How Our Government Was Set Up - Countdown 5 Weeks

Here’s one of my posts where I dredge up what I learned in high school civics class. Yes, I verified things on the internet, but I surprisingly retained the gist of the matter.

When our Founding Fathers began building the foundations of our government one of the things they wanted to be sure of was that there would be a system of checks and balances so that we never fell into the clutches of a dictatorship. Or worse.

The three branches of government in the US are, of course, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial. The Legislative Branch is Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and Senate. Their duty is to make the laws. The Executive Branch is the president, vice president, Cabinet, and most of the federal agencies. They are tasked with enforcing the laws. The Judicial Branch, or the Supreme Court, interprets the laws. Or that’s how it was all set up.

When I think of the two branches that are not the Supreme Court, I usually don’t see them dealing so much with the laws. Sometimes, honestly, I’m not sure what they are doing most of the time. Arguing, it seems like, if you follow the media. But I digress.

Of course, as you know, the American people elect the president and the members of Congress. Each state has only two representatives in the Senate, but the members of the House from each state is based on the population of each state. Sort of another system of checks and balances, a way to ensure each state has a reasonably equal voice in Congress.

No matter what all these people are doing, or how they got there, none of them is supposed to have ultimate power. For example, both houses of Congress must vote to enact laws, the president can veto those laws, and the Supreme Court can rule laws unconstitutional. Congress can override presidential vetoes and can also impeach and remove the president or a member of the Supreme Court.

Here’s the example on everyone’s mind right now. As you all know, one of our long-term Supreme Court justices passed away last week. The president has the duty to nominate her replacement, but that replacement needs to be approved by the Senate. In these days, where all that seems to matter in Washington is what political party you belong to – well – hard telling what will happen. It just makes me question if those checks and balances that our Founding Fathers instituted really work out so well anymore.

Which brings up the bigger question. Why do we have political parties? And why basically only two? George Washington hadn’t belonged to any political party and he had hoped they wouldn’t be formed, fearing they would only breed conflict and stagnation. Wow! What a smart man.

I don’t know. This is where my thought process hits a snag or where all the fuses in my brain burn out. I guess I will have to save this for next time – my thoughts on what our two political parties stand for. And a whole lot of controversy.