August 18, 2023
Biden's Criminal Enterprise
By Scott S. Powell
In creating a free and open system, the framers of the Constitution recognized that corrupting influence from foreign powers was a real threat. They were particularly concerned about a corruptible American president. In his famous Farewell Address of 1796, George Washington issued a stern warning against the poisonous influence of foreign governments on the affairs of the new United States of America. He said, "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence... the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government."
The Founders were idealists but also realists, and they recognized that people’s private ambitions and thirst for power or money were powerful motivators. They understood that the human condition was flawed, and that goodness of human nature could not be relied upon. So, they set up a system of checks and balances of power in the three branches of the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, and in a federal system of divided power between states and the federal government. They understood it was necessary to create these competing and redundant structures to guard against abuse of power and corruption. But they went even further.
The Constitution created two other safeguards against corruption in the impeachment powers of Article II, Section 4 and in the emoluments clause in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution. The latter prohibits any person holding a government office from accepting any present, emolument, office, or title from any foreign state without congressional consent. With these safeguards, the Founders believed they had created a governmental system better than any prior to forestall domestic public vice and the corruption that would come from foreign influence. Still, Washington’s Farewell Address of 1797 framed the issue in ways that are as relevant today as they were 227 years ago, when he wrote:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/bidens_criminal_enterprise.html
