Constitution Day a Reminder of Founding Fathers’ Vision for America
By U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
Each September, Americans celebrate Constitution Day. On Sept. 17, 1787, our Founding Fathers signed the U.S. Constitution, the most sacred document in our nation’s history. The Constitution established the three branches of our government and still to this day protects the rights of each American citizen. In the Senate, I work to uphold the intent of the Constitution every day. As President Abraham Lincoln once said, “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
As a member of the legislative branch, our Constitutional role is to write laws—we do not have the power or authority to enforce laws or interpret the laws. Those powers were given to the executive branch and the judicial branch, respectively, when the founders wrote the Constitution. Their goal was to create a separation of powers, so no one branch of government could accumulate more power than the other two.
A system of checks and balances was created to prevent tyranny. Keep in mind, colonists first came to America to escape tyrannical rule. So, when our Founding Fathers sought to establish a new government, they worked to make sure power could not be concentrated by an individual or even a few people. As an example of our system of checks and balances, the president has the authority to nominate federal judges and other executive branch officials, but he cannot simply “hire” them. They go through a thorough vetting process in the Senate to establish their qualifications for the job to which they have been nominated, including a full committee hearing, before senators take a vote on their confirmation.
I often think about the deliberations and challenges our Founding Fathers experienced when they were drafting the Constitution. They had differing beliefs and opinions about what the future United States should look like. But at the end of the day, they worked together, indulged the views of their colleagues and wrote the framework for our system of government that has lasted more than 200 years.
We can learn a lot from our Founding Fathers. In our current divided government, Republicans and Democrats disagree with each other daily. That doesn’t mean we can’t work to find bipartisan solutions to the problems we face as a nation. In fact, we do work together on many issues, most of the time! If we have a common goal, we can work together, and the one commonality we all share is that we’re Americans first and foremost.
We want to leave our country in better shape for future generations. We may just have different ideas about how to do it, and that’s alright. Like our Founding Fathers, I will continue to seek to build consensus, uphold the rights of American citizens as outlined in the Constitution and work to pass legislation that preserves the greatness of our nation for years to come.
###
South Dakota’s harvest season is behind yearly averages for nearly every metric. This is compounded by a trade war that has nearly halted soy bean sales and crucial industrial trade networks. To make up for this the Trump administration has given 4 billion of an allocated 14 billion to farmers that has mostly gone to massive agriculture conglomerates. The individual United States tax payers ended up paying 90 billion more in taxes in 2018. The median US income increased by less than one percent in 2018. There are 38 million Americans living in poverty. South Dakota has the worst rate for uninsured poor in America. The nation was a few months ago teetering on a possible war with Iran. The list could go on and on. And this is what we have come to accept from a sitting United States Senator? A meandering few paragraphs about the Founding Fathers so devoid of substance and any contemporary pressing matter that is honestly reads like a ninth grade term paper? This is an absolute embarrassment.
Let’s start with the assault on the First and Second Amendment Anonymous.
That’s more important than anything you said in your post.
Those are both under attack right now, and Rounds and the South Dakota legislature are fighting to protect them like our Founding Fathers fought for their freedom.
Tell me about it. When the president himself threatens violence against a whistleblower, that’s definitely an attack on the 1st ammendment.
Are you referring to the spy who got it wrong?
That’s treason. That’s in the Democrat play book.
What spy? When did the “spy” turn over intelligence to a foreign govt? Seems to me this person did the exact opposite being an American and turning over information to an American intelligence agency. You guys don’t even know what a spy is anymore.
Trump banned bump stocks and pushes red flag laws with our senator’s approval. This is the most anti 2nd amendment administration since Clinton.
What red flag bill is he in favor of?
or Reagan.
Man you are eating up those Lindsey Graham talking points eh?
I don’t get my information from Lindsey.
Are you able to discuss the issue or do you not know anything about it?
Remember in 99 when Lindsay said we have to impeach to return honesty and integrity back to the office of the presidency? Heck, he even stated then that a crime didn’t even need to happen if the conduct was deemed bad enough. These guys are fun to watch.
I will take that as a no.
Senator Rounds, the U.S. Congress has the power to check the powers of the Executive branch in its oversight power which you are failing to do with the Presidency of Donald Trump and its abuse of power. Or did they not teach you that in your political science classes in college; arguably the easiest course work at universities today, which explains a lot on your lack of understanding on the many issues that are critical to the health of this nation. If a blind impeachment vote would be taken, 35 Republican Senators would more than likely vote to convict this President per former Senator Jeff Flake, R-AZ. I would agree with Flake on this issue while in the past heavily criticised his retorts against this president. Times have changed with Trump’s behavior, his trade war, and too many more government malfeasance issues to name. Trump is not a Republican Senator Rounds and needs to be forced out of office for the sake of our party and for the sake of our nation.
Senator, other than your agriculture donors, you have ignored all others in South Dakota on the various harmful Trump policies that have hurt these populations in a non-statesmanship like manner. Senator, you have left and disgraced the Republican party with your adherence to the Trump behaviors.
Jeff, most all of Congress wants Trump impeached. The reason they won’t say anything is because it’s an election year, and they would be voted out of office.
Jeff,
Let’s talk about abuse of power.
Let’s start with sending a plane full of cash to Iran.
You up for that talk?
Yes, where were the Republicans in addressing that issue; yup, silent then as they are now. The Republican party has lost its way and are sending the wrong people to Congress and electing the wrong presidents. Rounds, Thune, & Johnson are three examples of uneducated non-experienced members of Congress that should not be there deciding our futures.
