Letter to the Editor:

The founders of our Constitution were careful to craft into their document the clear definition of the separation of powers between the legislative, the executive and the judicial branches. James Madison (considered the father of the Constitution) said, “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 Progressive era and particularly Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, set our nation on a path where Congress has delegated much of it’s legislative power to the many agencies of the executive branch. Barack Obama is taking this power to a new level. With this president, we may as well dispense with Congress. By selectively enforcing the laws he chooses and ruling by fiat with executive orders, Obama has essentially made himself king.

I don’t know if the failure to check this alteration of the Constitution is a result of timidity on the part of Congress and the Supreme Court or whether the result of a conspiracy to bring down our nation, but either way, the result will be the same. For all our celebration of freedom by song and action, I believe it’s true to say we are no longer the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

— Bill Payne, Libby