Putting an end to Constitution worship

Yale Daily News ^ | 9/22/05 | JEFF MANKOFF

[Congressman Billybob]

I DID drop him/her a line. I sent that letter. And, I will write a reply article to this Ph.D.'s article, if asked. We'll see if I get any response.

John / Billybob

[lilylangtree]

"the Constitution is grossly undemocratic. Since Wyoming, with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, has the same clout in the Senate as California, with almost 34 million, each Wyomingite counts 68 times as much as each Californian"

Guess the dweeb missed high school civics. The fact that the House of Reps is based on representation by population. The framers recognized the discrepancy and that's why we have the US Senate where every state has equal representation regardless of population.

[wolfcreek]

Is this some post-election drivel for when they lose the next election?

[LexBaird]

You forgot to include the repeal of the 17th A.: Popular election of Senators. If anything destroyed the sovereignty of the States, it was the removal of their voice in the Federal government.

[Ditto]

If you don't hear back, it might be a good topic for a future article. You could dispel a lot of the myths the left spreads about the Constitution and explain the Big State/Small State compromise, the 3/5 compromise and other little understood areas that even many conservatives sometimes misunderstand. I have actually corrected a couple of conservative talk show hosts (albeit poorly educated) on the issue of suffrage when they said the Constitution limited the right to vote to white male property owners.

[LexBaird]

Heh. You beat me to the correction.

[LexBaird]

I DID drop him/her a line. I sent that letter. And, I will write a reply article to this Ph.D.'s article, if asked. We'll see if I get any response.

Maybe you could .cc his PhD adviser on this correspondence. The advisor may want to address some of this candidate's notions with some pointed questions when it becomes time to defend his thesis.

[Mad Dawgg]

"As Yale political scientist Robert Dahl has pointed out, the Constitution is grossly undemocratic. Since Wyoming, with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, has the same clout in the Senate as California, with almost 34 million, each Wyomingite counts 68 times as much as each Californian. The Constitution is also responsible for burdening us with the Electoral College, a body designed to purposely undermine popular sovereignty. The 2000 election, when Al Gore outpolled George Bush but was denied the presidency by the Electoral College (with an assist by the Supreme Court), is the most recent example of 18th-century oligarchy trampling 21st-century democracy."

Mr. Mankoff if the USA were indeed a Democracy then I would wholeheartedly agree with your assessment but being that we are (and always have been) a Constitutional REPUBLIC well lets just say you are full of feces.

[Junior]

Dear God, this guy doesn't understand thing one about the Constitution.

[SolidRedState]

Typical leftist, communist crapola.

How did this guy get a degree? He knows not one whit about the Constitution or why it exists.

[Beckwith]

Some of the dumbest sumbitches I ever met had a Ph. D.

And they're always the ones that want you to address them as "doctor."

[tgusa]

Granted. But if you can't or don't want to do it, don't sign up, and don't whine when you do.

Just imagine - landing your jet on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier your first week in the squadron. F*ck it up and you and others die.

Just imagine, in your first six months in the squadron, having your every waking hour consumed by caring for an HIV-positive miscreant who you'd rather just shoot. This is a good argument for suicide.

Just imagine proofreading and correcting the evaluations of 250+ personnel, all written by high-school graduates and proofed by college 'graduates' who don't know how to write a correct sentence, never mind construct a paragraph. See comment above.

I get your drift, but there IS life outside of academia, FRiend.

[Gritty]

[Jeff Mankoff is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the History Department.]

His mother may be proud of Jeff, but anybody else associated with Yale should be hanging their head in shame. His ignorance is simply breathtaking!

If this is the best six years at Yale can produce - and a history Ph.D no less - then one and all should save their big bucks and apply forthwith to South Swampy Community College instead.

They would get a far better (and cheaper) education in two years than this fool has acquired in six!

[TChris]

He has a Doctorate in history and he thinks the USA is a democracy?

Not only that, but he probably doesn't understand why the founding fathers didn't create a democracy!

[Colonel_Flagg]

Gee, what is it that a sixth year PHD student doesn't know?

In the case of this particular student, it would appear that the answer to your rhetorical question is "quite a bit."

[youthgonewild]

Being a kook is apparently not a deterrence to getting a PhD. The Constitution had a few problems, like the 3/5 of a person thing, but its body pertaining to government is relevant and powerful. Only one thing wrong with the Constitution, it begins with "electoral" and ends with "college".

[dvwjr]

How is the "three-fifths" of a person a problem with the Constitution? The slave-holding South wanted all of its population - free and slave - to count towards the census so that the South's representation in the House of Representatives would be greater. It was the Northern states which had the "three-fifths" provision put into the Constitution to limit the power of the South.

What's wrong with the Electoral College? It is better than having the House pick the President as was originally proposed. No popular vote 'nationwide' mandate please, that would permit corrupt city political machines to generate nonexistent voters which would influence the results of a Presidential election instead of just the electoral votes of the State in which the city exists...


dvwjr

[youthgonewild]

The electoral college is undemocratic. So Republicans in Hawaii and Massachusetts deserve to be essentially disenfranchised in Presidential elections? Anyone thinking the electoral college is democratic is outright wrong, it's a sham that the Founding Fathers made because they thought people were too stupid to vote. Whether they are or not, they should get the chance. How ironic that a site called FreeRepublic would have so many people who oppose actual direct elections.

[Cougar66]

After reading his first line, his name should be Meff Jankoff.

[Bernard Marx]

Because of the Framers' unclear wording, no one has been able to establish definitively whether this right [to bear arms] belongs only to the militia or to individuals.

Amazing that a Yale history Ph.d candidate doesn't know what the word 'militia' meant to the framers and tries to substitute a totally incorrect definition. The militia ain't the National Guard, sonny.