Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI190452B
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00:01 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider,
00:02 before the break with Greg Hamilton, 00:04 we were on dangerous ground. 00:07 We're talking to the... 00:09 to the very troubling situation 00:11 in the United States find herself 00:13 in by extension to the rest of the world, 00:14 because the US is a... 00:17 Beacon might be the wrong word, 00:19 but it's a focal point for lot of, 00:21 the economy and governance 00:23 and so on in the world at large. 00:26 And then, what I was wanting to bring out, 00:29 that on impeachment 00:30 what really troubled the framers in my view 00:33 was loyalty to a foreign power, 00:36 and they were scared because in their era, 00:39 you could have a loyalist 00:41 or a royalist sort of slide in and take the, 00:44 even the top job and not really be dedicated 00:47 to upholding this new republic. 00:50 And something clicked with me the other day, 00:53 reading one of my favorite authors, John Milton. 00:56 He wrote many, many things 00:58 and he was a political as well as a religious writer. 01:01 He was the chief political pamphlet writer 01:05 for the Cromwell era in the civil war they had. 01:09 And he also put his signature 01:12 to the death warrant for King Charles, 01:16 when they executed him. 01:17 And he wrote a large document called a book, 01:22 but it's not a long book, 01:23 called on the tenure of kings and magistrates. 01:27 And giving his argument 01:29 as to why a king who said that he was divinely put there, 01:33 that he had higher power that the lower tribunal, 01:38 the parliament could not, 01:39 did not have the right to even judge him. 01:41 We're hearing that talk again. 01:44 And he says, "Why did they take his head off 01:48 and what really clicked with me, 01:50 I've read it before but looking at it again, 01:51 I suddenly realized the language 01:54 is close enough to think 01:56 that a high school student could read from it, 01:58 it's close enough 02:00 to Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. 02:03 The logic there is why they cut loose 02:06 from the king of England. 02:07 Well, sure. 02:09 I mean it sounds like he drew a lot, 02:11 in terms of inspiration from John Milton's treaties. 02:14 Yeah, now, you know, John Locke 02:16 was almost a contemporary with Milton, 02:20 but followed him. 02:21 John Locke is been credited 02:23 with the lot of the ideology of the new republic. 02:25 But I really believed 02:26 and Locke was influenced by Milton. 02:28 Milton, how could, 02:29 the other was at a time of incredible dislocation 02:33 in the England civil war 02:34 with the religious... 02:37 It didn't start with the religious battle, 02:38 but it turned into religion as things always do. 02:41 Because when you have two factions 02:43 especially in the civil war, 02:44 one has to have the moral high ground, 02:46 so they invoke faith in God's and all the rest. 02:50 Right. 02:51 And I think, we're very close to that again. 02:54 Impeachment, people have their pros and cons, 02:56 the system will work through, 02:58 and all signs out that this will be a statement, 03:01 but not a... 03:03 So what you're equating that with is today's rise 03:06 of the imperial presidency essentially, 03:09 which is what our founding fathers warned against. 03:12 I mean, there's a number of books out there 03:14 by various scholars right now, 03:17 one by Peter Shane, 03:18 whose book is called "Madison's Nightmare: 03:20 How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy." 03:23 There is another one by Gene Healy," 03:27 The Cult of the Presidency: 03:29 America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power." 03:32 James Madison once wrote on Federalist Number 47, 03:34 "There can be no liberty 03:36 where the legislative and executive powers 03:38 are united in the same person or body of magistrates." 03:42 What's interesting about that to me is that, 03:45 not to change your subject but to me it demonstrates 03:49 that Congress are not the only legislators, okay? 03:53 The office of the presidency, the executive branch, 03:57 the executive office of the presidency, 04:00 he also serves as a legislator 04:02 because they can propose bills 04:04 just like governors can propose bills 04:06 or competing bills or maybe do bills 04:11 that basically tried to do the same thing 04:13 but a little differently. 04:15 So to make sure that at least one bill gets through, 04:17 that happens a lot. 04:18 So remember how, we have to remember 04:20 that the president has his own bully pulpit 04:23 to propose laws or to sign executives orders 04:27 and to pretend to speak in behalf of the people when, 04:31 which is interesting 04:32 because according to James Madison 04:34 and the writers of the Federalist Papers, 04:36 Alexander Hamilton, 04:37 John Jay, they said that the people, 04:40 the representative speak for the people, 04:42 okay, in Congress, not the president. 04:45 But that had, that changed a lot 04:48 with the rise of Ronald Reagan in essence. 04:51 And you could even date it back to John F. Kennedy, 04:54 where they pretended to speak for the people 04:59 and they used a bully pulpit, 05:00 especially the TV to say, 05:02 "Hey, I identify with your values, 05:05 even if it didn't line up with their values, 05:07 it persuaded a lot of people 05:09 to jump on board their point of view 05:11 and to get their agenda done. 05:14 And so that's been the big danger, 05:16 it's an evolution that has occurred 05:17 in our country's history that is basically media driven. 05:22 Now, you know, there's a separation of powers 05:24 and they're mandated by the Constitution. 05:27 And I think when the powers are not separated 05:30 and when the government is functional, 05:32 never gonna say it's dysfunctional, 05:34 but that's how it was planned. 05:35 They beat each other's throat 05:37 because there's not a primacy one or the other. 05:40 And I think when that happens, 05:41 we will not have separation of church and state. 05:43 We will have mandated religion. 05:46 I'm pulling across a long gap to get to that. 05:52 The president was never intended 05:53 to be a populous leader. 05:55 That was never intended by the framers, 05:57 and that's what makes the times we're living in so interesting. 