After three weeks of deliberation, negotiation, and nominations, in which conservative and moderate candidates were elevated and then rejected, every House Republican voted to elect Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the 56th Speaker of the House on Wednesday afternoon.
This is what our republican system of government is supposed to look like. The American people deserve transparency from their government, not backroom deals. The battle we’ve witnessed over the last few weeks within the Republican Party over who should be Speaker did not cause chaos and dysfunction, it exposed an already dysfunctional system that has been hijacked by powerful special interests at the expense of Republican voters.
The US Constitution opens with the words “We the people.” Section 2 of the Idaho Constitution proclaims that “All political power is inherent in the people.” The American people are sovereign, not subject to a ruling class that has authority to command us.
Elected officials, from city council members to congressmen, are not elected to rule, but to serve, to represent the sovereign people of this nation.
The election of a conservative like Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House is a small step in the right direction. The past three weeks have brought into the open how many of our elected representatives serve lobbyists and special interests rather than the people. How much time was spent debating foreign aid rather than the problems we face here at home? Border security remains one of our most glaring vulnerabilities, while the tragedies like the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and the yet unexplained catastrophic fires in Lahaina, Hawaii have already been forgotten.
The American people are waking up and demanding a government that is accountable to them, not special interests. Elected representatives who have been in office for decades don’t see what is happening in this country. They’ve become too comfortable as yes-men to their big donors.
You see it happening in Idaho too. Any legislator who stands up for the people can expect to be tarred, smeared, and attacked by special interests that think they own our government. But the people of Idaho have grown wise to this game. They’re looking past the slick mailers and TV ads and learning who the candidates are truly accountable to.
Our founders did not intend for us to live under a monarchy, a dictatorship, or an oligarchy. They gave us a republic, if we can keep it. The American people have the freedom and the awesome privilege to choose their own government, and then hold that government accountable. The fight over the Speaker of the House was the republican system of government at its best, not its worst.
One reply on “Government is designed to answer to the people”
You’re correct!
Humanistic government of, by, and for the people was designed to answer to the people. Case in point, the late 1700s biblically egregious Constitutional Republic born of the biblically seditious Constitution.
This, juxtaposed with government of, by, and for God designed to answer to God. Case in point, the early 1600s governments expressly established upon the Bible’s moral law, such as 1639 New Haven, Connecticut:
“…Fundamental Agreement of the Colony of New Haven, Connecticut, 1639: ‘Agreement; We all agree that the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in duties which they are to perform to God and to man, as well in families and commonwealth as in matters of the church; so likewise in all public officers which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we will, all of us, be ordered by the rules which the scripture holds forth; and we agree that such persons may be entrusted with such matters of government as are described in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13 with Deuteronomy 17:15 and 1 Corinthians 6:1, 6 & 7….’
“Almost as impressive as New Haven’s agreement are the testimonies to it and other similar documents:…
“Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835: ‘They exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found.
‘Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ … copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape were punished with death….’23
“America was exalted in the eyes of the world because of her applied righteousness, embodied in Yahweh’s perfect law. Since 1788, when the United States of America, as a nation, stopped following Yahweh’s laws and began following the laws of WE THE PEOPLE, our legislation has ceased providing righteous instruction to others. Instead, the rest of the world now holds America in disdain. If America hopes to regain her favored status in the eyes of the world, she must return to her original Constitution….”
For more regarding these two polar opposite forms of government, For more, see Chapter 3 “The Preamble: We the People vs. Yahweh” of free online book “Bible Law vs, the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at https://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt3.html
Then find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the sidebar and receive a free copy of the 85-page “Primer” of “BL vs. USC.”