Independent Checkers

> *An office that enforces the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria in the legislative branch of government*
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## Information

### Type

* Enforcers of the Imperial Constitution in the legislative branch of government
* A check on political parties

### Constituting Instrument

Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria

## History

### Formation

September 17, 2022 (Reform Era)

In the Reform era political system of the Chawosaurian world, the role of **Independent Checkers** (also known as **Nonpartisan Checkers**, or the **Nonpartisan Benches/Benchers**, and they're rarely called **Elizabethans**) is defined by the Imperial Constitution of the Empire of Chawosauria, and the Imperial Constitution states that Independent Checkers are to serve as a unified bottleneck to the power of political parties to keep them in check so to prevent partisan tyranny and gridlock.

There were already Independent Checkers in the Imperial Senate of the Empire of Chawosauria long before 2022, but what escalated the need for Independent Checkers was the tumultuous American presidency of Donald Trump and the resultant violent storming of the U,S. Capitol as a last resort to pressure the U.S. government to decline the electoral results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election (which showed Trump losing to Joe Biden) and instead establish a dictatorship headed by President Donald Trump; but the U.S. government stubbornly refused to budge, the insurrection was actually insufficient and was easily repelled, and Joe Biden became President anyway in Trump's place. When Biden became President, despite a slender Democratic Party-trifecta in Washington, DC, Republicans used their decade-old monopoly in state and local governments to aggressively impose a conservative agenda while Democrats were more busy fighting among themselves in a prolonged interparty struggle to enact Biden's agenda, and during the redistricting of constituencies aligned with the 2020 United States Census, both Democrats and Republicans aggressively drawn their districts and Republicans either enacted or proposed tough voter restriction laws to aggressively consolidate their electoral monopolies in the name of political power, then the United States Supreme Court, which had for decades been under Republican-control, overturned *Roe v. Wade*, which had for a half century, protected a woman's right to an abortion in the United States, and by overturning Roe, states were allowed once again to regulate abortion as they saw fit, allowing Republicans to pass extreme and aggressively anti-abortion laws which turned public opinion against the Republican Party already in the midst of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, which were intended to be a referendum on President Biden, who was unpopular at the time, but instead the Republicans blew it and they allowed the Democrats to divert attention from Biden and turn the 2022 midterms into a choice between the normalcy offered by Democrats or extremism offered by Republicans, and the Democrats had a strong performance in the 2022 midterm elections by expanding their hand in the U.S. Senate and state governments while slowing down Republican gains in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Chawosaurian government became distraught by the climate of American politics, and the spillover of the American abortion debate into Chawosauria with the proposed but defeated Protection of Life Act of 2022 had made Chawosauria's political higherups become concern that the toxicity of American politics may spread like a virus into Chawosauria, this could result in partisan tyranny already experienced in the United States, and uglier party-against-party gridlocks in situations of divided government. To prevent this from happening, the Chawosaurian government chose to take advantage of the 2022 Chawosaurian Constitutional Convention to change the makeup of the legislative branch, which throughout the world, are dominated by political parties. The authors of the Imperial Constitution wanted to establish checks and balances on all political parties to keep them under control, so retaining the 1,000 seats for the 1,000 constituencies to be represented in the Imperial Assembly of the Chawopolis Palace and 6,000 constituencies to be represented by 6,000 elected representatives in the Federal Assembly of the Continent Union, the Imperial Assembly received 1,000 more seats to greatly shrink the power of elected partisans across the political spectrum to prevent one-party tyranny and party-against-party gridlocks in times of divided governments, and the Federal Assembly received 6,000 more seats for the same purposes.

Independent Checkers are appointed by bloodline, and their duties and powers are to be the check on political parties in the legislative branch of the Chawosaurian government, their powers include inquiring the constitutionality of a piece of legislation passed by the majority party or the overall partisan benches, and make the final judgement on legislation based on their determination on the legislation's constitutionality. If Independent Checkers found a bill not breeching any constitutional norms or law, they will approve the bill for official passage. There are rules Independent Checkers have to follow, Independent Checkers are not allowed to have any political beliefs or even express them publicly. When the partisan benches pass a piece of legislation, the Independent Checkers must approve or disapprove a bill solely on constitutional grounds only, not based on whether they politically agree with the bill or not, that means even if an Independent Checker supports the bill based on ideological grounds, that Independent Checker is still constitutionally obligated to reject that bill if that bill violates the Imperial Constitution. These rules are strict and can be enforced by several ways, one of which is these rules being enforced by the Chawosaurian Imperial Armed Forces, they have the authority to arrest an Independent Checker for refusing to obey his/her constitutional duties, which is considered treason. Independent Checkers do not have a right to propose legislation themselves, they just have to check legislation presented to them by the majority party or a coalition of parties.

