The president doing . He is the president and . I tc constitution as it was intended to be applied. And the president s in america have operated outside of the realm of their executive authority constitutionally speaking for decades. So, to judge donald trump for me is not to judge him against obama or merge w bush. In your view have adhered to the constitution. Guest it has been a long time since we had a president that was truly constitutional. Look at article ii of the constitution, that is the delegated authority for the executive branch. When we look at that we realize how little power the president has especially autonomously, i show my students you look at the constitution, article 1, the powers delegated to congress, article 2 delegated to the president and article 3 delegated to the judiciary. In america we gravitated more toward an allconsuming executive rather than an executive in service to the legislative. What we have now in america is a bit of an aberration of what the president ought to be and we think president is a leader of america. He is not the leader of america. He was never intended to be the leader of america. The president was intended to be an ambassador in Foreign Affairs. You can see that when you look at the powers that were delegated. The president is not the designator of war. He is not the controller of our troops unless constitutionally speaking there has been a formal declaration of war by congress. You ask me which president s, which one had a declaration of war by congress . World war ii. Every military action that has been led by an executive since world war ii were unconstitutionally done so. We have a president not allowed to make deals, he can only make treaties. Those treaties are only accepted if confirmed by two thirds of the senate and are consistent is article vi section ii of the constitution demand with delegated authority of the executive or legislative branches. What we have been is this expansion of president ial power, which is contrary to the intent of the framers. Our framers made the president a very small position relative to the legislative on purpose. Alexander hamilton wrote a paper we call the federalist paper 69. There was a great deal of discussion about the office of the executive. The designers of our Constitutional Republic were concerned that they just achieved independence from a monarchy. They did not want to establish a new government and create a new monarchy. It was an option. I dont know how many remember from their civics classes but there was a point in time where people were begging George Washington to be king. We were this close to being the kingdom of america. But our founders said we are not going back to that system. This is a Constitutional Republic and how do we ensure the executive does not transmute over time into a king . The federalist paper 69 is a great source and understanding not only what the power of the executive branch is but why it is so limited. B19 how did we get to be point of no war declaration since world war ii, is a congresss false . It rests on the people. Samuel adams said no people will tamely surrender their liberties or be subdued when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved but on the contrary, and debauched in their manners they sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign invaders. What we have seen in america is decline in the importance in the study of the proper role and placement of the federal government and human nature dictates that people will gravitate towards a more powerful government to take care of their needs and provide them with more comfort and government will always accept more and more power. So congress has a great deal of responsibility in the expansion in the power of the executive branch by unconstitutionally delegating authority to the president to exact through legislative acts, we have a good example, the last president ial election. What i did was took president ial candidates that stand the green party, independence, republicans, democrats, libertarians. What i did was took their published platforms into and compared with each other as is popular. What i did was compare each of their platforms individually to the constitutional role of the president. What i found was the promises president ial candidates were making our promises outside of the authority of the office of the executive. The president does not have the authority to raise or lower taxes. That is a power reserved to the house of representatives. The president cannot take care of our troops financially, he cannot expand troops, cannot withdraw troops, that is a power reserved to the legislative branch. What i realized is all of the promises president s were making were responsive to questions asked by the people. Will you do this for us . That is what the whole website thing is. Yes, we will do this for you. I will do this, i am making this promise but if the people were better educated, better understanding of the proper role of the executive we would ask better questions that are in tune with the delegated authority of the president. In that vein i think president s become who the people want them to be. Host your most recent book, sovereign duty, you write, if you will explain this, the Central Government as a creation of the constitution, is not and cannot be a party to the constitution. Let me say that again so you dont miss it. The Central Government is not a party to the contract, it is a creation of the contract. Guest one we need to remember about the formation of the federal government, in the sovereign duty book and the class i teach that you cover on cspan, we go through a whole timeline. The states are the first creation of the people and that happened on july 2, 1776, with the ratification of the lee resolution. From the creation of the state through the authority of the people. The states came together and said we need to form a consideration of states, need to form a union for our mutual protection, from foreign invaders, we must form this union to be a unified voice in Foreign Affairs for treaties and commerce and peace and war, we need to form an alliance between the states for a more peaceful