If there is one phrase that describes the United States Constitution, it is checks and balances.  So concerned were the founders that the power of government had to be restrained, checks were imposed at every level – even on the people.

It is why the President is not directly elected....

Eighty years ago this weekend, the uncrowned British King Edward VIII abdicated.  “I have made this, the most serious decision of my life, only upon the single thought of what would, in the end, be best for all,” he said in a radio broadcast on 10 December 1936.

It was the best decisio...