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The Constitution isn't working
The Hill ^ | Dec 28, 2021 | John Kenneth White

Posted on 12/29/2021 5:18:44 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?

The U.S. Constitution is the sacred text of American government and civic life. But it's time to face facts: The document, written in 1787, isn't working. The signs are all around us. Just 38 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll expressed either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the presidency, down from 48 percent in 2001. Congress, never high in the public's estimation to begin with, fell from 26 percent to a mere 12 percent. The Supreme Court has also taken a hit, down from 50 percent to 36 percent during the same period.

One reason often cited for the failing Constitution are the people who inhabit its carefully crafted institutions. In Congress, serious legislators are scarce, as many members aim for viral recognition on social media. Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) freely admitted, "I have built my staff around comms [communication], not legislation." Cawthorn is hardly alone: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) represent a new breed of legislators who seek recognition and are largely uninterested in passing actual laws.

Disappointing presidents have become the norm. George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump failed to bring the country together, with Trump leaving office amplifying spurious claims of election fraud that led to the insurrection on Jan. 6. Although it is early in the Biden presidency, voter disenchantment is already clear, and the unity he promised in his inaugural address seems as elusive as ever. In the 19th century, James Bryce famously remarked that great men do not become presidents. Indeed, great presidents such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt are the exception, not the rule.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: constitution; federalist; livingconstitution; originalist; sidebarabuse
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To: Ouderkirk

Nothing the Democrats have done was possible without the assistance of the GOP.

Neutering the natural born citizen clause was something BOTH parties wanted.

Natural born citizens are NATURALLY citizens because they are born here of citizen parents and have only ONE nationality.

BOTH parties wanted to run ineligible candidates.

Cruz, Jindal, Rubio, Haley and George P. Bush are all ineligible and were seen as the future of the party and why the GOP went along with the Kenyanesian Usurpation.

Even here on Free Republic many will argue that Anwar Al-Awlaki’s kids, born in Yemen to one citizen parent, are natural born citizens eligible to be President because they want Cruz to be eligible.


41 posted on 12/29/2021 6:26:25 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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I always disagreed with the decision to not have teeth to enforce the Constitution. Death penalties mandatory in most cases, primarily as a deterrent.


42 posted on 12/29/2021 6:26:50 AM PST by USCG SimTech ( )
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

The Constitution is working fine, the problem is its not being followed...


43 posted on 12/29/2021 6:27:14 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: no-to-illegals

Roberts blew it in 2020 by allowing lower court judges rule that candidates had no standing in challenging election laws changed by state executive branches instead of the legislature. He had the chance to reassert the coequal powers of the judiciary and curtail the executive and passed on it.
Our founders cringed at powerful executive assumption of power. They knew how Kings made society unstable. Europe was at war forever because of kings. Hope that isn’t my granddaughters fate. Thank you John Roberts.


44 posted on 12/29/2021 6:27:37 AM PST by Waverunner (I'd like to welcome our new overlords, say hello to my little friend)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
The Constitution isn't working being followed

Fixed it

45 posted on 12/29/2021 6:32:53 AM PST by ALASKA (RESIST)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

We need to make our other founding document, The Declaration of Independence, work like never before. It’s time. Way past time.


46 posted on 12/29/2021 6:33:28 AM PST by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.p)
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To: no-to-illegals
The Constitution is not working simply because the morally corrupt politicians we have sent to DC are not governing by the Constitution and the public is not requiring that they do so.

Ant-Constitution libs frequently, as this one does, bring up the fact that the Constitution was conceived in 1787 as a reason that it is no longer useful. In doing so, they demonstrate that they have no understanding of why there is a Constitution and its purpose.

The real purpose of the Constitution is an attempt to control the ambition of those who would enslave us. It is that simple.The Constitution is not about how many rounds are in your magazine nor how much noxious fumes your engine emits.

The Constitution is about the nature of man, which has changed very little, if any, since the beginning of mankind and our failure to understand that will be our downfall.

