If prominent people tell a lie
enough times, again, and again, and again, then the public lie becomes accepted
fact, a cultural myth. So it is
with the three coequal branches of government lie. It will be defended. It serves a purpose: False confidence in
constitutional government.
Joel S. Hirschhorn -- World News Trust
May 14, 2009 -- Americans need a civics
lesson. And so do politicians. Of all the wrong and delusional thinking
about the U.S. Constitution, the one that is most thoroughly incorrect and
routinely used for political propaganda purposes is that there are three coequal
branches of the federal government.
You hear presidents, members of
Congress and media pundits say it all the time. They are wrong. Nowhere in the Constitution or the
Federalist Papers is there any statement or declaration that the three branches
are coequal. Why has this myth
persisted for so long? Why do so
many prominent and supposedly educated people keep invoking this outright
lie?
Make no mistake. Neither in theory or practice is there
any basis whatsoever for believing that the legislative, executive and judicial
branches of the federal government are coequal. It also defies common sense.
Historical analysis has always
shown that the Founders, if anything, intended for Congress to be preeminent,
and not the President and the executive branch. For example, only Congress has the
constitutional power to remove the President and other high officers of the
executive branch as well as the judiciary, but the latter cannot remove any
member of Congress. And Congress
has control of raising and spending government funds as well as the power to
overrule any presidential attempt to veto legislation. That Congress does not always choose to
fully exercise its constitutional powers does not remove them.
As to the Supreme Court and the
whole judiciary, they function only as long as Congress provides funds, the
executive branch provides security, and both choose to obey court
decisions. More importantly, the
Supreme Court does not act on its own to enforce the Constitution, even when the
President and Congress disobey it, but it could.
It is time for Americans to stop
and think. In what exact ways are
the three branches coequal?
According to the dictionary coequal means resembling each other in all
respects. But ridding the culture of constitutional myths seems awfully
difficult, especially since Garry Wills published his excellent book “A
Necessary Evil” a decade ago, which artfully exposed a number of them.
In particular, presidents seem to
like talking about the coequal branches of government, including Barack
Obama. In January 2008 Obama said
this in a speech: “No law can give Congress a backbone if it refuses to stand up
as the co-equal branch the Constitution made it.” Do presidents really want coequal
branches? I think not. But they want Americans to keep
believing in coequality, because it sounds good and adds an aura of respect for
government that politicians desperately want.
In reality, presidents with the
most political power want others with far less power to feel good. They want to keep the public believing
(incorrectly) that the president is very limited in power. If George W. Bush proved anything it was
not just that he created the imperial presidency, but that over time the
presidency has become a mostly unchecked, pre-eminent and over-powerful
government force. They have
accumulated far more powers than ever envisioned by the Constitution. By regularly invoking the false
coequality of branches argument and its derivative checks and balances thesis,
presidents intentionally spread the propaganda to safeguard an all-powerful
presidency and executive branch.
Meanwhile, Americans are largely
ignorant that Congress has refused to honor and obey an important constitutional
option in Article V: a convention of state delegates that could propose
constitutional amendments, despite over 750 applications from all 50 states for
a convention. It is their way of
preserving exclusivity for proposing amendments and presidents say nothing
because they fear amendments curbing their power. The Supreme Court does nothing because
it likes amending the Constitution through its decisions.
Understand this: Having distinct
constitutional responsibilities does not make branches coequal. The myth of coequality protects our
delusional democracy and makes a mockery of our constitutional republic. If people really want coequal branches
then they should start thinking about a constitutional amendment to make it
so. Alternatively, we need Congress
and the judiciary to act with far greater strength and conviction to use their
constitutional powers and more effectively constrain presidential powers.
If prominent people tell a lie
enough times, again, and again, and again, then the public lie becomes accepted
fact, a cultural myth. So it is
with the three coequal branches of government lie. It will be defended. It serves a purpose: False confidence in
constitutional government.
[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn
through delusionaldemocracy.com.]