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To: Action-America
You are just a worry wort. In the end, Americans will have the government they choose, with the checks and balances they choose, usurpative SCOTUS a distraction admittedly. I am confident that what Americans choose will not materially detract from this great and unique land of ours being a most agreeable place to live, not only for me, but for generations to come. That is the bottom line, and why, unlike you, I am not a worry wort. I trust the judgment of my fellow citizens overall, and over time, to effect reasonable responses to most pressing problems.

By the way, on a gun nut site, this is the first time I have heard mention of the Firearms Act of 1934. Oh, the horror.

358 posted on 12/18/2003 9:51:33 PM PST by Torie
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To: Torie

You are just a worry wort.

I worry, because I have plenty of just cause to worry. Are you really so naive as to believe that all of the rights granted the people and the states, in the Constitution, are still in tact?

Look at the 10th Amendment. It has been subverted so many times that, for all intents and purposes, it may as well not exist. Hate crimes laws are a violation of the 1st Amendment, as are limits on individual contributions to political campaigns. There are numerous examples of subversion of the 2nd Amendment, including the major laws that I mentioned previously, going back to 1934, plus the Brady Bill. In fact, the only amendment that has not been subverted, is the 3rd Amendment, concerning boarding troops in private homes.

If our Founding Fathers could somehow come back and read the entire US Code today, they would be appalled at how far we have strayed from the "original intent" of the Constitution.

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution], let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
---
Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Johnson) June 12, 1823

The problem that we have today, is that we have a President who is trying what meaning he may squeeze out of the Constitution or may be invented against it, instead of jealously defending the original intent of that great document.

Wendell Phillips warned us that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." The word "eternal" doesn't mean, just when the Democrats are in office. We must never let down our guard, even when the Republicans are in office, especially since there are so many Republicans in office today, who are Republican, in name only. Phillips understood that politicians of every stripe are, by the very disposition that makes them want to be politicians, power-hungry. If we are not eternally vigilant, those power-hungry politicians will slowly usurp that power, that they so greatly desire.

I think that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had it right. In that book, the President of the Galaxy was the person who least wanted the job. Unfortunately, this is not science fiction and 90+% of the people who run for any office, do so, not out of a desire to serve, but out of a desire for power. And, that's why we should all worry and be eternally vigilant, even when the Republicans are in office - especially so, when many of those Republicans have already demonstrated their contempt for the Constitution.

If being eternally vigilant for usurpations of our Constitution, makes one a worry wart, then that's a badge that I will gladly wear with pride. You still enjoy what rights you have, because throughout the history of this great nation, it has been the worry warts, like me, who have jealously defended the rights of the unconcerned, like you.

 

365 posted on 12/18/2003 11:45:35 PM PST by Action-America (Best President: Reagan * Worst President: Klinton * Worst GOP President: Dubya)
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