Many Americans for many reasons, have concluded that our government is failing, or has already failed.  But how many of us have read the Owner's Manual recently, or even read it in the last ten years?

Two recent issues point out the dangers of operating, or trying to understand, American government without reading the Owner's Manual.  The new issue is the 4-3 decision of the California Supreme Court, requiring the establishment of homosexual marriage in that state.  The continuing issue is the war against terror, in Iraq or elsewhere. The Owner's Manual is, of course, our Constitution.

The first question is: who owns the United States of America?  It seems like an obvious question. But when you ask it, answer it, and think about the answer.  Some critical conclusions follow.

We were all taught in the third grade or thereabouts that "the people are in charge in the USA."  Later, we get the phrase, "popular sovereignty."  The Declaration of Independence declares that "governments ... derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."  The Manual agrees: In Article IV, Section 4, it says: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a Republican Form of Government...."

That has nothing to do with the Republican Party.  Political parties are not mentioned in the manual.  Political parties did not exist when the Constitution went into effect in 1789.  And the Framers warned us against the dangers of political parties (then called "factions") in the ''Federalist, Number 10.''

The meaning of "Republican ... Government" goes back to Aristotle’s ''Politics.''  It means government by representatives who were elected by the people.  Although most of us today use the shorthand of calling the United States a "democracy" (from which the Democratic Party drew its name), the Manual tells us that is wrong.  Pure democracy means direct action by the people.  Half of the states have this in their constitutions.  But the Owner's Manual for the United States was written without direct democracy, nor have any amendments included that to date.

Choices of what went into the Owner's Manual, or not into it, from 1787 through 1992, are all deliberate.  Later in this series we'll get into details such as separation of powers, checks and balances, etc.  It’s enough for today’s two issues to know that legislative power belongs to Congress and the state legislatures, and that only Congress has the power to declare war.

In the California decision mandating homosexual marriage, four members of the court took unto themselves the power of the legislature to pass laws creating or changing public policy.  The three dissenting judges had the theory of government correct in saying that, whatever the merits of the intended policy, it is not the business of judges to create that policy by force.  Unfortunately, those state judges had the bad example of five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Texas sodomy case.  There, the justices, by a one-vote majority, also invaded the province of the legislature.

Concerning the war on terror, various politicians, press, and pundits have claimed that the Bush administration has no legitimate power to prosecute the war.  Again, it is a matter of reading the Manual. Article I, Section 8, clause 10 gives to Congress alone the power "to declare war."  It takes only a Joint Resolution; the president doesn't sign that, and cannot veto it.

Then it’s a matter of checking the gauges.  Congress did declare war, through a Joint Resolution Authorizing the Use of Military Force ("across international boundaries").  That was folded into the Patriot Act, 18 September, 2001.  For those who claim that isn't a real Declaration of War, the language is nearly identical to that used by Congress in 1805 to authorize President Jefferson to attack, and defeat, the Barbary Pirates.

Once Congress has declared war, then the president’s powers as commander in chief, kick in. (See Article II, Section 2.)  Those powers remain in effect until Congress ends the declaration, or ratifies a Treaty of Peace.

So, these are two, major issues which are easily understood, if we just read the Owner's Manual.  It is also a good idea for the press to read the Owner's Manual from time to time.