The U.S. Constitution is remarkable. It is a single document, comprised of seven Articles, the Bill of Rights – first 10 amendments – and 17 other amendments, that has stood the test of time for nearly 250 years. Configured into the structure of the Constitution is the concept of a limited federal government vested with powers intended to protect our territorial integrity and ensure our civil rights are preserved. Significantly, the document further lays out our multifaceted federal system of three branches of government, functioning independently but related to one another through the policies and principles of checks and balances.

The three branches of our Constitutional “family tree” are: (1) the Executive branch; (2) the Legislative branch; and (3) the Judicial branch. Success of each branch depends almost entirely on the ability of its agents and officers to work in an environment free from fear and favor, in other words uncompromised and not corrupted. Separation of and between the powers of each operative branch is the most basic and fundamental doctrine underscoring our Constitutional Republic. Our system of government is only workable when each branch is able to hold the other branches accountable for actions and usurpations.

The importance of maintaining this equilibrium has been understood to be a core undertaking as our nation keeps focus on accomplishing the mission of our democracy which is, at its basic, concentrating ultimate power in the hands of the people. Although tested throughout our history, at least since 1803 in the landmark Supreme Court case, Marbury v Madison, the approach has survived.

It is our civic responsibility to protect the independence of each branch through informed participation in fair and free elections. As American citizens, we must remain always vigilant of infiltrators with depraved hearts and perverted minds who operate under the cloak of morality and righteousness, and who are diligently encouraged through propagandists and vile hypocrites to destroy American exceptionalism and overthrow the integrity of our political institutions through intimidation, threats and chaos. When corrupted minds are afforded platforms of power, every independent branch of government is disrupted and all become susceptible to defeat. We must not allow the most vocal to silence and suppress the voices of the most faithful.

Editor’s Note: This article begins a three-part series on the three branches of government in more detail and how our system of checks and balances is a fundamental doctrine of our Constitutional Republic system of government.