Three Co-Equal Branches

Checks and balances. Checks. Balances. In the Constitution. Put there by our nation’s founding fathers. To guard the people then. And now. They knew. They knew from experience the infidelities of individuals, reaching for power, exercising power, whether legitimate or not. That is why we have the Constitution. It was the Founding Father’s hope and dream that our form of government would serve its people – us! – with truth, justice, and integrity. For the ages.

So, they built in checks and balances. Three branches of government – Legislative, Executive and Judicial. Each with its powers. Each with independence. Each with its purpose.

How aware they were. They had it right. The three branches of government have generally worked well together for many generations. They have had their difficulties, their spats. And yes, they have even had harsh times of condemnation of each other. Those times, though, have cooled and order restored.

Each branch will receive its complaints and verbal assaults in time. Each assault will be misunderstood to some degree; and on the mark at times. Skirmishes are expected as each branch stretches its limits. That’s how it learns the boundaries of its power. Each branch will do this. Has done this. Is doing so at this very moment.

Polite manners usually are demonstrated. Beneath the calm is creative tension that yearns to seek power from co-equals.

Mistakes have been made. In all three branches. Over time, however, the mistakes are abated and paved over. History will revisit the most important ones from time to time and alter their effect. This is sanding down the rough edges created earlier. It will work out in time. The Constitution makes it so.

Meanwhile, we the people must endure the struggles of the three behemoths as they engage in their bullfights. And we ought to egg them on to do their jobs. That is why we sent them there to do our business. They will not get along all the time, but they will work it out in time. If not, we have redress. And then it is only a matter of time before we have our say.

We did such in the Mid-Term elections. One of the three branches was given oversight that had been overlooked for two years. That will alter what the Executive Branch does and gets away with. But then the Judicial Branch will have hegemony over the Executive, and the Legislative Branch if it oversteps its boundaries.

It may seem slow to us. But it is deliberate. It allows the process to work. Carefully and rambunctiously.

Have patience. This too will pass. Hopefully with good results. But in time, always correct or corrected!

November 26,  2018