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At least we used to just call it the Department of War. It was much more honest.

by debacle 12y ago

dragonwriter 12y ago
> At least we used to just call it the Department of War. > It was much more honest. The Department of War was only really analogous to the modern Department of Defense for about a decade from 1789 until 1798 when the Department of the Navy was pulled out to its own department. From 1798 to 1947, the "Department of War" was at least as misleading as the modern Department of Defense, since a whole lot of war was conducted under the auspices of another department (the Department of the Navy.)
dragontamer 12y ago
Bull. The 1798 Sedition Act outlawed speech, outlawed prominent authors who were critical to the Adam's administration. Hundreds of dollars in fines and months in prison. (worth a lot in today's money) The First Amendment was passed in 1791. And only seven years later, the US Government was already censoring its citizens who were critical of the presidency. The Bill of Rights only has as much power as the people who watch over the government. It was a battle to get the government to recognize our rights in the 1700s, just as much as it is a battle to get them recognized today. Welcome to politics, this sort of thing _never_ changes. And don't just look at the past with rose-colored lenses. Look at it critically. Politics / government has always been a dirty business. "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others" May I remind you: the Government (and Media) lied about the USS Maine so that we'd get into the Spanish-American war. "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain". We also lied about a number of facts in WW2, but fortunately history proved that we were in the moral right to do so in that war. The US Population is far wiser and smarter today. The difference is that we're no longer ignorant to blatant lies from our government. So I'd argue that today's government is more honest than our ancestors / forefathers even.

At least we used to just call it the Department of War. It was much more honest.

by debacle 12y ago

At least we used to just call it the Department of War. It was much more honest.

> At least we used to just call it the Department of War. > It was much more honest. The Department of War was only really analogous to the modern Department of Defense for about a decade from 1789 until 1798 when the Department of the Navy was pulled out to its own department. From 1798 to 1947, the "Department of War" was at least as misleading as the modern Department of Defense, since a whole lot of war was conducted under the auspices of another department (the Department of the Navy.)

dragontamer 12y ago

Bull. The 1798 Sedition Act outlawed speech, outlawed prominent authors who were critical to the Adam's administration. Hundreds of dollars in fines and months in prison. (worth a lot in today's money) The First Amendment was passed in 1791. And only seven years later, the US Government was already censoring its citizens who were critical of the presidency. The Bill of Rights only has as much power as the people who watch over the government. It was a battle to get the government to recognize our rights in the 1700s, just as much as it is a battle to get them recognized today. Welcome to politics, this sort of thing _never_ changes. And don't just look at the past with rose-colored lenses. Look at it critically. Politics / government has always been a dirty business. "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others" May I remind you: the Government (and Media) lied about the USS Maine so that we'd get into the Spanish-American war. "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain". We also lied about a number of facts in WW2, but fortunately history proved that we were in the moral right to do so in that war. The US Population is far wiser and smarter today. The difference is that we're no longer ignorant to blatant lies from our government. So I'd argue that today's government is more honest than our ancestors / forefathers even.