What happened to “By the people, for the people?”
Apparently, in England, back in 1384 John Wycliffe claimed to have translated the Bible including this sentence “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.”
But I don’t think that sentence was ever in the Bible. But he probably was the originator.
‘This Bible’ referred to his creation. He was saying that his version, including ‘By the people’, was inspired by whatever original text he was using.
The concept was later plagiarized by Lincoln, Theodore Parker, Benjamin Disraeli, Daniel Webster and many others..
Does it really matter?
As I See It the use/misuse of the so-called ‘Executive Order/Presidential Proclamation’ is the last straw.
Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution instructs presidents to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.”
Nowhere does it say that presidents, governors or any other politician has the authority to make laws!
President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 10340, which placed all U.S. steel mills under Federal control. The Supreme Court ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority because he attempted to make law.
Perhaps the most famous of all executive orders was President Lincoln’s proclamation to end the Civil War, which, incidentally, ended slavery. In fact, had the Confederates surrendered, they would have been permitted to keep their slaves, as happened in those states which did surrender (but that’s another story!)
President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the detention of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans. (NOT illegal immigrants).
President Ulysses S. Grant created the so-called Indian Reservation system which forced Native Americans from their Ancestral Homes to extremely inhospitable areas that nobody else wanted.
President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233 which gave him the power to block the public from seeing presidential records by requiring both the former and incumbent president to approve their release.
More recently, the Federal government forcing citizens to get injected with an unproven chemical concoction.
In Florida, a Governor/Dictator over-ruling local School Board decisions with no vote by our representatives..
The list goes on.
We, The People. My understanding is that ‘eligible voters’ (who have changed over time) get to vote for representatives, who form a government which enacts and enforces laws on our behalf.
That might have been acceptable, in the past, when ‘we the people’ were home, unaware and ‘uneducated’ on the ‘issues’.
As I See It, times have changed. Most of us have educated opinions on issues large and small.
But, it might be a problem that so many people, including readers of this column, make it clear that any opinion different from theirs is ignorant ‘BS’.
The question I have not seen discussed is, “Do politicians, by law and expectation, represent just the people who voted for them, or all their constituents, or the population of their state, or everyone in the USA, voter or not?”
‘Representative Democracy, as now practiced, disenfranchises the voters.
Examples include, among others, uncontrolled boarders, abortion rights, a tax system which favors the rich and the poor, and extorts the working middle class.
How much power, if any, do ‘we people’ have to control our borders, while, at the same time, protect women’s’ rights?
As I See It, there is no candidate for those voters. What if the vast majority of Americans support those two policies?
‘Representative Democracy’ dictates that they have to choose – one or the other.
Republicans will protect our borders but deny women’s rights. Democrats the reverse.
Is it time for us to demand the right to vote?
Not to vote for corrupt politicians, whose career in unethical immorality is their priority, but for those issues which are important to us?
Is it now time for “Government of the People, by the People, and for the People?”‘til next time . . . .
