Now, I can tell you that I was not very excited about a possible McCain Presidency. Apparently nobody else was either. However, I supported him because I knew that the Democrats were going to have significant majorities in Congress. Recently, I have been thinking about the things the Republican Party has been trying in an attempt to take back power in Washington. I had a crazy thought, I’m not sure that is what I want to happen.

While I am a conservative, I really don’t wish for huge majorities in Congress along with the Presidency for the Republicans. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having both houses of Congress along with the White House is as close to absolute power as we can get in the U.S. and I would mostly prefer it just didn’t stay that way for too long on either side.

I can be honest, the Republicans didn’t do that great of a job when they had control of everything for the first half of this decade. Now, they didn’t do nearly as bad as many liberals or the media would say, but they didn’t do a great job. They spent way too much money, they grew government too much, and they took away liberties from the American people.

The Democrats now have much bigger majorities than the Republicans did along with the White House. So far, I haven’t really liked what I’ve seen. We have a budget deficit of about 1.8 trillion dollars projected. That is unbelievable to me, and it will only cause problems in the future. That number is not even taking into account the upcoming fiasco of trying to fix health care. The costs are projected at 1.2 trillion, and they only budgeted about 600 billion. The money is going to have to come from somewhere.

Anyways, the point is neither side really does that great a job when they have unchecked power. Thankfully though, it usually doesn’t last for long. I think the country in general is mostly center, and we swing back and forth from one side to the other. One party can’t hold everything for too long, because it causes us to swing too far from center. Clinton had Congress for two years, and then they passed the assault weapons ban and the people said c-ya to the Democrat Congress. Bush had it for a little longer, but the Senate was basically a tie for his second term and the Democrats took back control for the last 2 years of his term.

I think what I really want is for a slight conservative majority in Congress, and a slightly left of center President or vice versa. This is the point where we actually might get some people working together for the good of the country. Each side has good ideas and bad ideas, but when one party gets to implement all of their ideas, we miss out on the good stuff from one party and we get all the bad stuff from the other. If we have a balanced Congress with a middle of the road President, most of the stupid ideas will get thrown out. This is good for me as a conservative, because all I really want Washington to do is to defend us and build some roads and bridges. After that, they can just stay out of my way.

Derek Clark blogs about conservative politics at Geek Politics. You can also follow him on Twitter @clarky07.

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Thus, when I started reading a recent CNN.com article, and yesterday’s counterpart, on a bipartisan group advocating for a stronger role for Congress in the event a President decides to go to war, I found myself somewhat confused.  Shouldn’t Congress have a much bigger role in deciding whether or not we go to war? Like, maybe the only role?

Of course, technically speaking, we have not officially declared war since 1942, when we declared war against the Axis powers, yada yada.  Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Bosnia, Iraq again …all were just “police actions” and  ”major military operations.” The question, obviously, is where the line gets drawn.

The War Powers Act of 1973, the resolution in question of being revised by the bipartisan coalition, states that a President must inform Congress within 48 hours of his decision, as Commander-in-Chief (see Article II, section 2 of the Constitution), to send troops abroad for military action. Those troops can stay for no longer than 60 days without an express approval by Congress, or a declaration of war – also given by Congress.

The important issue is not regarding whether or not we should still be fighting in Iraq, or concerning my disapproval with it, or any other pop culture, media favorite topic of discussion.  Rather, the important issue raised here is one of more classical importance: the separation of powers, and the checks and balances inherent in our system.

In a traditional scenario, a President would appear before Congress, ask for a declaration of war, mobilize troops for action, and prepare to uphold his oath of office by defending our way of life. This president would send troops to a designated location with clear-cut goals and objectives, like “secure that beachhead” and fight until some kind of surrender by one party was agreed upon by the other.

Nowadays, war is fought in a much different manner. Presidents no longer ask for declarations of war, but rather the simpler approval of military mobilization.  Congress freely gives a budget to support this, at the current tally of about $606.5 Billion, paid for by John Q. Overworked-Underpaid-Ripped Off-Liberty Violated-American Taxpayer and his myriad of maladies and malcontents.

Our system of government was founded under the principle that no one seat of power should have the ability to undermine another; that the powers of government should be separated between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches to prevent tyranny. When a branch of government steps beyond its station, it is the responsibility of another branch to put the former in its place. The problem arises when people lack the “testicular fortitude” to do something about it.

If our current Congress cannot stand up for appropriate spending, appropriate taxation and appropriate measures to secure our freedom during a time of undeclared war, the responsibility falls upon the citizens to do exactly as our Declaration of Independence dictates: “that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter…it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles… as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Luckily, in this country, we have a revolution every couple of years, in which we can place new people, new parties, new governments in power by the simple act of voting.  There are currently 470 seats in Congress up for grabs along with the highly-publicized presidential election. Want to make a change in this country? Try voting.