I am not really sure that we do. You justify support for what was a spiteful, power grabbing effort to change the nature of the Constitutional compact,
Calling the 14th silly names, and ignoring ~why~ it was needed in 1868 to restore, not 'change' the original intent of the BORs, -- is sheer denial of historical fact.
because you--as I--believe that people have a right to arm themselves for all the right reasons, and specifically cite the use of the Amendment in question, on behalf of gun owners in California. I suggest that there are other Constitutional arguments, which Californians could raise, but that we should not scrap the symmetry of our free system, for one case--an obvious point to most people.
The 14th 'scraps' nothing, and your silly unspecified insistance that 'somehow' it is the source of all evil in our political system, borders on hysteria. - See #28 as to why, imo.
But even if we focus on the problem that Californians are having with their State Government: Isn't the biggest problem California is having today that she is drowning in a sea of new immigrants, many illegal, who have no interest in her traditional values and culture? And it is the 14th Amendment, which takes away the ability of the rooted Californians to effectively deal with their problem.
How weird, - again, with no specifics, you blame the 14th for the political failure in CA. - The flat truth of the matter is that the 'two party' system in CA is a joke. Socialism rules both. So, they co-operate with the federal socialists.
There is nothing basically wrong with our constitution. -- Most everything is wrong with the power structure.
That the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land does not change anything else in that Constitution. If you and I want to enter into a contract to form a partnership to sell shoe laces, and draw up an elaborate partnership agreement, which we declare shall govern all aspects of our partnership, notwithstanding all other obligations in our lives; nothing in such a partnership agreement will extend the area of joint venture in the slightest. It would just mean that no other obligations that we have shall interfere with our obligations to one another in the business of selling shoe laces.
The first eight of the Bill Of Rights were not intended to apply to the States. Chief Justice Marshall, who was the greatest spokesman for a strong Federal role in his era, searched the record and found no hint of any intention to have those Amendments apply to the States. You can argue and rant until you are blue in the face, but that is the historic reality.
You ask, in effect, for specifics as to how the 14th impacts California? It is the 14th, which provides for babies born in any of the States to become automatic citizens. It is the 14th that substitutes a Federal citizenship for State determination of same. (Uniform laws as to Naturalization are not the same thing.)
It is also the 14th Amendment, which has been interpreted to require uniformity or near uniformity in the population of legislative districts--thus preventing any check on numbers in the Legislature. It is the 14th Amendment, which penalizes a State if it disenfranchises large numbers of its "citizens." It is the 14th Amendment, which has been interpreted to prevent cutting off Welfare services on the basis of length of residence, etc..
The "political failure" in California, to which you allude, is not a sudden loss of old values among those who voted for Reagan--or who earlier voted for Senator William Knowland, who was fairly conservative--or for Max Rafferty as the State School Superintendent. What has happened has been a major demographic shift, because of lax immigration policies. That so many, who have never been socially acclimatized into our traditional value system are now voting in California, rather than faced with hurdles designed to at least assure that no one votes, who does not understand our political processes, is very largely attributed to the 14th Amendment. (Section 2)
But, of course, this thread is about Ohio, not California. And to us the 14th Amendment has meant that our Legislature had to be reapportioned, without many of the rural members; that our laws against abortion have been stricken; that some of our school children have been bused to achieve "racial balance"; that schools cannot display the Ten Commandments; that school district lines have been redrawn; that there is no longer prayer in schools; that voting residence requirements have been reduced to the absurd; that the method for our electing Municipal Court judges has had to be changed; that even the best of our local Police have to look over their shoulders, at a whole other and unnecessary level of superintendence and possible harassment; that criminal appeals go on for decades, at enormous expense to the taxpayers, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
If you think that the Fourteenth Amendment is consistent with the original Constitutional intent, you simply misunderstand the Constitutional intent.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site