#1373 Separation of Powers
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2020
⏱️ 60 minutes
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Summary
This week, we speak with President Jefferson about the separation of powers: the division of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers enumerated in our Constitution. Jefferson explains the responsibilities of these separate and independent bodies, and how they can limit excesses in government.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good Day Thomas Jefferson Hour podcast listeners and thank you for listening. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to the New Year. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm sorry to say we dive right in. |
| 0:10.1 | You know this has been a disquieting period and during Christmas, all of us, I hope, sort of turned away from the national catastrophe that we are unfortunately in, but with the coming of the new year we have no choice but to look at this. |
| 0:25.7 | There will surely be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate in 2020, and there will even more |
| 0:31.7 | surely be a national election on November 3rd 2020 and between |
| 0:37.4 | now and then we Americans are going to need all of the historical clarity that we can possibly get. |
| 0:43.6 | I'm worried. |
| 0:44.8 | I'm deeply worried. |
| 0:45.8 | I don't think I've ever been this worried in my lifetime and as you heard, David, in the |
| 0:52.1 | essay that I wrote this week, I think we're likely to lose either |
| 0:55.3 | way that there's no good answer to this. |
| 0:58.3 | I think the best point you made in your essay well in our discussions was this is not about the current president. This is about the |
| 1:07.3 | republic, how the Constitution stands, how it works. And I think we need to remember that it isn't about a |
| 1:16.9 | particular individual it's about our form of government. |
| 1:19.7 | Yes so it is and it isn't about Donald Trump. |
| 1:23.0 | If Donald Trump were... |
| 1:24.0 | Well, you said he precipitated it. |
| 1:26.0 | He precipitated it. |
| 1:27.0 | His behavior has precipitated it. |
| 1:28.0 | But he's behaving in a rut that has been well worn by recent presidents. |
| 1:34.0 | Recent presidents have increasingly taken on more power than the founding fathers intended |
... |
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