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In The Baltimore Principles Sidney Crosby Jersey , Carl Douglas explores the principles that Lord Baltimore set forth, tested over 125 years, and eventually formed the philosophy on which our country was founded. Douglas’ work helps Americans to look to the principles that have served us well in the past as a means to restoring our present and securing future success.


The Baltimore Principles propone that “Each and every level of government is to be created by the people and for the people.” Douglas highlights the fact that while the US government was created by the people, there are a number of bodies that were not, including many county governments that were established as “an administrative arm of the state” and “not by the communities and their citizens.”


The second tenet is that “Each level of government needs to have three separate branches; the executive, legislative Jake Guentzel Jersey , and judicial branches. There must be an effective system of checks and balances between the branches of the government.” While we haven’t “completely lost” this principle, there are times when we “experience a breakdown with our system of horizontal checks and balances because we have allowed self-interest groups to act where they don’t belong.” When the Baltimore Principles are applied, self-interest groups are incapable of gaining control of the Senate and the system of checks and balances is maintained.


Our nation has “definitely lost” the third principle of Lord Baltimore; “With the exception of local governments, each legislative body has two houses; an upper house and a lower house. The members of the upper house represent the governments directly below them while the members of the lower house represent the citizens within the same region.” While some of our governments have two houses, there are not any upper houses “existing for the purpose of representing the lower levels of government.” This system prevented all levels of government from becoming “too big, too independent and out of touch with the people.”


We now have two houses composed of the same kind of representation Matt Murray Jersey , elected by the same people. He stresses that the original system provided not only for horizontal checks and balances, but also for the “much needed” vertical checks and balances; “because we have lost this one, no community government has a voice in their county government, no county government has a voice in their state government, and no state government has a voice in our federal government.” Instead, we have four levels of government operating independently and “any cooperation is either voluntary or imposed from the top down Cheap Pittsburgh Penguins Jerseys , rather than from the bottom up” which has allowed our governmental bodies to be “controlled by self-interest groups.” This is the most significant of the Baltimore Principles, which, had it not been lost, “Most of our nation’s problems never would have surfaced.”


Carl Douglas highlights that the fourth principle has also been completely lost, which provided that, “The powers delegated to each level of government are limited by the citizens and the governmental bodies underneath it.” In our system today Nick Bjugstad Penguins Jersey , “none of our levels of government has a voice in the one just above it and, therefore, none of them has the power to limit it.” What has happened, instead, is that we are “held hostage” to “our elected politicians and their respective parties.” We have lost the accountability of upper levels of government to the level beneath them, the “missing key” to limiting the powers granted to each level of government.


On taxation Jared McCann Penguins Jersey , Lord Baltimore believed “Only the legislative branch has the power to levy taxes and to say how public money is to be spent.” Departments and agencies have been permitted to increase licenses, fees, penalties, and even some taxes, although they aren’t always called taxes, placing undue burdens on the American people.


As our nation faces socioeconomic crisis Patric Hornqvist Penguins Jersey , lack of confidence in the government, and general unrest, Douglas highlights the importance of maintaining these principles; “When all of the above principles are applied we will always have limited governments with limited spending while retaining most of our individual liberties.” The Baltimore Principles have slowly disintegrated over time, leaving little remaining of the principles that guided our country well and served it for many years, establishing America as a great nation. Perhaps by re-instituting The Baltimore Principles, we can begin to reclaim our individual liberties Evgeni Malkin Penguins Jersey , rebuild our country, and restore America to its former glory.