## Background and History

### Etymology

The political definition of an Independent is someone who does not align with a political party and fully rejects partisan dogma. The term *Checker* is not to be confused with the board game, but there can be a connection, for example, political parties would have to "win a game of checkers" to do what they want, though not literally play checkers, but it's an expression. The term Checker really comes from "a man checks for rats" or "the Republicans in the House of Representatives will be a check on President Obama", creating the term Independent Checker, with the famous quote "Independents get to be a check on political parties".

### Imperial Senate

> *Main article: Imperial Senate of the Empire of Chawosauria*
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The idea of Independent Checkers in Chawosauria is actually an older idea than the average viewer will assume, the Imperial Senate of the Empire of Chawosauria is one of Chawosauria's most oldest systems of government, only has 100 members for elected Senators with 100 more seats for Independent Checkers who are there for the same purpose.

### Political Polarization in the United States

Political polarization actually has a longer history in the United States, mostly caused by reactionism to attempts to reform American society, especially on the role of race in the country. White Americans after the American Civil War have sought to maintain their socio-economic monopoly over other races due to feelings of entitlement and superiority as well as other beliefs that the other races are here to serve White America, not live with it. These beliefs were most prevalent in the American south. These beliefs resulted in the backlash against Reconstruction, which was an attempt by the U.S. federal government to rebuild a defeated south that lost the civil war in a failed bid to preserve the enslavement of Black Americans which the south benefited from compared to the rest of the nation, and through Reconstruction, attempted to build a racially integrated American society, but White Americans felt weary by these efforts, both north and south, and it forced the Republican Party to completely abandon Reconstruction, leaving Black Americans in the south to see their rights and freedoms taken away from them despite the reconstruction amendments to the U.S. Constitution that are intended to protect these rights, leading to the rise of the Jim Crow south. In elections to come, Democrats ruled the south and Republicans ruled the north as well as the west until the 20th century.

Until the mid 20th century, the Democratic Party was the party of white supremacy and the Republican Party was the party of racial equality. The Presidency of Franklin D, Roosevelt, part of the Democratic Party, enacted the most unprecedented expansion of the U.S. government in response to the Great Depression, called the New Deal, which left behind key New Deal relic programs that exist now, such as Social Security, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The New Deal was embraced by liberals, but opposed by conservatives. This gave birth to the Democratic Party's present day identity, the party of big government. The Republicans would go on to oppose the New Deal, which is the origin of the Republican Party's present day identity, the party of small government.

The Democrats' solid south accepted the New Deal, in fact, they benefited well from the New Deal. Black Americans became Democrats because of the New Deal, however, not all African Americans benefited from the New Deal, those who did benefited are Black northerners and westerners, some of whom were southerners who moved up north to run away from the south's Jim Crow regime. White Americans didn't became Republicans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Democratic Party, after harboring white supremacy for so long, finally embraced racial equality in 1948 during the 1948 U.S. presidential election, causing a rift between the Democratic Party establishment which had been taken over by New Dealers; and Southern Democrats who lost lots of their power over the party to New Dealers. Southern Democrats would dealign from the Democratic Party and realign with the Republican Party. The Republicans, tired of being constantly marginalized by the New Deal dominance of the Democratic Party, adopted a strategy to appeal to white resentment with the civil rights movement by raising issues of crime in the 1960s and youth opposition to the Vietnam War due to the existence of the draft, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which restored the rights of Black Americans that were lost in the fall of reconstruction in 1877, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were part of President Johnson's expansion of the New Deal called the Great Society, which established the landmark programs of Medicare, Medicaid, Public Broadcasting, and Higher Education, and among other things. The Democrats ran the United States into the War in Vietnam and it cost them dearly in the elections of 1966 and the 1968 presidential election.

Over time, Donald Trump rose to the scene in the 2016 campaign for President to replace the term-limited incumbent Barack Obama, and under Obama's presidency, the country had become incredibly polarized.

