In response to my last post, I have received some interesting feedback. I would say a mixed bag of comments about the post. Like the prior post, I note it is interesting how our emotional attachment and perspective of issues can affect our response to new information. I make no attempt to offend, but I also generally do not reserve my opinion for want of not offending either. I believe in personal ability, personal responsibility and the God given right of freedom. As such, while I am always willing to assist those who are working to improve themselves, and give willingly to charities that I am confident try to do the same, I feel no allegiance or affinity toward the inclination that our government has the responsibility of sustaining, creating or even supporting what has become a welfare state, approaching the social nanny state condition of much of our European counterparts. It is simply not what our country was founded on or intended to be.
So what is the role of government with regard to our daily lives? For the purpose of this post I will narrow the scope even further to what is the role of the President, and will return to the role of our government in a future post. The obligation of the President is fairly summed up in the oath of Office that is taken at each inaugural occurrence:
Each president recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Regardless of all the party and campaign rhetoric, the actual obligation of the President (and frankly most of our other federally elected representatives) is fairly straight forward. They are sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The President, being the head of the executive branch of our republic form of government is sworn to execute this responsibility from his office of head of the Executive Branch of our goverment. The role of each of the branches of our Republic form of government is specifically delineated and separate from one another. Each has a specific purpose and is restricted from intruding on the authority, powers and processes of the other. This fact is unfortunately lost on much of the citizenry of our nation and oft abused by those who are sworn as office holders. It is as important to understand what the role of the President is not, as it is to understand what his role is. Only with this understanding can one accurately assess the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the current administration and or any potential successor to the office. Let us first clearly separate the authority of the Executive branch from the Legislative, and Judicial.
First and foremost, it is necessarily noted that all branches of our federal government are exclusively bound to function, and empowered to act, only within the bounds and authorities afforded to them by the constitution of The United states of America. Only powers granted therein or have been since granted by amendment, which have been fully and completely ratified by the states, are available to be executed and only within the bounds of the specific branch and office of government within their specified roll and limited authority. No extenuating power or authority is legally available.
The President is not, and has no authority as a law maker. The authority and power of making laws is exclusive to the legislative branch of government. While the president retains a check and balance in the process of the veto, any attempt to unduly alter, go around, and or place in effect laws or regulatory powers not authorized by law through the legislative branch is an abuse of power.
The President also is not empowered to make interpretations of the law. The interpretation of law is exclusively the authority and power of the judicial branch of government. Any attempt to exact power or place any policy, regulation and or restrictive process by altering the specified language and or meaning of any law passed by the legislative branch is an abuse of power.
It is of critical import to note the language of the Oath of office of the President. He or she is sworn to “faithfully execute the office”, which is to perform his or her duties as exactly as possible, being faithful to the constitutional powers and authorities granted the office. Deviations from this exactness: “faithfully executing”, are a violation of the very oath sworn and cause for concern for each of us as free people, who are in no way meant to be subjects of an individual or government that would purport any powers not afforded them of the people through the constitution or the aforementioned amendment process.
If then, the President has no authority to make law, and no authority to interpret law, what then is his role and purpose? What qualities are necessary for a person to “faithfully execute the office…”?
The President is the Head of the Executive branch, only one of our equally empowered 3 branches of government. He holds no governing power over the other two and is restricted even in agenda to that which is afforded him in our constitution. Being head of the “Executive Branch” should indicate to anyone who has functioned in our free market economy at any supervisory level some indication of what the duties of the President are.
Having spent my corporate career in the private sector at various levels of management including holding executive level responsibilities for a worldwide publicly traded entity, I am very familiar with the purpose and processes of executive level management. Having served under several administrations and experienced various philosophies of executive management styles, I am also very familiar with those that are effective, and those that are less so. Having also served on various boards, commissions and councils including some federal government commissions, I have also experienced and noted the effectiveness or lack thereof of those charged with executive responsibilities in our government.
The qualities of leadership and skills associated with executive level management are quite interchangeable between government and business. We are after all people regardless of whether our emphasis is in the public or private sector. The primary quality necessary of a president is first and foremost to be an effective leader. As the one and only elected head (having selected a vice president who is elected in consort) the President is the single most powerful person in our government. Not that he is granted exclusive powers over the other branches of government, but in that the power of the other branches is divided among several or many where in the executive branch it is focused on one.
The role of the President is to lead. While he cannot create law or interpret law, he is charged with setting direction, He is the voice of those he serves and is charged with raising an issue and setting the direction for those who do legislate to pursue. With his cabinet, he has the obligation of carrying out the legislation and honoring the laws that are created by our legislators. He has the obligation of being able to work with and draw the disparate factions of the legislative branch together to effectively arrive at solutions that are consistent with the will of the people. Above all, the president is the elected representative and chief servant of the people.
Unlike other forms of government where the monarch, king, dictator or other ruler is supreme and the people are subject, in our form of government, the inverse is true. All power and authority is vested in the people and only granted to our servant representatives for the purposes that are outlined in our constitution. Did you see any other obligation or charge in the oath of the President? No, because there is none.
His role is not to host spectacular parties, create or foster social agendas, not to honor sports teams, or the myriad of other public relations stunts and feel good activates that are so popular in our government. Nor is his role to increase the power of the office, to find ways to work around congress, or ways to justify his own agenda. His role, as with our other our other federal servants, is to find ways to more efficiently: Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution.
How much of our government is focused in other areas? How much of the waste, expense, and unnecessary effort is spent in areas that have no bearing on the job which, by oath our President and other sworn federal servants are elected to execute?
We need a leader of integrity, that understand the role, extent of power and limitations thereof, who can, through inspirational dialog, garner support for those items of critical import to our nation. Those items that will strengthen our ability as a free people to live free from the tyrannical intrusion of government, be it our own, or the influences of others that would try to reshape our nation. We need a leader that is not the bully in chief or one that thinks because he is president he has a mandate to do his will regardless of the will of the people. His role is only to protect the freedom of the people by defending their constitutional rights.
We need a leader who understands that the power of our nation is based upon the willing investment and productivity of it's people. A free people who when enabled to excel will find the means to do so. The President’s job is to protect the environment of free enterprise such that a free people can flourish, that individual creativity is not squelched in a flood of regulatory obstacles. Above all the necessary quality required of our President is an understanding that the power of our nation is dependent on our ability to create individual wealth from which a portion is entrusted to our servant government to uphold and defend our freedom. It is the wealth of individual effort that enables our government to uphold our constitution and preserve our rights.
We need a leader who is a problem solver, one who can see inefficiency and misplaced effort, the misuse of the our wealth, entrusted by the people, whom the government is to serve, provided by the people only to protect their freedom. We need a president who can garner the support of others to stop, remove, and discontinue much of what has become a diverse federal bureaucracy focused not on the protection and preservation of the freedom of our citizenry, but on maintaining power and leveraging control of the processes of decision. We need a leader who effectively is an business efficiency expert, with a knowledge of, and will to do, only what he is sworn to. One who, along with his wisdom of restraint, has the character and charisma to enable him to set the direction of the legislative branch and lead his counterparts in becoming effective, efficient, and fiscally responsible with the wealth and entrusted. A leader who will narrowly focus on the charge he each swore to uphold: to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
We need a leader who understands the principals of government as outlined by our founding Fathers, one who believes in the exceptionalism of our nation! One that is truly a servant of the people in protecting that which has, for over two centuries allowed us to be free!
Who in the field of presidential candidates and or our current administration has the qualities necessary? Better yet who can be disqualified by merit of their public record? That will be the topic of my next post.
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