Executive power, because it is unilateral power, can be frightening. This is why the President’s most important power is to faithfully enforce duly enacted laws, and not to unilaterally make law.
When Presidents and Governors issue unilateral decrees, liberty is in grave danger. We have just lived through a year when Governors in certain states literally shut down churches & schools, and ordered free men and women to lockdown and stay home. These Governors also decreed which businesses were essential and which were not essential. In some states, Big Box Stores and even Casinos were deemed essential and allowed to be open, while churches were deemed non-essential and ordered closed.
I never thought I would live to see the day when church doors were padlocked by government officials and people were arrested or punished for worshiping on Easter. Although most of these Governors were acting under legislatively-granted “emergency” authority, I cannot recall one Governor who went to the Legislature and asked it to validate his or her emergency restrictions on the most fundamental liberties of a free people. For a season, America was no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.
But we got a glimpse into what life is like when a King or Queen rules us by decree. For me, this past year was an object lesson, a learning moment that illustrated the critical importance of the “veto points” built into the Constitution to protect us from concentrated power. I will never forget this lesson. How about you?
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