If you think we still have a Constitutional Republic then you are dumber than I thought you were. How are our Senators elected?
By 17th amendment, under Article V per that Constitutional Republic. Work for repeal of the 17th to undo its ratification by "We the People" if you figure that is what makes our form of government not a Republic.
Though you would have a hard time justifying it since Republic = representative government.
Last time I looked them Senators are still there, and are put there by the "Posterity" of "We the People" under the 17th amendment.
You bitch is that you do not like who "We the People" keep picking for Senators, not the fact the fact that Senators are elected by "We the People" who are supposedly being represented in a government guarteed to be representative, i.e. a "republican form of govenment"
What force remains in the Bill of Rights?
Just as much as they have ever had. Hamilton had it right, enumeration of some rights just assured that they would be at risk by implying power to government beyond the strict limit of enumerate powers that was in the Constitutions before the BOR.
How much of our legal system is more about LAW and less about justice as intended?
Little about "LAW" at the lowest level courts (statutory & equity jurisdiction), Mainly LAW at appellate level. And justice is up to juries "We the People", not to judges.
How many of those checks and balances are even functional anymore much less execised?
They are only as functional as they are exercised. In what respect are they not working? Nothing to prevent the executive or the legislative branch to be a logger heads, indeed we see it all the time in judicial appointments, and anytime 40 senators take in in their head to oppose a law, or 60 senators and half the House take it into their head to change or make a new one.
Congress can control the rules and cases the Courts may rule in and remove judges by impeachment anytime they command sufficient representation to due so. Congress sets appropriations as it always has.
Courts can declare statutes void whenever they decide to do so, and do all the time to the disgust of one side or the other. Juries can aquit.
Just what checks and balances do you figure are missing?
History shows time and again that once a system reaches that breakpoint, no amount of "working within the system" is effectual.
Hmmm, richest most powerful country in the world, you're free to complain all you wish and work for change all you wish. What breakpoint have we reached that no amount of "working within the system" is effectual.
I will agree, no amount of one voice is going to change anything much unless it interests the "representive" in the representive form of government called a Constitutional Republic.
So run for Congress, and/or work to get someone more to your way of thinking in there.
Ohhh, I forget, you don't like waiting on "We the People" to get around to seeing things your way. Its just supposed to happen while you sit back and carp.
Our schools are now controlled by our ideological enemy and you think mass re-education of our populace will be effective? Get real.
what mass re-education, one on one home schooling etc. It's working even if to slow for your likes. If you are persuasive and have something "We the People" are interested in sufficiently to support your view of things hey they might even elect you to office or listen to enough to toss the current rascal out.
Your idiot assertion on revolt will remain so for as long as the memory of what our Founders accomplished exists.
Well, you go find some new Founders leaders and sufficient numbers and force of educated and committed persons to prevent usurptions of your revolt into someone else's idealistic proper mode of socialism.
You have enough to fix the problems that exist without the need for violent revolt.
That is the reality of how this Constitutional government was constructed. We the People, can only get that government suitable to reflect their own morality and virtue as reflected in their choices of representation.
That my friend is the fundament basis for the longevity and survival of the vision of the Founders.
Reform the people, you will reform the government that represents them.
I suggest you start getting busy, doing something constuctive instead of whining that others are not interested in your narrow minded, testosterone driven views of revolt.
For starters: Representation. All of our representation is elected by "We the People". Even before the 17th. The 17th was a bad idea because it took our locally elected officials out of the loop and corrupted half of Congress by turning them in to popular vote whores. That whole portion of our Republic no longer functions as it was designed to do as a balance between Federal power, State interests, and "We the People". That you laud this as a good thing shows the "quality" of your thinking.
As for us getting the government we deserve. Do we really? When we are lied to at every turn by those in our two party Duopoly? When they violate their oaths of office time and time again? When the judges those self-same oath breakers WRITE law in their judicial opinions?
Even ennumerated Rights are spit upon. How much worse would it be if none were? Juries. A jury these days is only allowed to make their decisions as instructed by the Judge. Nullification is weeded out early in the selection process and mistrials because of a juror not following the judges explicit instructions are common place. Or are judges now considered our "peers" as well? What of the early maneuverings towards a jury-less system like they are pushing in Britain? Will you still be so sanguine about things then?
Hmmm, richest most powerful country in the world, you're free to complain all you wish and work for change all you wish. What breakpoint have we reached that no amount of "working within the system" is effectual.
Jobs being shipped overseas left and right and you can still say that? It has become too expensive to do business here. Bush's taxcuts and rampant spending can only prop up the DOW so long before that bill comes due. Without cutting the amount of government spending as well, those taxes will need to be paid back at some point. With companies like IBM moving overseas, that revenue may not be there. As for free speech, for how much longer? Between CFR limiting our options prior to an election, the PATRIOT Act limiting our options there, and rampant Political Correctness... exactly how much free speech do we have left? Sure, I can sit here and type these words out, but what if I do something the government finally feels crosses some imaginary line. Then what? How long before my small collection of firearms becomes some planet threatening arsenal? My copy of the US Constitution and books by authors like Rand and L. Neil Smith considered "hate speech" without any actual titles being mentioned in the news media? What then smart ass? It isn't too much of a stretch to the imagination and the mechanisms for it are already codified in the laws you seem to love so much.
Exactly how do you purpose to "reform the people"? They would rather watch "American Idol" and "Survivor" than pay attention to your bleatings. Those that bother going to the polls are the ones on the dole already and those few patriots trying to act as a counter to them. The other 50% stay at home with their asses firmly glued to the couch.
In our War for Independence, only 5% bothered to go fight the Kings Armies. In our first Civil War, only 11% of either sides population bothered to fight. There is currently around 25% of us that own at least one firearm. The numbers, should even half of us decide to take more drastic measures against the constant infringement of our RKBA, do not work in the governments favor.
Is the time come for us to take up arms? I honestly think that that time will be seen in our lifetime. Because of people like you mostly. You who keep us holding on to the false hope that government can be used to fix government. I've worked locally. I've worked with campaigns. I've donated money and pulled that lever in the voting booth. I've harrangued my co-workers, friends, and relatives, trying to get them to do research... get active. Nothing. My taxes go up. My effective Rights diminish. Corruption is daily observable at every level of our government.
If "We the People" voted to bring back slavery, you'd support that decision. Wouldn't you. Some things are wrong no matter who perpetrates them or how many support them in the implementation. Intelligence and morallity are not additive in nature. We can only hope people like you figure that out before too much more of our Nation is lost.