Posted on 02/23/2010 1:07:48 PM PST by Ellendra
There's been a lot of talk about armed revolution and "watering the tree of liberty", and it's justified. But I'm wondering, then what? If we do overhaul the entire government, undo the infringements of the last century, or even decide to wipe the slate clean and start fresh, what can be done to prevent this from happening again in the next 200 years, or at least to better deter those who will try?
Could there have been something added to the Constitution or any other documents, back when this country was first getting started, which might have prevented this?
Or, suppose you suddenly found yourself in charge of a new country, whether it's an island or a space colony, which had no previous laws for you to start from. How do you protect the freedom of your people centuries after you're dead?
Apologies for any typos.
Term limits for Congress would be a good start.
America was great because America was a Christian nation.
America is failing because we are no longer a Christian nation.
We are a nation of people who pay lip service, like me, but don’t live like we are supposed to.
America will fall if that alone is not stopped.
Nothing else matters really. Nothing else at all.
I believe we are doomed, I just can’t sit back and let it happen, but I am afraid it is for nothing.
Ping for later
Related thread:
What Good Can a Handgun Do Against an Army.....?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/2312894/posts?page=242
The current constitution if used the way the original framers had the language written to mean what they wanted and not what someone 200+ years later decided to make the words mean. Every thing would be just fine but some people just have to change things around to the way they think the world should be and don’t care what the original intent of the rules and regulations were. You must go back to the writings of the time and see what the over all gist of the language and how it was used to know what they had in mind for what they said.
Start with the Ten Commandments...................
Only taxpaying citizens can vote for members of the upper house.
All adult citizens can vote for members of the lower house.
As a result, the upper house would represent those who actually support the country and provide a check on the tendency of the lower house to enact expensive grand social engineering schemes.
(Also, anchor babies of illegal foreign citizens not entitled to US citizenship.)
There might not be much to consider.
Use the same rules as written in the Constitution. If an elected official violates the trust of the American people who elected him/her they should be quickly deported or executed. This would ensure a politician follows the platform they were elected upon.
Progressives,socialists marxists, facists, and communist leaning people should be deported.
Term limits should also be added.
Why try? Any attempt to make a permanent free society would probably infringe somebody's freedom. Besides, that tree needs refreshing from time to time...
I think you have the first order of business really really skewed.
The first order of business in the aftermath would not be what changes to make.
That question comes way down the line, probably no earlier than 300.
The first few hundred questions all will have to do with feeding clothing, and sheltering the survivors. Producing potable water again. Getting bridges back up across water. Repairing roads enough to run maybe 45 mph on them. getting electricity at least for hospitals.
Then questions about what to do with surviving foes.
Our Constitution would be sufficient for the purpose now- although they should have included a part specifically forbidding any spending for any altruistic purpose. Also, Congress should have been limited in its ability to borrow. And, the rules of the houses of Congress should have been spelled out in the Constitution and not left up themselves to decide- as in all these “riders” politicians attach to bills to stack up pork. And the founders most certainly should have abolished slavery from the get-go.
Of course, as John Adams noted, it is still only sufficient for a moral and religious people. At the current time, neither applies to this nation....
First step: rewrite the constitution in completely unequivocal, non-archaic language. Yes, it will get longer, yes it will lose some of the panache and elegance of the framers’ version. However, it will also clearly and plainly restrict the federal government to a small, circumscribed set of activities. In fact, the constitution should be treated as exactly what it is: a firewall to the rights of citizens. Any good firewall functions on the principle of “default deny”. We just need to spell out more clearly what exactly the government’s acceptable functions are, and to state in no uncertain terms that if it isn’t in the list, the government may not under any circumstance do it.
I don’t think it’s possible to frame an incorruptible constitution that will create freedom for all time. All you can do is hope that every few hundred years your soft, flabby desecendants will have the testicular fortitude to hit the reset button; if they don’t, then they don’t deserve to be free anyway.
Now that is a good idea.
As for the topic, the problem is not with the Constitution, the problem is with the people elected who swore "to support and defend" the Constitution in D.C. Our system was never intended to create career politicians that enrich themselves through "public service." As stated by others, term limits would be a reasonable change to the Constitution. Repealing the 17th amendment would also go a long way towards restoring our country to what the founders left in our trust.
As long as people are what they are (selfish, self-centered, power hungry, and lazy), you’re going to get the same results over time no matter how many safeguards you put into the system.
I’m sure the founders thought they had the problem licked when they wrote the Const/BOR. Doesn’t do much good when the govt ignores the document it has sworn to uphold, and the people are too fat dumb and lazy to do anything about it.
In other words, Government will work as soon as you can eliminate man’s sin nature.
It wasn't archaic when it was written. A constitution written in "modern" (2010) language will have the same problem 200 years from now. The Fed doesn't ignore the Constitution because it's archaic. They do it because it's inconvenient to their desire to gain power.
I suspect that if it became necessary, most survivors would feed, clothe, and shelter themselves.
Those that don’t, or that wait around for someone to do it for them, wouldn’t be survivors for very long.
The cities would surely be chaos for awhile, but once people sort themselves out I doubt it would take anything like 300 years for order to be established.
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