Posted on 10/10/2007 5:39:34 AM PDT by shrinkermd
The presidential candidates are offering prescriptions for everything from Iraq to healthcare, but listen closely. Their fixes are situational and incremental. Meanwhile, the underlying structural problems in American politics and government are systemic and prevent us from solving our most intractable challenges.
If we really want to make progress and achieve greater fairness as a society, it is time for elemental change. And we should start by looking at the Constitution, with the goal of holding a new Constitutional Convention.
Sound radical? If so, then the founders were radicals. They would be amazed and disappointed that after 220 years, the inheritors of their Constitution had not tried to adapt to new developments that the founders could never have anticipated in Philadelphia in 1787.
Thomas Jefferson, for example, insisted that "no society can make a perpetual Constitution. ... The Earth belongs always to the living generation. ... Every Constitution ... naturally expires at the end of 19 years" (the length of a generation in Jefferson's time).
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
It “ain’t broke”, never was - it just needs adhered to.
A couple of amendments that neuter states rights need to be eliminated or “re-interpreted” within original intent.
But, other than that - “it ain’t broke”.
” make progress and achieve greater fairness “
Neocommunist buzzwords....
Fairness is in the eye of the beholder. Hitler thought it was fair for his “master race” to rule the world.
Oh good God. -John Adams
And you know, of course, if it were re-written by the likes of this author, there would be “inherent rights” to the property and production of others.
The author, if you read the whole article, has little knowledge of the reasons the Constitution is structured as it is and no respect, or perhaps even hostility, for traditional values.
No, he’s just upset that he can’t get the courts to “interpret” the Constitution to fit his secular socialist agenda fast enough.
You are SO right... Can you imagine a new constitution being drawn up by the CURRENT bunch we have in Washington??? -goodbye U.S. of A.!!!
As heated as the ratification conventions were in the 1780s, there was far more consensus then than there is now.
How would a new Constitutional Convention work?
It would be illegal to abolish the old one without some kind of constitutionally-approved measure like, say, passing an amendment to sunset it.
You would not get 3/4 of the state legislatures to agree to abolish the US Constitution.
There is an amendment process. Using that would be much better than a new convention.
It would be the greatest disaster ever visited upon mankind. I say that because the United States is the hope and the light that keeps western civilization afloat. The neutered, PC country that would emerge from any new Constitutional Convention would sink to the level of a 2nd world nation and would no longer be able to save the world from itself.
Larry, do you seriously think it’s a good idea to let the same morons who wrote our tax code have a go at a new constitution? To quote Charlie Brown, “good grief!”
def"A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences."
We can leave the the Constiution alone. We just need to crown ALGORGED King since his Academia Award and Noblest Oblige Piece Prize are proof positive that he has the leadership, (anyone checked his EPA violations lately?)
Sarcasm off!
Marilyn vos Savant is my choice!
Why? We don't use the one we have.
The Constitution isn’t broke, the politicians are. And the Constitution empowers we denizens to step up and clean house.
The Federal Government, being a creature of the states, may not require of the states, their subordinate entities, corporations, or private persons, any any way, shape, manner, or form, the expenditure of any funds, for any purpose, without the provision of those funds by the Federal Government.
This would spell the death of unfunded mandates and a good part of creeping socialism.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
If we really want to make progress and achieve greater fairness as a society
ANYONE who reads this for what it is realizes what it means. Redistribution of wealth.
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