47 posted on 12/29/2021 6:41:07 AM PST by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so bad that the federal government can not make worse.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Because the people won’t accept Democrat policies, the Constitution needs to be re-written to force people to accept Democrat policies…


48 posted on 12/29/2021 6:44:57 AM PST by Magnatron
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

“Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) represent a new breed of legislators who seek recognition and are largely uninterested in passing actual laws”

A conservative’s role in government is to keep things the same. Vote no. A Democrat’s role is to change things. Progressively.

As a citizen if you are happy with the easy things are, you want a conservative

The idea is that Republican voted to keep America a “republic” while a Democrat wanted to move it to a democracy. This is achieved with the singular vote to eliminate the electoral college.

Author is a leftist. He can’t get over the idea that people are smart enough to know what they are doing. Leftists hate pele but they love their rulers and overlords. They’ve been trained to by very cunning means.


49 posted on 12/29/2021 6:45:15 AM PST by Celerity
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To: Lurkinanloomin

To you point, they both were willing, but the democRATS went there first.

Since 1861 the democRATS have been trying to destroy the constitution and the nation constructed by it.


50 posted on 12/29/2021 6:46:53 AM PST by Ouderkirk (The democRATS are not looking to govern, they intend to RULE.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

The Constitution works when liberal idiots let it work.


51 posted on 12/29/2021 6:55:24 AM PST by SkyDancer ( I make airplanes fly, what's your super power?)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

You could beat a Formula 1 race car by walking backwards if the driver of the car doesn’t know how to operate it.

All but two of the current justices cannot read above a third grade level. If they could then Trump would still be president. But since he put three of them in there and blew such a massive opportunity I guess you can say the politicians we are electing are just as much to blame.


52 posted on 12/29/2021 6:56:23 AM PST by bramps (t's the Islam, stupid!I )
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To: Joe 6-pack
Yes, both of our only PHD presidents have been disasters.

I do believe that the decay of the nuclear family has been aided by the Welfare State prompted, in part, by the availability of aid to women with children.

I also know that most women are perfectly capable of voting wisely but both sexes will vote out of wanton greed.

The teachers union is largely female and wields incredible power.

53 posted on 12/29/2021 7:01:01 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (I use an euphemism for "Let's Go Brandon!". It's F*** Joe Biden! )
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To: Openurmind

You lost the power of the purse in 1963 when payroll deductions for taking taxes became law, and some would argue that happened when income taxes were put in place.


54 posted on 12/29/2021 7:04:26 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,” John Adams

Guess what. We have long ceased to be a moral and religious People. Is it any wonder that corruption, avarice, self-interest, thirst for power, and a push for communism has decimated the Constitution at present, and getting worse.

Queue the Alexander Fraser Tytler quote:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”


55 posted on 12/29/2021 7:11:00 AM PST by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (America -- July 4, 1776 to November 3, 2020 -- R.I.P.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

How can you TRUST government when you see the Presidents son making millions simply because of our presidents influence.

Its not the constitution thats the problem, its the people.


56 posted on 12/29/2021 7:12:14 AM PST by No_More_Harkin
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

I didn’t read the author’s drivel past a couple of paragraphs. But I bet he didn’t give the best argument against the Constitution. That would be John Adams’ statement that the Constitution was intended for a moral and religious people and is wholly unfit for any other.

It follows from that that the blue states and cities should either be kicked out of the Union, or be reduced to something like territorial status where they can do less damage to real Americans.


57 posted on 12/29/2021 7:15:33 AM PST by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump failed to bring the country together

It's pretty hard for Bush and Trump to bring the country together when there was nothing but hate, hate, and more hate from the press, including The Hill.

See Tagline.

58 posted on 12/29/2021 7:16:10 AM PST by libertylover (Our BIGGEST problem, by far, is that most of the media is hate & agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: Paco

Exactly right, Palo.

The biggest challenge well-known to all framers of governments and constitutions the past 2,500 years is preventing the power-mad criminals from destroying the government and civilization.

Growing up in the Post WW II era, we thought order and liberty were the norm and could not be destroyed. President Reagan starkly told us the loss of liberty and freedom were only one generation away and we scoffed.


59 posted on 12/29/2021 7:16:14 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

because they are not actually following the constitution anymore


60 posted on 12/29/2021 7:16:48 AM PST by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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