Thoughts On Government: Part III

So the night we returned to town we were driving along the freeway and saw a car with a sticker on saying "History is Our Story."  The O's were of course that sickening fascist O.  We both groaned.  There are apparently plenty ratfucker zombies out there who still think the black Blago is going to change Washington and make it work for the people, and all the other bullshit lies he told.

So what's the thrust here?  His story is our story?  I got news for you asswipes.  Most people did not get to go to privileged private schools and Ivy League schools.  Most of us did not serial rape democratic process to gain elected office, and then use each position to elevate ourselves to the next one.  What will it take before the zombies wake up and realize that the shit my dog took in my yard is doing a better job managing our economy than Martin Luther Lincoln Jr. Jr?

Time and again our founders warned us what would happen if the people did not educate themselves regarding democratic process and principle, the machinations of their republic, and the character of those aspiring to run it.  Congratulations America for proving them right.  You elected a nitwit that you know nothing about, and swoon over his historic nature.  Here's a news flash assholes; electing a corrupt lying sack because he's half Black is not historic.  It's fucking stupid.  If John Adams came back from the dead I would personally drive him to the home of each of the 67 million idiots who voted for Pampers so he could punch each one of you in the stomach.

And for those of you still laboring under the misguided notion that Congress cares, Congress listens, Congress is insuring your safety and happiness, blah blah blah...one need only look at the fact that the Senate voted to pass Douchulus, despite the fact that overwhelming numbers of us are against it. Are you ready to move to dissolve this Congress yet? Let me know when you're off the fence. Ask yourself what it will take to get you pissed off enough about the criminality of Congress, and the Executive for that matter, to actually do something. Will your house have to be seized? Your child drafted? Your assets frozen? What??? It's not as if you're not paying attention.

Speaking of being punched in the stomach by John Adams, here's part 3 of Adams' Thoughts On Government.  He's going to be getting into the nitty gritty of the structure so read carefully.  See anything you like?  We're going to have to overhaul the bullshit we have now so take a look and see what you think.

A representation of the people in one assembly being obtained, a question arises, whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one assembly. My reasons for this opinion are as follow:--

1. A single assembly is liable to all the vices, follies, and frailties of an individual; subject to fits of humor, starts of passion, flights of enthusiasm, partialities, or prejudice, and consequently productive of hasty results and absurd judgments. And all these errors ought to be corrected and defects supplied by some controlling power.

2. A single assembly is apt to grow ambitious, and after a time will not hesitate to vote itself perpetual. This was one fault of the Long Parliament; but more remarkably of Holland, whose assembly first voted themselves from annual to septennial, then for life, and after a course of years, that all vacancies happening by death or otherwise, should be filled by themselves, without any application to constituents at all.

3. A representative assembly, although extremely well qualified, and absolutely necessary, as a branch of the legislative, is unfit to exercise the executive power, for want of two essential properties, secrecy and despatch.

4. A representative assembly is still less qualified for the judicial power, because it is too numerous, too slow, and too little skilled in the laws.

5. Because a single assembly, possessed of all the powers of government, would make arbitrary laws for their own interest, execute all laws arbitrarily for their own interest, and adjudge all controversies in their own favor. [Blog note: President Adams, looks like it can happen with a bi-cameral legislature as well...please come back and help put the genie back in the bottle.]

But shall the whole power of legislation rest in one assembly? Most of the foregoing reasons apply equally to prove that the legislative power ought to be more complex; to which we may add, that if the legislative power is wholly in one assembly, and the executive in another, or in a single person, these two powers will oppose and encroach upon each other, until the contest shall end in war, and the whole power, legislative and executive, be usurped by the strongest.

The judicial power, in such case, could not mediate, or hold the balance between the two contending powers, because the legislative would undermine it. And this shows the necessity, too, of giving the executive power a negative upon the legislative, otherwise this will be continually encroaching upon that.

To avoid these dangers, let a distinct assembly be constituted, as a mediator between the two extreme branches of the legislature, that which represents the people, and that which is vested with the executive power.

Let the representative assembly then elect by ballot, from among themselves or their constituents, or both, a distinct assembly, which, for the sake of perspicuity, we will call a council. It may consist of any number you please, say twenty or thirty, and should have a free and independent exercise of its judgment, and consequently a negative voice in the legislature.

These two bodies, thus constituted, and made integral parts of the legislature, let them unite, and by joint ballot choose a governor, who, after being stripped of most of those badges of domination, called prerogatives, should have a free and independent exercise of his judgment, and be made also an integral part of the legislature. This, I know, is liable to objections; and, if you please, you may make him only president of the council, as in Connecticut. But as the governor is to be invested with the executive power, with consent of council, I think he ought to have a negative upon the legislative. If he is annually elective, as he ought to be, he will always have so much reverence and affection for the people, their representatives and counsellors, that, although you give him an independent exercise of his judgment, he will seldom use it in opposition to the two houses, except in cases the public utility of which would be conspicuous; and some such cases would happen.

In the present exigency of American affairs, when, by an act of Parliament, we are put out of the royal protection, and consequently discharged from our allegiance, and it has become necessary to assume government for our immediate security, the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, treasurer, commissary, attorney-general, should be chosen by joint ballot of both houses. And these and all other elections, especially of representatives and counsellors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, "where annual elections end, there slavery begins."

These great men, in this respect, should be, once a year,

"Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return."

This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.
This mode of constituting the great offices of state will answer very well for the present; but if by experiment it should be found inconvenient, the legislature may, at its leisure, devise other methods of creating them, by elections of the people at large, as in Connecticut, or it may enlarge the term for which they shall be chosen to seven years, or three years, or for life, or make any other alterations which the society shall find productive of its ease, its safety, its freedom, or, in one word, its happiness.

A rotation of all offices, as well as of representatives and counsellors, has many advocates, and is contended for with many plausible arguments. It would be attended, no doubt, with many advantages; and if the society has a sufficient number of suitable characters to supply the great number of vacancies which would be made by such a rotation, I can see no objection to it. These persons may be allowed to serve for three years, and then be excluded three years, or for any longer or shorter term.

Any seven or nine of the legislative council may be made a quorum, for doing business as a privy council, to advise the governor in the exercise of the executive branch of power, and in all acts of state.

The governor should have the command of the militia and of all your armies. The power of pardons should be with the governor and council.

Judges, justices, and all other officers, civil and military, should be nominated and appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of council, unless you choose to have a government more popular; if you do, all officers, civil and military, may be chosen by joint ballot of both houses; or, in order to preserve the independence and importance of each house, by ballot of one house, concurred in by the other. Sheriffs should be chosen by the freeholders of counties; so should registers of deeds and clerks of counties.

All officers should have commissions, under the hand of the governor and seal of the colony.