interaction between the states. The states were formed as independent sovereign governments. When you read the writings of the designers of our Constitutional Republic through the federalist papers, antifederalist papers, ratification of notes James Madison took, you see the terms state and nation interchangeably. When we speak of the state of virginia, new hampshire, rhode island, they also referred to germany, france and spain as states as well. What we have to understand is we created 13 independent sovereign governments with the same authority and political function as germany, france or spain. They said we need to make this unified voice. We have looked through history, how europe works and need to fix the things that are not right over there. Through that, we will create a Constitutional Republic bringing a confederation of the states and the constitution itself will create the federal government. The federal government did not exist until the constitution was ratified. Not only that, there was a precarious moment prior to the ratification of the current constitution where we didnt have enough states to ratify. It was a pretty scary moment for those designing the constitution to we might not have a union at all. If that were to happen in the constitution were not ratified, then there would be no federal government. What we also have to realize is the constitution is a contract. Contract law speaking, when you have a contract you have the parties to the contract. The parties to the contract are the people who come together to make the terms of the contract, negotiate the terms, design the contract and ultimately sign the contract into legal being. In our Constitutional Republic, the states are the parties to that contract. There are some who teach that the constitution is an agreement between the people and the federal government. That is not true. It cant be true. We can show that to be false by one simple fact. How was the constitution ratified . Was it ratified by popular vote . No. It was ratified by three quarters of the states. The states, being the ratify is of the constitution means they are the party. Some also try to teach that the constitution is an agreement between the states and the federal government. That is a temporal impossibility. The federal government did not exist until the constitution was ratified. You cannot be the party to a contract when you are the product of the contract because you cannot sign the contract into legal being until if you dont exist until the contract is already signed. The only parties that existed that could be the creators of the constitution are the states. The federal government did not exist until the constitution was ratified which makes them the product. The states are the creators of the constitution. The constitution created the federal government. Therefore the states are the creators of the federal government. Host july 2, 1776, to september 17, 83. 1787. Host when the constitution was ratified. Guest we had the articles of confederation in between, but they proved to be faulty on several aspects. When you read the notes to the ratification debates and correspondence with other, you read the greatest problem with the original articles of confederation was the federal government was operating outside of its boundaries and didnt have enough direction. The greatest problem we were having at that time was the federal government was making in equitable treaties. What they were doing was making treaties with governments in which one state or one set of states had to provide all of the resources and a separate state got all the benefits so the states having formed this union with the understanding it is supposed to be mutually beneficial who are having to do this were thinking wait a minute, this is not why we signed up, to transfer our wealth to another state so we are not going to comply with this treaty. Which is a really big deal. Not only is a treaty an agreement, it is a contract with a Foreign Government so our state who were refusing to comply with these treaties, they were right to resist because the treaties were in equitable for members of the states. Were making the Foreign Government mad, breaking the terms of contract, plus the states that were supposed to get the benefit were mad at the states that wouldnt pay. We have a problem in the articles of confederation. Our confederation got split and we just got started because we were about to go to war on conflicts, with Foreign Governments, which is why we brought together the new convention to create our constitution which is why it is called the more perfect union. When we dissolved the articles of confederation there is no more federal government and the only government that exists either the states and there would never have been a new federal government had not our current constitution been ratified. Host from your book reclaiming the constitution published in 2011 you write a common reframe is we fell asleep but that means our ignorance of the history that brought us our american liberty allowed tierney to sneak up on us. However, that was not the case for our fathers. Guest when we take the big picture, and i mean the full scope of the history of our american Constitutional Republic, we have to realize that it didnt begin in 1787. That liberty was not invented in 1776, tierney was not invented by george iii. When i teach a class called the genealogy of the constitution which is covered in the not a living breathing document book, what we do is take the 700 years of history that give us our declaration of independence, constitution and bill of rights and it is this history proves to us that our constitution is built upon timetested principles. They are not invented. When you know that history, there are five documents that were written, they are called the british liberty charters. With those five documents you find every single aspect of our declaration of independence and constitution and bill of rights. Not even justin principles, sometimes in the very language themselves, taken from those documents. We didnt invent anything in our foundational documents. We inherited everything and it is that history proves