parties and branches

There was the article of confederation but it was rewritten as the constitution since it was poorly written due to Britian coming out of a monarchy and writing it “last minute”. This was also because they weren’t able to tax the people so they had to ask the states for money which the states wouldn’t obviously tell them “hard pass, buddy.”

In the constitution there are 3 branches, legislative, executive and judicial:

Legislative (Congress)

This branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The branch’s main power is to write bills and laws (and vote on them) that then get passed to the executive branch, they also handle the budgeting and money.

Executive Branch (The president, etc)

This branch consists of the president, the vice president and cabinet. They are able to look at and carry out (execute) the law that congress gives to them, and handle running the country and military. The president has the ability to put a bill in place or veto (reject it).

Judicial (Courts)

This branch is able to review bills and laws that get accepted by the executive branch, but more so if there is an “argument” about what a law actually means or if it is even allowed in the constitution, these people are who decide whether a law is unconstitutional (basically “deleting” it).

So because of all these branches, the power is split (as in groups) so many views and multiple people can share their views and insights before it even reaches the constitution which is better that the articles of fed since not only ONE person has power, it’s evenly distributed amongst multiple beings (meaning the president isn’t able to do “whatever he feels like doing”).

They keep eachother in check kind of like rock paper and scissors:

Congress makes a law → the president (executive branch) can veto it (or accept in this case, veto)

The president vetoes it → congress can override that veto with enough votes and make it a law

But, the Supreme Court (last say in the judicial branch) can look at the law and say, “actually, this violates the constitutional,” and it’s gone just like that.

The president DOES pick the judges for the supreme court BUT congress (legislative) HAS to approve them first, which means not ALL the judges will side with the president creating more justice in the system.