I got into a debate with my staunchly conservative, Republican father the other night. He was adamant that the president has more power than the other branches of government. He tried to convince me that the president did not have to abide the laws legislated by Congress, and that he didn't have to honor the legal rulings of the Supreme Court. We went back and forth and round and round, never moving beyond our partisan bickering. My moderate (so he claims) brother joined my father in trying to convince me of this theory of unitary executive. I was not moved, but I also could not develop any argument to move them.
Today, I was thinking about that heated discussion. I set aside my partisan hat and thought about how best to relate why I do not advocate such a theory.
Then it hit me.
And it was a question of why?
Dear Dad,
Why? Why would you give your own power away? Why would you give more power to one man that represents you, than to the other three that represent you?
In our constitutional system of government, there are four people that represent you, the president, your senators, and your representative. You advocate that the president has more power than the others, and as a result you give away the leverage you have with your other voices in government. The loudest voice you have in our government is that of your congressman in the House of Representatives. The representative with the smallest number of people being represented is your greatest voice. Your representative in the House represents a fraction of the people in your state. In the South Carolina 3rd Congressional District there are approximately 730,000 people. You are one in 730,000. Your Senators represent everybody in your state. South Carolina has over 4 million residents. Your representation is 2 in 4 million. The president represents everybody in the nation, almost 300 billion.
Where is your voice loudest? Where is your vote the most powerful?
In my opinion, it is your representative that represents you best, and is thus your greatest strength. Your vote carries more weight in the election of your congressman. Your senators represent you as well, but you are a much smaller part of what they represent and your vote is much more diminished in its power. The president is your representative, but you are but a speck of what he represents. Your vote is but a fraction of a drop in the bucket.
Why do you advocate giving your greatest power to someone else? Why do you advocate diminishing your own voice in our government?
We, the people, are this country's greatest asset. I advocate that the people be heard. I can hear them much more clearly in the voices of the House of Representatives than I can in the single voice of one man. It's much easier for me to differentiate the opinions of the people when they are separated and spoken by many voices, than when they are mixed together and distorted by the opinions of a single man speaking.
Power to the people...and the people are best represented by the many...not the one. Your vote, your opinion, YOU are best represented in the House of Representatives, so why would you advocate diminishing that? Why would you advocate diminishing your own representation?