The Reality Of Politics

The parts of the government has been likened, perhaps appropriately enough, to a three ring circus. But since I have used a mechanical metaphor, I'll continue along those lines. Part one I would consider the engine that moves the whole thing and that is Congress. Congress has the responsibility of making the laws and policies by which we the people agree to be governed. Congress is made up of the officials that we the people have elected into those haloed offices to serve within the allotted time frame in a manner which, hopefully, closely resembles our own thinking, ideals, morals and beliefs.

The House Of Representatives makes up one half of Congress. This is made up Representatives, who serve for and are elected every two years, one for every thirty thousand people, for each state. Obviously this means that some states, which have a greater population, will have more representation in the House. This is only offset by the rare possibility that Congressional Representatives in one area of the state would vote differently than another representative in another area of that same state.

The Senate is comprised of two representatives from each state. A Senator serves for six years and the one with the most seniority is to be considered the senior of the two. Senate elections are held every two years. This means that there will be times when New York is holding an election for one Senate seat while say, Texas isn't holding any elections for the Senate.

Written within the Constitution of the United States are eighteen specific powers that are entitled to Congress and seven limitations. There are only three prohibitions placed on the individual States and are placed there for the preservation of the Union of the United States. These prohibitions prevent any state from performing any of the functions of Congress.

The sum of this is considered the Legislative Branch of the government. It determines what laws shall need to be made, provides for the defense of the Union, prints money, collects taxes and regulates trade with foreign countries.

Then there is the mechanism that steers the whole thing and that is the Judicial Branch. This consists of all judicial panels appointed by the appropriate authorities, the president and or state governors, that interpret said law on a trail by trial basis. It is not within the legal boundaries of the Constitution for a member of an appointed court or an entire sitting court to create law from the bench. It is only within the authority of the court to interpret and enforce the law.

This means that the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of any law can solely be determined by the people who are governed by said law, namely the citizens of the United States. We've seen this in effect with Prohibition.

Therefore, it is in "we" the people's best interest to continually appraise ourselves of the laws that our elected officials are constantly proposing and passing in Congress. So many of us, myself included, are guilty of believing that since the guy we like agrees with us on issue 'A', he agrees with us on every other issue. And more often than not, that really isn't the case.

The third and final part of the government is the part that determines the direction that the whole shebang is going to ultimately go, the Executive Branch. This consists of the officers that are the figureheads of our government. They are the most visible components of the machine and represent us, "we" the people, to the rest of the world as well as to ourselves. When you get mad at the government, chances are the face you have in mind is the President, Vice-President, Sec. of State, or some other Head of Office. When you cheer the government, and sometimes it does happen, we cheer for the head guy in office.

This is the face of our government. This the part of government that heads the efforts to interact with the rest of the world, whether it be through trade negotiations, peace treaties, financial or military aide or by means of military might, withholding financial aide, cessation of peace talks or trade agreements. These are the people who are elected to make the hard decisions.

These are the parts of our government. They were contrived and assembled in a manner that prevents any one from being or becoming more powerful than the others. The President appoints the Judges of the Supreme Court, a lifetime appointment which prevents the following administrations from undoing what the previous administrations did. The President also can veto any bill passed by Congress. Congress can defeat a Presidential veto, but the process is very difficult and more often than not fails.