Power without checks and balances leads to tyranny

From the notes of James Madison, taken at the Constitutional Convention Monday June 4th, 1787

In regards to the discussion of the Executive:

Dr. Franklin ... The first man put at the helm will be a good one. Nobody knows what sort may come afterward. The executive will always increase here, as elsewhere, till it ends in monarchy.

The Polybian political cycle, mentioned below, is a continuous transformation of governmental power between political entities. Political power has regions of stability based on the people's acceptance of the current social contract. Instability occurs when the social contract is violated, or when it is perceived as being violated.

Polybius in writing about the Roman constitution under the republic, outlines a series of checks and balances between the branches of government. Between the time when Polybius wrote on the Roman constitution and the investment of Octavius as the first Principate, a series of political struggles ensued where individual violated the social contract embodies in the unwritten constitution. The intellectuals in Rome understood that the violations where occurring, but rationalized each based upon the necessities of the time. The abuses of power became ever greater over time until the Roman republic tore itself to shreds and collapsed into monarchy.

This history of the Roman Republic illustrates my concern with the abuse of executive power under Bush and Cheney. Prior usurpation of citizens rights by the executive occurred in times of a congressional declaration of war or during the Civil War. A declaration of war acts as bookend, holding in the usurpation of political rights and marking the period with a clear beginning and ending. Our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, indeed the whole "war of terror," are extra-constitution, that is to say; done outside the framework of the constitution.

To give o the executive the monarchical powers; to examine the conversations and correspondences of citizens without judicial warrant; to declare any person the enemy of the state; to imprison individuals without the right of Habeas Corpus; is tantamount to tyranny.

Dr. Franklin spoke the truth, without limitation on executive power, "The executive will always increase here, as elsewhere, till it ends in monarchy."

Chaney has argued that the executive has "monarchical powers." This is true if you accept the argument that the executive is sovereign, but it is not. The executive derives power from the Constitution, therefor it is the Constitution that is sovereign, it is the Constitution that is the State. We can only maintain our Republic if the Constitution is obeyed, both in letter of the law and in spirit. In our Republic, it is the constitution that must remain sovereign.