The American system of government is designed for balance – but not the New Age, silly Jedi, harmony above everything, Eastern style mysticism, tossed salad approach to philosophy kind of balance. More like the Mutual Assured Destruction kind, minus the nuclear weapons or bloodshed – a very difficult but important balance of power where one power is a check on another.
It’s a LOT more complex than what they bother to teach in school. Yes, the three branches balance against each other just like your teacher said. But states also balance against the Federal government. Local versus state. Majority versus minority. It’s like an orchestrated waltz where everyone knows where they can and cannot step and everyone else makes sure that they don’t step where they shouldn’t.
It also resembles one of those guys at the circus spinning plates on poles. One or two are easy enough – but twenty? How do you keep all the factions spinning without any crashing – or anyone deliberately crashing them?
Enter one of humanity’s greatest documents – the United States Constitution. Is it perfect? No, of course not – it was written by men, after all. But it’s pretty danged close for humans. Powers are artfully balanced against each other by allowing each branch and each power control of some matters and not of others. To actually get anything done requires getting the cooperation of other powers – which has the added benefit of putting brakes on legislative and executive power. It’s a terrific system with only one really big flaw.
Us. That’s right, you and me. To have a working government of the people requires that the people show up for work at least some of the time. The ultimate brake on Federal and State power is us – but we don’t do that job particularly well when we decide politics is something for others to care about and that we don’t need to keep our eye on our government.
But the system is designed the exact opposite – it works best when we DO watch what our government is doing. It’s okay to be concerned about specific issues and not all issues – what’s not okay is to ignore how government itself is doing its job. Running a government is like running a household – no one wants to vacuum or do the dishes but that’s the price we pay to not have pests. Supervising our elected representatives is the price we pay to not have corruption – and the payment is overdue.
No, it’s not hopeless – far from it. And we are not helpless – quite the opposite. But we cannot continue to be complacent in our assumptions that our elected officials are doing what’s right – especially when they trample on the rights of others to do it.
This is OUR government. Yes, it’s pooping on the carpet and it bit the neighbor – there will be some training to do – but it’s ours and it must answer only to us. The first step to regaining control of our government is the obvious one – pay attention to what it is doing and tell it no when it does something bad.
It’s really that simple and most of the time actually that easy. We don’t get to use a rolled up newspaper on our representatives – we have something they fear far more than that: the ballot box. But to know what to put in that box we have to do out homework, pay attention – and tell our government exactly what we expect.
