 James Madison, author of the U.S. Constitution
The Very Definition of TyrannyDear Friend and Reader: In tonight's edition, I quoted James Madison in a slightly different form: "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." The word "is," previously in brackets, fell out due to some translation issue. What you have above and in the revised edition is the full quote. Madison is the designer of our constitutional system. He included what he called "checks and balances," which specifically means co-equal branches of government that can check one another, and a bicameral legislature that takes a series of extra steps to get anything made into law. We are about to have a government where the executive, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court will be majority controlled by the Republican Party. These people have an agenda, and they have been waiting for decades for this condition to arise. There is quite literally nothing except a large meteorite that could stop them. There is no higher authority in the nation or on Earth. In Federalist #47, Madison quotes the political philosopher Montesqieu, describing the problems of non-separated powers: When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or body," says he, "there can be no liberty, because apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws to execute them in a tyrannical manner." Again: "Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor." Some of these reasons are more fully explained in other passages; but briefly stated as they are here, they sufficiently establish the meaning which we have put on this celebrated maxim of this celebrated author.So, there you have it. We really need to put some Republic back into Republicanism. As Madison said elsewhere, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." Lovingly,  Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday and Thursday evening in Kingston, New York, by Planet Waves, Inc. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Special Project Designer: Lizanne Webb. Finance: Jonathan McCarthy. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Astrology Fact Checker: Len Wallick. Copy Editor and Fact Checker: Jessica Keet. Eric's Assistant: Gale Jazylo. Client Services: Amy Elliott. Media Consultant: Andrew Ellis Marshall McLuhan. Music Director: Daniel Sternstein. Additional Research, Writing and Opinions: Amy Jacobs, Cindy Ragusa and Carol van Strum.
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