We The People

By Christopher Penrod

The United States of America is at its most dangerous point in history thus far.

Consider exactly how large and far-reaching the federal and state governments and their power have become. Consider our system of checks and balances between the three separate and distinct branches of government, the Executive branch, the Legislative branch and the Judicial branch. Consider the fact that the United States Constitution is a document written to limit the three branches of government and maintain the bulk of the power in the hands of the People.

The system of checks and balances has failed.

We have the Executive branch writing executive orders and portraying those orders as law applicable to the People. NO! That violates the Constitution, it violates the system of checks and balances and should never have been allowed. The Legislative branch oversees making laws, not the Executive branch.

Worse. The Executive branch writes these executive orders and proclaims them to be law, bypassing the Legislative branch. It bypasses the Legislative branch and therefore is unconstitutional and CANNOT apply to the People. So, the People resist, rebel, and disobey the executive orders.

Bring in the jack-booted law enforcement goons at the behest of the Executive branch!

“You cannot disobey an executive order! It is the law!” They tell us, before arresting us and taking us to court.

Here is the real kicker. The courts…aka…The Judicial branch, doesn’t care that the Legislative branch was bypassed by the Executive branch. The Judicial branch backs up the Executive branch, allowing the system of checks and balances to crack. (Follow the money.)

How did this happen?

Because We the People, who HAD the bulk of the power, relinquished it by becoming lazy and complacent.

We stopped enforcing the system of checks and balances between the branches. We stopped participating in local politics such as City Councils and School Boards. We stopped attending political functions, rallies, fundraisers.

One of our largest and most detrimental faults?

We stopped taking jury duty seriously. 

Read the above sentence again.

One of our largest and most powerful tools as We the People is Jury Nullification. As a jury, we have the power to keep the Judicial branch in check. And with the Judicial branch in check, the other branches fall in line. If the Executive branch can’t win in court? They can’t pass off their executive orders as law and bypass the Legislative branch.

How many of you have been summoned for jury duty and think, “Shoot! Jury duty! Bleh! I don’t want to do that!”

Stop!

Don’t consider jury duty a distasteful chore. Jury duty is your chance to exercise power over the Judicial branch as a member of We the People. With jurors who have the Constitution firm in their mind during every trial, the unconstitutional actions of the Judicial branch come to an end.

Say, for example, you find yourself on the jury in a trial where the government is prosecuting a small business owner for defying an executive order written by the Executive branch and proclaimed by the Executive branch to be law. The Legislative branch was bypassed, violating the system of checks and balances, yet the Executive branch enforced their executive order and had the small business owner arrested for their defiance of the executive order. You, as a member of the jury, must determine whether the business owner is guilty of violating the executive order.

Here is where you have the power. Think about this. The business owner did defy the executive order, they aren’t denying that. They are denying the legitimacy of the executive order in the first place. The small business owner denies the Executive branch has the power to make law, as that power is in the hands of the Legislative branch. As a juror, if you find the business owner ‘guilty’, you are allowing the unconstitutional overreach of the Executive branch AND you are telling the Judicial branch that the Executive branch is allowed to do that and that they as the Judicial branch, are allowed to enforce it.

But if you found the small business owner ‘not guilty,’ you are sending a message to the Judicial branch that the people will not tolerate an executive order from the Executive branch being treated as law. You are sending the Judicial branch AND the Executive branch the message that for a law to apply to We the People, it needs to go through the proper branch, the Legislative branch.

With the Judicial branch in line, the Executive branch and their overreach come to an end. They cannot enforce unconstitutional executive orders on us without the Judicial branch. We the People are responsible for maintaining the system of checks and balances.

Stop making excuses. Stop being lazy. Stop considering your duty as one of the People a distasteful chore.

We the People do not want to hear every excuse in the book as to why you can’t show up. We the People aren’t interested in ‘Fair Weather’ patriots who only show up when it’s convenient for them, or when they feel like showing up.

We must restore the system of checks and balances from the ground up. There is no other peaceful way of saving and maintaining our Republic. The only way that will happen is if we show up and speak up.

We must stand up. We must be heard. And if they won’t hear us? We need to replace them with those who will.