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Yeah, it boggles my mind how easily the Constitution has been discarded in the US. I grew up thinking that was actually somewhat inviolate. But it's not the fu
by veidr 15y ago
Yeah, it boggles my mind how easily the Constitution has been discarded in the US. I grew up thinking that was actually somewhat inviolate.
But it's not the future; it's already happened. Most US elected officials -- from former constitutional law professor Barry O. on down the line -- have passed blatantly unconstitutional legislation (kill US citizens with no trial, mandatory military detention of citizens suspected of terrorism with no recourse, etc etc etc bleaaahgh). And this guy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantanamo-nightmare.html?_r=3 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantana...
The pragmatic takeaway is that you's better act like the USA is like the corporo-fascist police state dictatorship government of the B-movie scifi flicks you watched growing up. Because it mostly is.
- jonnathanson 15y agoI was really disheartened when I watched that Republican presidential debate a few months back, in which each candidate was asked about the tradeoffs between liberty and security. Aside from Ron Paul, every single candidate on the stage issued a blanket declaration that warrantless surveillance, detentions without due process, and various other infringements on the Constitution were not just acceptable tradeoffs, but necessary ones in the name of "security" (or, really, the mere appearance thereof). By no means are the Republicans the only politicians party to this attitude, and I don't mean to single them out. But that particular debate really brought everything into alarming focus. Discarding the liberties afford to US citizens by our founders, as laid down in the Constitution, will do more to destroy this country's greatness than any single act of terrorism ever could.