support their sovereignty. In the U.S. Constitution, the sovereignty of the individual state legislatures was nearly supreme, with the exception of those powers specifically granted to the Federal government ONLY in Article 1, Section 8. So to sum it up, the Founding Fathers came up with a uniquely American concept that all powers came from God and were rained down equally on all people. [insert Bob Barr] Yes, the only powers that the states gave up to the federal government are laid out in just 442 words of Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Read it. It doesn’t take long. So, that’s why one of my guiding lights in all I do and all I write is this separation of powers concept where political power must be spread out to the maximum extent that is politically practical. Why “politically practical”? Well, for example, I’m a supporter of Direct Democracy as explained by the great Irish politician, Ben Gilroy. He believes that existing governments all have too much power. Therefore, he believes in recall, where any politician should be subject to being ejected from their office should a certain percentage of their voting electorate petition the government for a special election and then vote him out. Where “politically practical” comes in is you can’t have a special recall election if only 10 people –his ex-inlaws who hate him -- sign a recall petition. So Recall can be overdone. Too much recall would violate the concept of a republic, where we elect leaders to represent us. It would turn America into a pure democracy where everyone gets to vote on everything all the time. So, the first politician who promised to give each citizen a $10,000 a month allowance would instantly be kept in office forever. This, of course, would be the ultimate fear of the goldbugs - that hyperinflation would soon follow; and in this particular case, they would be right. So there have to be limits to freedom. Everything needs to be tested by practical experience. Certainly today, everyone would agree that government is getting too strong. You will never see rioters in the streets of any nation on earth today chanting “give our government more power.” What they all essentially chant is give the people back some of their God-given power. So, I always go back to the separation of powers concept to when I’m confused. In order to be free, governments must accept separate-but-equal power blocs struggling within each nation state – struggling for the most fair, reasonable solution to every issue. Violating this concept is a one-way exit to dictatorship. People today complain about our “do-nothing“ Congress. Well, to me, “do nothing” is an acceptable category for a national legislature in a freedom-loving sovereign nation. Their job is not to make every law they can just to look busy. Their job is to make just the laws we absolutely need to increase freedom.

• published: 20 Jul 2015
• views: 115