I was watching a YouTube video the other day about how most people play Monopoly wrong because they don’t read the directions and it made me think of the Constitution.You see, like the directions to the game of Monopoly, our nation was set up with a set of rules called the Constitution. It describes the players, the three branches of government, how they can move, and what they can do. And just like Monopoly, almost no one in the United States bothers to read the directions anymore; they just play the “game” the way they’ve been told. While the penalty for playing Monopoly without following the rules are a longer and more boring game, “playing” United States without following the rules takes away your rights, your freedoms, and installs a tyrannical government.
Hyperbole you say? I’ve already documented several myths about the Constitution, rules we play by that are not in the rule book. Myths like all three branches being co-equal, judges serving lifetime appointments, and the people electing the President. How could these “fibs” about the rules for our nation lead to tyranny? Let’s look.
The idea that all three branches of the federal government are equal makes a very important change to the way the “game” is played in Washington. The rule book, that is the Constitution, says that the Congress is most powerful, the courts are least powerful, and the President is focused primarily on foreign affairs. So what happens when we treat all three branches as equal? Then we have court opinions being called “the law of the land” even though the courts are forbidden from making law. We also have the courts “ordering” the executive and sometimes even the legislative branches, when they have no authority to do so. I’m referring to presidential budgets, tax plans, spending, and policies, when the President has no authority to create budgets, tax plans, spend money, or create policy. Worst of all, the branch of government that represents the people and the states, the branch that is supposed to be most powerful, does almost nothing to control the other two branches, which is a power specifically given to it by the rule book. We are no longer a nation of laws, but a nation ruled by an oligarchy of kings and queens in black robes, dispensing law based on their own opinion while often disregarding the rule book and our rights. So yes, this is against the rules, but since nobody reads them anymore we all play the game wrong. You may say there are powers the court won’t take from Congress, but that’s only because our lords and masters have decided not to. The way the United States is run now there is no power to prevent the court, created as the weakest branch of government, from doing whatever it wants.
While we’re on the subject of the courts, where does this idea that federal judges serve lifetime appointments come from? It certainly isn’t in the rule book:
The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour
United States Constitution, Article III, Section 1
All federal judges hold their office only during good behavior. Who determines good behavior you ask? Congress does. The House of Representatives, the representatives of the people, decides whether they believe the actions of a judge is good behavior or not; this is called an impeachment. The impeachment is then sent to the Senate, the representatives of the states, to try the case and determine if the judge has violated the standards of good behavior. If the Senate determines the judge’s behavior is not good, then they convict on the impeachment and the judge is removed from office. This fabricated rule that judges serve lifetime appointments removes the check that Congress has over the judiciary and moves the balance of power from the elected representatives to the now unaccountable branch of unelected judges. Do you want your life in the hands of a branch of government not accountable to the people of the United States? This is called an oligarchy, and by it’s very definition is a tyrannical form of government.
The last fib I will cover today is the idea that the people elect the President. I know, I know, every four years you vote and you think you’re voting for President, but if you look closely at your ballot you’ll see what you are actually voting for are electors who vote for President. And every four years there’s another call to abolish the electoral college in favor of a popular vote for President. All because we think the people vote for President, when in fact the states do, and for some very good reasons. This violation of the rules has led generations to believe that the President is there to provide for, protect, and generally implement what the people want. However, a quick look at the rule book shows that the only things the President is allowed to be involved with is representing the states in foreign affairs and heading the military when in war. Placing the power we have been taught the President has in a single person creates a king, not a President. A king that can dictate policy, create law, spend money, and go to war, all without the representatives of the people or the states. Does that not sound like a king? Does that not sound like a tyrant?
If you wonder why Washington is such a mess, why Congress is so dysfunctional, why the President is so polarizing, why the courts are clogged, and why the bureaucracy is feared, it is because we are playing the “game” of United States without following the rules. And since we play by made up rules. we now have a situation where the people fear their government. They fear what it can do and are often unsure if it will protect their rights. According to Thomas Jefferson, that is the state of tyranny:
When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny
Thomas Jefferson
So when was the last time you picked up the rule book for the United States? How long will you continue to play by the wrong rules and head us further towards tyranny?
