4 ms·

The US constitution has worked quite well (despite our penchant for drama) for a couple centuries. Oversimplified: recognize states as semi-autonomous, localize

The US constitution has worked quite well (despite our penchant for drama) for a couple centuries. Oversimplified: recognize states as semi-autonomous, localize governance as much as possible, balance voting power to prevent "tyranny of the majority", emphasize individual rights & liberty. Too much of bossing around others does not end well.

nextos 9y ago
Catalonia is as semi-autonomous as Texas right now.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- wolco 9y ago
  But with transfer payments like Canadian provinces where they are paying more than receiving.
autokad 9y ago
yeah, its crazy how people just dont get that anymore. 'the majority (50.1%) of people feel the way I do, everyone else should have to do as I do because that's how democracies work. we live in a society after all'.
icebraining 9y ago
The US did have a civil war during those couple of centuries, though.
- ctdonath 9y ago
  Largely because "50.1%", living hundreds or thousands of miles away, took to bossing the "49.9%" secessionists around. It also involved imposing a massive moral change with enormous economic consequences, which people understandably had some objections to. Ending slavery as a primary institution was costly.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Right, but that's essentially saying the US Constitution is great as long as it's not really put to the test. The pro-independence Catalonians also say that the central Government has been bossing them around. Besides, maybe the Civil War was inevitable, but the war itself caused a major shift of in the balances of power. The Constitution may not have changes, but the country did, and it's dubious that you can consider the pre and after periods as a continuous link.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> The US constitution has worked quite well (despite our penchant for drama) for a couple centuries If you ignore the simmering dispute present at the founding that exploded into general crisis in the mid-19th Century and then into civil war, sure, you could maybe argue that it worked well for a couple of centuries. But even so you'd have to ignore that the Constitution before and after that crisis are fairly radically different. (Though some of the significant differences saw no substantive effect until the 20th Century.)

nextos 9y ago

Catalonia is as semi-autonomous as Texas right now.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
wolco 9y ago
But with transfer payments like Canadian provinces where they are paying more than receiving.

autokad 9y ago

yeah, its crazy how people just dont get that anymore. 'the majority (50.1%) of people feel the way I do, everyone else should have to do as I do because that's how democracies work. we live in a society after all'.

icebraining 9y ago

The US did have a civil war during those couple of centuries, though.

ctdonath 9y ago
Largely because "50.1%", living hundreds or thousands of miles away, took to bossing the "49.9%" secessionists around. It also involved imposing a massive moral change with enormous economic consequences, which people understandably had some objections to. Ending slavery as a primary institution was costly.
- icebraining 9y ago
  Right, but that's essentially saying the US Constitution is great as long as it's not really put to the test. The pro-independence Catalonians also say that the central Government has been bossing them around. Besides, maybe the Civil War was inevitable, but the war itself caused a major shift of in the balances of power. The Constitution may not have changes, but the country did, and it's dubious that you can consider the pre and after periods as a continuous link.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> The US constitution has worked quite well (despite our penchant for drama) for a couple centuries If you ignore the simmering dispute present at the founding that exploded into general crisis in the mid-19th Century and then into civil war, sure, you could maybe argue that it worked well for a couple of centuries. But even so you'd have to ignore that the Constitution before and after that crisis are fairly radically different. (Though some of the significant differences saw no substantive effect until the 20th Century.)