Check on Government Power

    The right to check government power is prevalent in today's society arguably more than ever. With the newest shipment of weapons and vehicles to Ukraine, a lot of people are upset with the money being spent on foreign affairs with little to no relevance to the US, and that the government should start spending its money on current US events such as the Ohio chemical spill. This event not only relates to the ability to check government power, But the ability to dissent or disagree with the government, minority or majority, Both of which are protected and written as rights for all US citizens.

    One of the most well-known ways the government allowed for checks on power is Checks and Balances, one of which being the Separation of Powers which divides the government into different branches, Allowing for clear and fair division of power among groups of elected officials. The branches consist of the Judicial branch, The executive branch, and the Legislative branch. By doing this there is a fair way to check government power, By splitting the lawmaking process into 3 groups, it allows for biased or unfairly deemed laws to have the ability to be denied, The process of lawmaking consists of the Legislative branch creating and proposing a law to the Judicial branch, If the judicial branch votes to enact the law, The executive branch executes the law.

    A citizen's role in choking government power is using their ability to vote, in a society as big as the US being able to vote is one of the biggest roles and most powerful tools a citizen can be granted, the power to vote allows citizens to determine court justices, senators, and even the president and vice president, On top of being able to vote for officials, Most officials have specified times in power, For example the president is only available to be in power for 4 years, Until the US votes again. On top of time limits, they are only allowed to be in power for 2 elections.

    Today, The ability to check government powers is in use with the right to peacefully assemble and protest. Back in 2020, Most of the "protests" went unnoticed due to the angry mob rioting and causing national headlines, But peaceful protests are lawfully protected and allowed, Which means the minority view is protected and allowed to peacefully gather and protest without issue.

     In summary, The US is a country filled with disdain abd argument all the time, But the reason why that's a good thing is because it allows the people of america to have a civil discussion about how they feel with the government and they can use that to enact change. The right to peacefully protest and disdain the government allows for people to focus their distress on something positive and allows society to grow and improve as a whole. By using anger and hate in a positive way towards protests, civil discussions, and voting allows you to use your rights to create change that you wish to see. Using these rights you can keep government power in check from the federal level and even at the state or city level.

    

https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/checks-and-balances

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-foundations/us-gov-government-power-and-individual-rights/a/government-power-and-individual-rights-lesson-overview