When America was planned by the founders what was their most visionary innovation to governance?

Checks and balances

The best:
The Bill of Rights.

The worst:
Article 1, Section 9; the “Slave Trade Clause”.

Left out:
WOMEN!!

And as far as checks and balances… How far we’ve fallen.

Separation of church and state was a big one that is being eroded.

Separating church and state. I agree with @janbb

If I really only had to choose just one, it would be the first amendment. Without free speech, press, assembly, religion, etc. you can’t have a real democracy.

State’s Rights.

I also say the separation of church and state.

@janbb
@elbanditoroso
@Hawaii_Jake

Me too. Roger Williams, he of Provincetown fame, spearheaded that. Originally it wasn’t to project the state from religion. It was to protect the churches from the intrusion of politics.

The key word in the question is innovation. Regressing to business as usual would have cost everything the Revolution gained. As long as churches were running things in Europe—and don’t forget what drove so many settlers here—the other things weren’t going to flourish. It took a new world to bring that about.

Maybe that’s what we need now.

See John M. Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty

I also immediately think of separation of church and state. I’ve mentioned on fluther before, my father used to tell me when I was young that America is paradise for us because of the separation.

There are many things done by the founders that were unique and brilliant at the time. People having the power to choose their government was a big deal. Being able to speak out against the government was a big deal.

@janbb Separation of church and state is not addressed in the constitution. The document does, however, prohibit the formation of a state church, such as was in England.

In 1776 most of the world was ruled by Kings, Emperors, Shahs or Czars and it was blasphemy to disagree with them as it was accepted that they and their children had a divine right to rule. The idea of rule by the people wasn’t new but the United States was the forerunner in putting this concept into practise. The ballot box is the only source of Presidential or government authority and the founding fathers went to some pains to ensure that would always be the case.

That democracy, up until now at least, has worked so well and has given us the freedoms we take for granted has had a huge effect on the history of the world and not just the USA.

@flutherother, I wish democracy had worked well, but our history of exploitation, discrimination, and violence against people with different ethnicities and religions only shows that it worked well for the wealthy—mostly Caucasian males.

It took a long time before men without property could vote, and later women having the right to vote. Despite the Union winning the war against separatists States, “Negros” were prevented from voting and running for governmental office in most States until the 1960s.

Today, many States are establishing disenfranchisement laws to return to the “good old days” when non-white people were largely invisible (not to mention people with different sexual orientations).

On January 6, we witnessed an assault on Congress in an attempt to prevent the ratification of the election of our president. The Republican Party has largely become the Party of the overthrow of our Constitution and the rights it established—especially the right of all people to choose who will be the leaders of our Nation.

This November, we will see whether our Country will recognize that our Constitution is the backbone of a democratic society and reaffirms it, or if we will return to an authoritarian ruler, like those that governed the countries our forefathers had left.

@Bill1939 I don’t think the founders took for granted this would all work out.

They definitely built “off switches” into the system, and even seem preoccupied with just that.

After eons of servitude, it looks to me that these fellows, for once, thought they were grasping the reins of fair representation.

It seems like once they had that control, their first order of business was to put rule by elites in a hermetic little box.

For me, that is the biggest distinction they made that broke with the past of power.

The founders focused on perpetuating their revolution forever. Instead of calling it a day with the triumph over the king, they went further and looking into the nature of man to abuse power they chose the root cause and isolated tyranny by arming the citizens with the basis to challenge it even if they found themselves friendless, penniless, and empty-handed.

In other words, tyranny was much like a Mr. Potatohead that they pulled the limbs off of, throwing some away, keeping others, and handing some over to the people.

@Bill1939 As Winston Churchill said “democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the others that have been tried.” At least we are aware of democracy’s faults and it does give us the opportunity to correct them. Most other forms of government are not so flexible.

The division of federalism. State vs. Federal was very innovative.