06:00 So when I read a read a statement, 06:03 for example from someone 06:05 who is revered as a reformer, 06:07 Protestant reformer E.G. White or Ellen G. White, 06:10 she writes in a passage from Testimonies of the Church 06:14 for the Church, volume 5, page 451, she says, 06:17 "To secure popularity and patronage, 06:20 legislators will yield to the demand for Sunday law." 06:23 Well, who best puts forward that appeal or bully pulpit, 06:29 it's the president. 06:30 A populous president can do a lot of harm 06:35 to our constitutional system 06:36 and even overwrite it all together. 06:38 And that's what people don't seem 06:41 to understand right now, 06:42 that's what's happening with, 06:45 what's happening with Visa v Congress 06:48 and the impeachment trial of our current president. 06:51 Something that struck me the other day, 06:54 I've been reading the Constitution a lot lately, 06:57 and I wish for one of a broader description, 07:02 I wish more journalists would read it again. 07:04 I read plenty of articles 07:06 and I know, they haven't checked. 07:08 And, but it just hit me out of the blue, 07:11 that the Constitution doesn't talk 07:13 about people voting for president. 07:16 No, it does not. 07:19 And how many people read the Constitution? 07:21 I mean, that's just it, I mean... 07:23 All it says, 07:25 is that the electors appointed by the states 07:28 will determine who is president. 07:30 Well, and then, 07:32 and what brought about the Electoral College, 07:34 you just brought up a very sour point with me. 07:37 Now I understand the purpose of the Electoral College, 07:39 but if you really think about it, 07:41 it was a kin in the Constitution to, 07:44 to the three-fifths of a person clause, 07:47 okay, in dealing with apportionment 07:50 with southern states, saying, 07:51 we don't have enough population, 07:54 we've got all these slave plantations, 07:55 so therefore we need to count each slave 07:58 as three-fifths of person, 07:59 so we have equal representation in Congress, 08:01 as do the north, 08:03 to compete and have a same equal voice 08:05 as those in the north. 08:07 Well, it was the same thing with the Electoral College. 08:11 It was that we want small states 08:13 to be able to have as much of a voice 08:16 in determining the outcome of election 08:17 as large states, 08:19 and that was largely an argument 08:21 put forward by the south, okay, 08:24 during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. 08:27 And so, if you think about it, I mean we're now being told, 08:31 I mean President Trump won the election 08:34 through the Electoral College, 08:36 but he lost the popular vote by over three million votes. 08:39 Now they're saying, Mr. Silver of... 08:43 Uh, what is it? 08:45 958 or what's it? 08:46 What's that? 08:48 Poll and survey, a prediction of elections, 08:51 I forget what it's called. 08:52 Anyway, Nate Silver is his name. 08:54 Yeah, I know that guy. 08:55 But anyway, he says that 08:59 in the future presidents could win or lose 09:02 by as many as eight million votes 09:04 and still win the Electoral College. 09:05 Well, that doesn't matter, 09:07 this was never meant to be a numerical democracy, 09:10 it was a representative government. 09:11 Well, and some people say 09:13 that's a reason why we're Democratic Republic. 09:15 And I agree with that argument, except that in the modern era, 09:20 I mean, where does this take us? 09:22 And what... 09:23 To bring it back to the point I'm trying to make, 09:26 the dysfunction in government, 09:27 you and I didn't cause it, we can't personally solve it. 09:29 Right, that's true. 09:30 We're observers. 09:32 Yep, while we are voters. 09:34 Yes, in that minimal sense, 09:37 but I mean, there's a big issue at play. 09:39 Who are we in this program to wade in on the impeachment, 09:42 whether or not, whatever, it's not really our thing. 09:45 But when you mess 09:47 with the major structure of government, 09:50 a key element religious liberty 09:52 or the right of a government 09:55 to move across the line, 09:58 and force its will on people, 10:00 not through purely democratic means, 10:02 is enlarged in my view. 10:04 We're entering into an autocratic era. 10:07 President feels Congress is becoming autocratic. 10:10 They are impeaching him 10:12 because they believe he is autocratic. 10:13 And I think conscience and the individual 10:16 is a threat in this environment. 10:20 We're facing really troubling times 10:22 in our country right now, 10:24 and if anything our countrymen, our fellow Americans, 10:29 and I appeal to you is 10:31 that we need to pray for our president, 10:33 we need to pray for our country, 10:34 we need to pray for Congress, 10:36 we need to pray for our leaders, 10:37 we need to pray for ourselves. 10:39 We need to pray for sound reasoning and thinking 10:43 and also to hope and pray 10:47 that sound minds will prevail one way or the other. 10:53 Let's pray for justice. 10:55 Let's pray for our constitutional system 10:58 and let's pray for one another is my prayer 11:01 as a result of this discussion today. 11:03 Thank you. 11:10 I sometimes pity Daniel, when I think back 11:13 of what that great man of Bible history live through. 11:17 The dysfunction of Babylon arriving there as a captive, 11:21 he had to face of against an arrogant king 11:24 who had the power of life and death 11:25 over all of them. 11:26 And yet, when he saw the divine intervention 11:29 on behalf of Daniel's three friends, 11:31 he stole the God of heaven and says, 11:33 "Worship Him or I'll burn your house down." 11:36 There was a true believer. 11:38 And yet that fateful day 11:40 that Nebuchadnezzar stood looking over great Babylon 11:43 and he said, "This great city that I've built." 11:46 And after that heaven cut him down, 11:48 and for seven years he wandered like an animal. 11:52 I don't know how much of Bible history 11:54 in that regard we can carry forward to the day. 11:57 But in a dysfunctional political situation we live in, 12:00 we need to realize that it's not enough 12:02 to speak well sometimes of God. 12:04 There is a responsibility to rule 12:07 and to act rationally and responsibly 12:11 before our fellowmen and before God, 12:13 the ruler of the heavens. 12:16 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2021-02-08