When has Thune or Rounds had a spine to stand up for the abuses of Obama and the damages his policies had on Americans? I don’t recall one other than their kowtowing to their large agriculture donors. In other words, they are one-trick Congressmen looking out for only their donor’s interests, be damned the money sent to Iran.
Jeff,
The blame goes to the Dems and the media. The Republican party is fighting against the lies now through Trump.
If you want to see uneducated people, just go read the Cory H blog.
There is no basis for impeachment Jeff. That is a fact.
President Donald Trump is a disgrace to this nation and to the Republican party and by his behavior he will be impeached by the House and we real Republicans are hoping the 35 US Senate Republicans that Senator Flake talked about will do what’s right for this country. Donald Trump, unlike any president in the history of our country, has turned the highest office in the land and the most powerful office in the world into a reality TV show with all the drama and childishness of a NYC mafia boss. You have to ask yourself if any president has ever called himself the “chosen one”, or “your favorite president”, and even the notation that he is “a extremely stable genius” (to name just a few) and if you are honest you would say that there is something strangely wrong with that person. You’d be right, Donald Trump is a sick man.
The Republican party today is divided from those who call themselves historical Republicans abiding by non-protectionism and anti-union idealisms and those that live on the far right fringe, usually uneducated and unworldly with an underpinning of white supremacy, who care only about themselves, living in rural areas like South Dakota while lacking the formal experience of mainstream Republicans. You are the ones that Senator Graham called “bat-s**t crazy when Trump started his outlandish behaviors during the 2016 elections and is why Donald Trump will get annihilated in the 2020 election. The other Republicans have given up on his behavior and lies and like myself have changed to the Independent party and most likely will not vote in 2020 or write in a candidate.
39 million people work in the U.S. trade industry and most of them are Republicans and Donald Trump has just s**t on them. Who do you think they are going to vote for in 2020? Trump is lagging by double digits in the four states he needed to win in 2016 while Florida is expected to go to the Democrats. Yes, your pal has just ushered in a far left socialist into the White House because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut or contain his narcissism and that will be very damaging to all Americans.
There is more than enough evidence to impeach Trump; and we real Republicans will help in doing so. And don’t reply that Donald Trump accomplished anything and if you do please explain what. When does he have time to work while writing thousands of tweets monthly most of which are attacks against his rivals. Please name any other president in U.S. history that has done that. He’s a disgrace to our country.
All Trump does is win. He’s playing the Democrats like a fiddle right now.
You are promoting for a dictator, not a U.S. president. You are promoting for a president to break the law inspiring chaos which he has. You are a member of the illicit party of Trump, and not the Republican party or as our founding father’s penned, a patriot. That you are not.
Asking a foreign country, Ukraine and now China, to investigate a political rival is a crime against our Constitution and the Federal Election Commission. Trump’s reign is over. The questions are if he will leave office voluntarily and whether he will be jailed.
Now he’s picked a fight with the European Union again on trade. Where’s his victory on North Korea, China, the border crisis, infrastructure, or health care? And he says he’s done more than every POTUS in history. Please name those successes.
You are being played like a fiddle by this mobster as is Rounds, Thune, and Johnson.
What law did he break Jeff?
Federal Election Laws on soliciting a foreign country to interfere with an US election. The director of the FEC has already come out and stated it and sent a letter to the White House. He has also committed fraud and bribery crimes, however impeachment doesn’t require a law to be broken and is decided by what Congress believes is wrong.
Both parties are corrupt. I believe Trump is pointing that out.
That would mean the Republicans in Congress like Thune, Rounds, and Johnson agree with Donald Trump that it is okay to violate US election laws in asking a foreign country to interfere with an American election. What if this was a Democrat, would the three aforementioned still maintain their silence? You are correct Tara, Thune, Rounds, and Johnson are silent to keep their jobs as career politicians which suggests that none are statesmen who take the interests of their country over self gain. Obviously, the SD three are more interested in maintaining their far right fringe voting block rather than their country. This is a dangerous precedent.
Jeff,
Link us to the exact law he broke.
Just Google the Commissioner of the FEC and do your homework. Violating US election law is a felony. Foreign interference with elections, by actions of a president, was a keynote theme by President Washington on his farewell speech and has subsequently been a core value of our democracy. Whether he will be indicted and convicted is another story due to the political infighting orchestrated by far right extremists which by your remarks you seem to be one of them.
I really don’t have the time to reply to cowards who won’t identify themselves.
I’m a far right extremist by asking you what law he broke?
He didn’t break any law Jeff.
Look it up and quit acting like a child like your hero, Donald Trump.
Justice Department Says Trump’s Ukraine Call Doesn’t Constitute Campaign Finance Violation
“The Justice Department determined the president did not commit a crime after prosecutors reviewed a rough transcript of the July 25 call.”
https://time.com/5685980/justice-department-trump-ukraine-campaign-finance/
Other legal scholars disagree and is up to the House to decide, not the DOJ. Stay tuned and learn. A crime doesn’t have to be committed for an impeachment to occur.
Btw, your article is over a week old and doesn’t back up any of your statements and there’s been zero response from AG Barr. We Republicans need to remove this child from the White House and anyone in Congress that supports him. For the sake of the party.
Not to mention he is asking communist countries to get him dirt on political opponents to influence our democratic elections. He is a traitor.
Jeff,
I’m trying to decide if you are more intelligent than the Democrats who post on Cory’s blog. It’s not looking good for you.
I’m conservative first and Republican second. If the Republican party leaves me, that is their decision.
First you say he broke a law, than you say you don’t have to break a law for impeachment.
The smart people know he didn’t break a law and we also know that the Dems will fail in their impeachment. They aren’t even going to vote on it.
It’s hilarious.