The American Political System Explained in 10 Minutes [VIDEO + TRANSCRIPT]

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The American system of government is ideologically based upon classically liberal republicanism. Historically, this stemmed from the colonial-era Committees of Safety as well as the original Committees of Safety in England during the English Civil War of the mid-17th century. This republican form of government was first codified within the Articles of Confederation, and subsequently, into the United States Constitution.

Thanks to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and their socialization of the war debt, the federal Constitution established the framework for the operating structure of the central government, which is composed of three branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The legislature writes the laws, the executive enforces the laws, and the judiciary interprets the laws. You probably recognize each of these branches as the United States Congress, the United States Presidency, and the United States Supreme Court, respectively.

These three branches of the federal government are constructed as such so as to provide for a separation of powers, which in England, had been originally concentrated in the monarch, and then later distributed between the English monarch and the British Parliament only; uniquely, the American system of government decentralized political power even more so, as intended by the Framers. This separation of powers also enjoys checks and balances, which means that if one branch becomes tyrannical, then one or both of the other two can act to halt the misbehaving branch from getting too much out of control.

You must keep in mind that the separation of powers are not just horizontal, but also vertical, by which I mean that each American government has its own three branches, generally speaking. State governments have their own legislatures, governors, and judiciary; county governments have commissioners, sheriffs, and courts; municipalities (that is, city governments) commonly have city councils, mayors, and judges.

Yet, the reality of the situation is that the three branches of the federal government (the Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court) begrudgingly cooperate with each other. For example, the President can propose laws to the Congress and the Congress will pass those laws because it will allow them to not only keep their seats, but also bring pork (that is, stolen loot) back to their own congressional districts. Similarly, the Congress can delegate to the President some of their enumerated powers that were reserved for their use only by the Constitution, such as instead of declaring war, the Congress delegates to the President a loose “authorization” to send troops to kill overseas with no identifiable enemy or goal being declared at all, in blatant violation of the Constitution. Lastly, if the Supreme Court and their “inferior Courts” simply rubberstamp everything that the Congress and the President do, then there is certainly no separation of powers, because not only do these judges refuse to perform judicial review, but they’d rather exercise constitutional avoidance by dodging the constitutionality of a matter brought before them for a ruling decision.

According to the Constitution, these public servants acquire their public offices in noticeably different ways. Supreme Court judges are nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate; judges of both the Supreme Court and the “inferior Courts” are not elected. Article I says that the Congress, which is a bicameral (two house) legislature, are elected to their public offices, but the original intent of the Framers conducted these elections in noticeably different ways. The House of Representatives are popularly elected by the voters within their congressional districts; just to be clear, by the concept, “popular vote,” I mean the purely democratic function of the citizenry casting ballots for candidates who upon winning their respective elections, assume their public office. However, the Senate were elected or appointed by the several state legislatures, yet unfortunately, this was altered by the ratification of the 17th Amendment, which means that now federal Senators are popularly elected by voters. Before, the citizenry were incentivized to care about whom was elected to be their state legislators, because they in turn would choose the U.S. Senators. This change is not insignificant because it centralizes power in the federal government, thus regressing the American Experiment to more closely resemble monarchical old England.

Uniquely, the U.S. Presidency is the only public office that is specifically enumerated within the executive branch. The Constitution says that the President is not elected by the popular vote, rather he is elected by the Electoral College, which is composed of electors who are appointed by the several state legislatures. According to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in In Re Green, 134 U.S. 377 (1890), the judges ruled that:

“The sole function of the presidential electors is to case, certify, and transmit the vote of the State for President and Vice President of the nation. Although the electors are appointed and act under and pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, they are no more officers or agents of the United States than are the members of the state legislatures when acting as electors of federal senators, or the people of the States when acting as electors of representatives in Congress.”

Put simply, the delegates of any political party simply do not matter, because they do not elect any candidate to become the President; that constitutional prerogative belongs solely to the electors within the Electoral College. According to the United States Constitution Annotated, which is published by the Government Printing Office:

“Electors constitutionally remain free to cast their ballots for any person they wish and occasionally they have done so.”

To briefly recap, Supreme Court judges are nominated and confirmed by the President and Senate respectively, hence the importance of Senate Confirmation Hearings. The entirety of the Congress is now elected by the popular vote. The President is elected by the Electoral College whose own electors are appointed by the several state legislatures.

Americans have come a long way from their origins as codified in the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence. Today, according to constitutional law, your individual votes only count towards electing Congressmen and Senators; so, unless you are also going to vote state legislators into their public offices as well, then you have absolutely no influence whatsoever in who becomes the next President of the United States. Should you decide, however, that you do not want to place your freedom in the hands of either the federal Congress or “your state legislature,” then please consider cancelling your voter registration today. Visit www.tinyurl.com/cancelvoter for more information. Thank you for your time.

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Kyle Rearden started The Last Bastille Blog in 2011 since he thought the blogosphere would be more conducive to his study of a wide variety of subjects within the alternative media. From 2009 - 2012, his former YouTube channel amassed over 127,000 total upload views with 150+ videos; and between 2012 - 2014, his blog has received approximately 81,000 total views. Currently, he is the creative consultant for Liberty Under Attack Radio, a co-host of Behind Enemy Lines, and records the Liberty Intelligence Files alongside Alex Ansary.