Member Avatar for ZZucker

Nothing but old stuff!

Member Avatar for briansmall

We tend to interpret the Constitution in todays' light, and we assume that the framers were geniuses. But they were simply people much like you and me, who could not foresee everthing that would happen in decades and centuries to come, who tried to address all the issues they understood to be likely to arise in the world as they knew it, and in view of any future they could imagine.

What has happened since then is that two mindsets regarding the constitution have come to bear upon its interpretation. There are those who wish to see its fundamental intent honored in light of changes that were unforseen, and those who wish to use those changes to get around the intent.

Those who do not wish to abide by the morality and the ethics of the constitution find ways to cloud the issues. Even so, it's not difficult to see the underlying principles.

Sound principles can be named clearly. There aren't that many of them. But by now we have so many laws circumventing them that we have little chance of getting back to them.

Have you ever watched the process of a dike being breached by a river? Eventually everything gives way. We are well past a trickle, huge chunks are out, the walls are coming down.

Enjoy your freedom, such as it is, while it lasts. You are losing more every day.

Member Avatar for rundie

briansmall's post is a bit alarmist for my tastes, but I do agree that the constitution is full of escape routes and trap doors. I find it ironic that we often romanticize the founding fathers as idealizing democracy and freedom, and yet they bestowed way more power on the president and congress than any governing body in Britain had at the time...ah, well.

Member Avatar for EnderX

Clarification please: Exactly what powers or authorities were given to the President and Congress that would have gone beyond those enjoyed by the King and Parliment back across the waves?

Member Avatar for sneekula

~~ abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble ~~

... and then came the Internet, where ideas come from all over the world in a fraction of a second, no need to stand on a soapbox and shout, write those ideas on a piece of paper, or climb the horse and ride to a place where you can peaceably assemble!

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