to us this may surprise some people, everybody who attended this class or read that book, there is nothing new in america. This is not a brave new world, there is a popular belief the constitution is irrelevant and inapplicable to today because our founders couldnt know what we are seeing today. When you study that history, you see that we are just repeating the same scenarios over and over throughout time even today. The same stories, same people with the same interaction of government, just different faces, better technology. History always repeats. Of the theme of the not a living breathing document book is those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. Host Krisanne Hall, you mention the classes you teach, where do you teach . Guest i teach all over the country. This is year number 7 for us. We 19 who is this . Guest my husband with the family, my husband, jc and my son colton who has been traveling with and teaching for 7 years now. He is 11. He is quite the traveled young man. He has been to almost every state in the union to include alaska but not hawaii. He is praying for that one and been to four countries and so what i do is i travel around, we teach on average over 260 classes every year in 22 states. We dont solicit for classes. People email us and contact us and say come and teach us. I teach high school, middle school students, college students, we teach civics groups, business groups, bar associations, law enforcement. I taught the legislators of ten states from the sovereign duty class. We will teach anybody. When we teach these classes, some who conceived fallacies have to teaching the constitution doesnt label me in any certain group. What people find is it doesnt matter on what political side you stand. The constitution is relevant to everyone. I taught a National Conference of physicians and surgeons, that was very exciting afterwords. These are not people you would generally carrying around their pocket constitution. They were so excited about what they learned. That is what we find when we travel around and teach. This is an empowering message for all people, and inspirational message that overcomes a feeling of powerlessness americans have today in view of how their government operates. Host do you charge these classes . Guest we have no speaking fees. Host how do you pay for it . Guest we have airplane tickets, rental cars, food, hotels. We never had a speaking fee, never required anybody to compensate us for our travel or our expenses. We do this as a mission of our heart, we are not independently wealthy, we have never received a grant from anyone. But we work on private donations, 20, 30 a year and sale of the book and we are not out to get rich. This, our family is a family of missionaries. When we are not teaching the constitution of the United States, we are missionaries to have that service. The best way i heard somebody describe us as missionaries to the people in defense of the constitution, we work solely by faith and for seven years it works. Host from your website and your bio, i was raised a democrat, the more evil thing than satan is a republican in my home, i was an environmentalist, ardent environmentalist, some of my best friends were members of greenpeace and i supported the World Wildlife fund and peta and i was a vegetarian by ideology not for health reasons, for almost 15 years. I believed in Global Warming and defend it vigorously. I believed in the big bank and openly criticized those who believed in creationism as ignorant and misled. I supported abortion and often openly condemned others for being prolife. I have argued with abortion protesters on street corners and called names that i am not proud of. I was not only not a christian but practiced many other religions including many occult versions. I was better against god and felt only ignorance, week people needed faith. Too intelligent, too educated. Guest i have come along way. We 19 what happened . Guest i didnt have an epiphany moment. With the transformation process for me and it began, starting at the beginning in my household there was nothing more evil than a republican, satan himself. It was a politically active household. My parents, my father and his father and all his brothers are union people and so our political ideology came from that union born, union fed and when we die we are union there really was no other choice. In that paradigm there was also a very strong work ethic. So if you want to be the person you need to be you need to be somebody who is willing to work hard and put in the time and effort. My dad is one of the hardest working people that i know. I put myself through school, student loans, worked really hard. I graduated with a degree in biochemistry, didnt graduate with delusions of grandeur. I realized i had to start at the bottom and work up. In doing so, i noticed the paycheck, coming out of the paycheck. Paying taxes with your fair share, to take care of the elderly, take care of the orphans, take care of the disabled, people who cant take care of themselves but as i am looking around noticing, my Community Around me, noticing that the same people who werent working when i went to college are still not working not because they cant but because they choose and make choices not to. I didnt think that was the definition of fair because if taxes were about fairness than the people who work hard, who have sacrificed to put themselves in a better place would pay less taxes. I started thinking about that, i dont have a problem with charity. I have a problem with them and telling me i have to be charitable and to whom i have to be charitable to. Taking care of widows and the disabled, that is the people of the community to do that. I dont believe that is the role of government to take from me and give to whomever they choose and that is not fair. When i had a family i began to realize it is not the government wiping noses and cleaning up sick and latenight. It is not the government administering the discipline and it is not the government that is ultimately concerned on what kind of person my child would become. That is a responsibility that falls on me and my husband. It doesnt take a village to