### Vulnerability of democracy

Political parties have always been part of democracy, however it's not to say that they're not a threat to democracy. History has shown that a party can and will pose a threat to democracy. The Nazi Party rose to power through elections in Germany during the Great Depression, successfully exploiting Germans' fears, anxieties, and economic frustrations. The Nazis won uniform power in 1933 and ran the country down to a full scale dictatorship that suppressed the rights of minorities, particularly Jewish people, and ran Germany to a continent-wide war in a bid to build a Germanic empire, but the world fought back, push the Germans, and led to its even brutal downfall of the German nation, leading to the Nazis ceding the country to its new conquerors, the allies, and the whole country becoming split into two for the entirety of the Cold War era after the allies turn on each other due to geopolitical ideologies and a competition for world power that could lead to a third world war, this time literally nuclear.

The Independent Checkers are there in Chawosauria to hold the line against an anti-democracy party when one has risen to political power, and the Independent Checkers can for emergency purposes expand their authority over the democratic system as a last resort. They can do this by voting to snatch command of the Chawosaurian Imperial Armed Forces away from the Supreme Leader of the Empire of Chawosauria in a situation in which the commander-in-chief is tolerant of the activities of an anti-democracy party, and order the armed forces to dethrone the anti-democratic government, including the Supreme Leader.

## Duties and Powers

Independent Checkers have the ultimate say in approving legislation passed by the majority party or a coalition of parties, but the Independent Checkers don't have any right to pass legislation themselves. Independent Checkers' authority involves investigating the connection between the Imperial Constitution and partisan pieces of legislation to make sure both are legally compatible, whether or not the Independent Checker politically agrees with the legislation or not. Independent Checkers are obligated strictly to not allow their politics to influence their profession, the office of Independent Checker is a non-political, nonpartisan, and in actually most cases, anti-political public office.

To ensure a majority party does not become tyrannical, Independent Checkers have to check the constitutionality of the piece of legislation passed by the partisan majority before they allow it to leave the legislature or a house of the legislature where the passage of the bill is taking place. Independent Checkers can decide to just refuse to allow a bill to leave the house even if it is passed by the majority party, this will frustrate the majority party but may save the civil rights or civil liberties of citizens.

## Structure

After 2023, Chawosaurian legislatures are designed into the Westminster structure, meaning instead of seats being lined up into a macaroni with a gap in the middle in some countries, seats are divided into two rolls, with one roll usually for the governing party and the other roll for the opposition. In Chawosauria, seats are separated into two rolls, the first roll being for Independent Checkers, and the other roll being for political parties.

Chawosaurian political commentator John Wise has explained that the party that has unified control of government is too powerless in Chawosauria, and that's the objective, the purpose of this is to prevent partisan tyranny that is being experienced in the United States with several states where unified control of government using their powers to score political points against their perceived political enemies.

## Succession

The order of succession of each Independent Checker, which is a lifetime service, can vary by each Independent Checker but the Imperial Constitution states that the eldest child of each Independent Checker is first in line to succeed that Independent Checker after death.

Independent Checkers are free to organize their own lines of succession via will and testament, of course their eldest child is first in line to his/her office, but are free to appoint other relatives, friends, or just random people. One concern is that this could lead to nepotism, a form of corruption where a person in a position of power awards his/her friends and/or relatives with luxurious lifestyles or roles of authority for completing tasks that are benefitful even through illegal means. Corruption is one of the things the Imperial Constitution is supposed to prevent, however, it is effective still of containing corruption of elected officials, corporations can't influence any part of the government, that power is instead offered solely to labor unions only.

## Accountability

Independent Checkers who do not honor their profession are disciplined in various ways, all of which are harsh. They can be impeached, removed, recalled, and prosecuted; or they can be just flatly arrested by the Chawosaurian Imperial Armed Forces only if evidence shows that they failed their oath of office and constitutional role.

There are fears however that Independent Checkers could become corrupt and can abuse their power. Elected officials with integrity can propose legislation curtailing Independent Checker corruption, but the Independent Checkers themselves will have to approve that legislation and use the Imperial Constitution as an excuse to maintain their corruption, giving the Independent Checkers the ability to manipulate and have heavy leverage. Independent Checkers can control their own orders of succession by will and testament for when they die, Independent Checkers can use this freedom to commit nepotism, though the Imperial Constitution says specifically that Independent Checkers are succeeded by their eldest child after they die and it repeats by generation and the Imperial Constitution is also strictly enforced by the Imperial Armed Forces.

While corruption in the offices of Independent Checkers can happen, it can't touch legislation very much and Independent Checkers too have very limited power, as stated before, Independent Checkers can't propose and pass legislation and they're not allowed to judge a piece of legislation based on political bias, they have to judge a piece of legislation based on constitutional grounds, and they're under good control to be ensure that they'll meet their constitutional obligations.