4 ms·
Fix it? Sure, the US Founding Fathers had all been there, done that, gotten the T-shirt, and showed us how: (1) Have freedom of the press so that the press ca
by graycat 13y ago
Fix it? Sure, the US Founding Fathers
had all been there, done that, gotten
the T-shirt, and showed us how:
(1) Have freedom of the press so that
the press can put out the information
needed for an informed citizenry.
(2) Have freedom of speech and assembly
so that the citizens can learn, discuss,
and decide.
(3) Have the Bill of Rights so that
the government can't just run roughshod
over the citizens.
(4) Have three branches of government
so that there can be checks and
balances and keep, say, the Executive
Branch from becoming dictatorial,
self-serving, self-perpetuating,
and tyrannical.
(5) Have the President and the Congress
elected by the citizens, directly or
nearly so and, thus, have them elected
out'a there when the citizens don't
like them.
Then, presto, to solve the problems, citizens
just need to become informed and, then,
behind some curtains pull some levers.
Done. All the powerful, wealthy, connected,
crooked dirt bags in government float
belly down down the Potomac River.
Net, we just need to become informed and
pull the levers.
And, there's another way: Bring law
suits, e.g., citing the Fourth Amendment.
So,
Q. Go to war in Syria?
A. Not without money voted by Congress.
Q. Implement ObamaCare?
A. Not if the citizens and/or courts
don't like it.
Q. NSA spying on US citizens?
A. Not if citizens vote to stop that
stuff and/or court cases get brought
and are successful.
Q. The spying on US citizens as in the
OP?
A. Not if citizens don't like it
and/or there are suitable court cases.
Q. US Customs taking mobile electronic
devices of US citizens and extracting
and keeping all the data?
A. Not if, right, the usual, citizens
and courts stop it.
Etc.
- namlem 13y agoThe US government is flawed on a deep constitutional level. The incentive structures and oversight mechanisms are broken. The constitution is pretty much a joke at this point. The founders knew it would become outdated quickly and recommended rewriting it every 25 years or so.
- Wingman4l7 13y ago> The founders knew it would become outdated quickly and recommended rewriting it every 25 years or so. Interesting! Where was this mentioned -- in their personal correspondence, or a more public document?
- omd 13y agoIt's a concept rather than a specific quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Constitution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Constitution
- rory096 13y agoHere's the well-known rationale from Thomas Jefferson: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.html http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.h...
- Amadou 13y ago(1) Have freedom of the press so that the press can put out the information needed for an informed citizenry. At the time the bill of rights was written, the term "press" did not refer to any sort of news organization. It meant a literal press - the idea was that publication by anyone with the means to publish was not to be restricted. Nowadays everyone has the modern equivalent of a press so it is unfortunate that the meaning of "press" has been narrowed to a poorly-defined set of semi-official news distributing organizations.
- graycat 13y agoGood! Now with blogs we can return to the original meaning!
- flagnog 13y agoAnd if none of that was enough, have enough guns to force a regime change.
- grrowl 13y agoI continually don't understand this argument. Any group of armed and motivated people intending on taking down the government would be stopped, one way or another, before they can assemble a well-organised militia. The presence of guns might make you safer in a number of narrow scenarios but not against anything as large as a state-wide police force, let alone the US Army.
- aniro 13y agoYou see to forget that the height of military technology of the day was the Kentucky or Pennsylvania long rifle. The militia was intended to be the primary form of military organization. Fundamentally, an armed citizenry was to be the final check against the abuse of power by the state.
- Zigurd 13y agoThe Iraqis managed to kick us out with rifles and improvised mines. Not even a single artillery piece, armored vehicle, aircraft, nor any technology less than 50 years old, against $2 Trillion worth of US anti-insurgency doctrine.