Posted on 02/18/2003 4:14:41 PM PST by Nick Danger
American System = Democracy
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Freepers, this is what the Michigan education system is teaching third graders about the U.S. government. I tripped over this page by accident, and could not believe it. According to the web site,
Michigan EPIC is an educational technology project currently focused on the social sciences. A feasibility study for Michigan EPIC was funded in part by the Michigan Department of Education who recognized the need for an electronic, Internet-based, distance learning website that supplies hard to find social science resources and offers pre-service and practicing teachers material to re-educate themselves in new areas targeted by the Department of Education. This initiative is intended to provide materials for teachers and students to achieve the new social studies learning goals set by the state in the Michigan Curriculum Framework and the federal government in Goals 2000. |
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
A democracy is based on balancing the power between each branch of the government so that one branch is not so powerful that it is able to control the whole.
Strange definition for democracy. It sure doesn't look like what the founders figured democracy to be:
In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. - Madison, Federalist #14.
Furthermore the Constitution mandates a Republic as the form of government, not a Democracy:
Constitution Article IV Section. 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.
has no judicial power except for investigation
That would come as a surprise to Andy Johnson and Bill Clinton [and several federal judges]
has no power over other branches except to impede the passage of laws or special programs
Interesting, since it has supreme power over the organization of Judiciary, and it's scope of authority. And must advise and consent to Executive appointees.
Hey, listen, this is all minor. I was taught that the "Constitution of the United States is a living document." Once you accept that lie, anything else is just details.
Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary:
republic, n, ...
1. (a) a state or nation in which the supreme power rests in all the citizens entitled to vote (the electorate) and is exercised by representatives elected, directly or indirectly, by them and responsible to them; (b) the form of government of such a state or nation.
The founders of the Constitution laid the cornerstone of our national republic. -- Joseph Story.
2. ...< snip >...
3. a state or nation with a president as its titular head; distinguished from monarchy.
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U.S. Constitution, ARTICLE IV, SECTION 4:
"The United States shall guarantte to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
I wonder if it's even worth it. This came to my attention by a fluke. I'll bet it's only one of a thousand such ignorant misrepresentations foisted on our nation's unsuspecting schoolchildren every day by our "professional educators."
You have to figure some committee did this... it was proofread... editors of some kind looked at it. Then somebody put it on a web page. And not once during that whole process did this poor web page encounter a single soul who recognized the glaring errors in it. This has to be epidemic among these people. I'm sure it's no better in the other 49 states. Fix this page and ten more just as bad will pop up.
I guess I'd rather see people spend money or time on draining the swamp altogether. Let's fight for school vouchers and hope that in the long run, competition drives the truly inept out of the business.
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