Our laws evolve, as our society evolves, and so must our governmental institutions.
... today ...
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My teacher in middle school did specifically call out that it would take a project over several decades to co-opt the system.
Well, they've been going after the judgeships for decades.
Yeah. That's exactly what happened.
Maybe it's time you guys rewrote your constitution into something more modern instead of treating the old one as a holy scripture handed down from Olympus.
But I doubt that'll ever happen.
The document is open to interpretation. It can mean anything you want it to mean. For example, the first amendment is used to guarantee that unlimited amounts of money can be spent on election campaigns. So I'm not sure rewriting the thing would accomplish anything other than forcing the oligarchs to figure out new legal loopholes.
I'd like the 1st amendment to be altered slightly. Sure, everyone should be free to speak without government sanction but that shouldn't mean freedom to lie. Fox and the rightwing have been abusing the shit out of it for years.
Now is definitely not the time to rewrite the constitution. Could you imagine what the powers that be would do to it?
Subscription based rights.
When I was growing up, they told us the US was the greatest country in the world. Now that I'm older, I realize it's one of the worst in the Western world in nearly every statistic.
So...the us is the greatest at being the worse!
Turns out it only works if the population doesn't believe they want that.
America was built on the ideas of freedom and equality by slave owners who didn't think women should be allowed to vote.
I mean, they did give an earnest try at preventing a king from happening, and it did work for a couple hundred years.
Not exactly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Compromise
Most places wanted no slavery.
The original tryanny of the minority was the planation owners that would not join beyond the Articles of Confederation unless they could continue with the slavery.
Women were still held down as they had been hisrorically, damn near everywhere. Not realy unique here.
Don’t forget they were also terrified of democracy. The Senate is one of the most comically anti-democratic institutions ever concocted. Wyoming has as much power as California. I mean it beggars belief that anyone but a complete imbecile could agree to something like that.
The founding fathers were correct. A pure democracy is also known as mob rule. Anytime you can get 51% to agree with you, you can do whatever you like.
If 51% vote to take the homes of black people, that's decided and done.
Which is why modern democracies are all some form of representative democracy. Which in theory is supposed to act as a sort of check and balance on the system.
But they got it started and we changed some things. We just didn't change enough, or perhaps changed the wrong things.
A lot of people are being shown that a lot of stuff that kept their country going was decorum, shame and tradition, not rule of law.
Interesting take on The Social Contract.
But basically when your entire socoety is disingenuous to some extent, shit falls apart eventually.
Regulatory capture and citizens united both exist to undo those checks and balances. No system is immune to corruption.
Interestingly the US system was always more vulnerable to corruption, and everyone knew it. Our executive branch is far too powerful. That’s why when the US has engaged in nation building they never install governments like ours. Germany, Japan, Iraq, etc. the pentagon always insists on a parliamentary system, because they’re better in every way (less prone to grid lock, less prone to tyranny of the minority, weaker executive, etc.).
Checks and balances wasn't about avoiding fascism.
It was to make sure all three branches of governments stayed in power over the body politic.
And they still are in power.
I was sure that preventing tyranny was part of the deal?
I'd believe it when I see it
Chink in that armor was allow people without education, attention, and just plain common sense to vote
That's a slippery slope my friend. Who gets to decide who is qualified enough to vote? What happens when they decide only select few can vote?
Definitely is a sticky situation. But since democracy is already dead, it could be done via education monitoring. For instance, you get low grades often like D's or worse or don't even show up to class enough to pass, your activity is recorded and you don't get to register to vote. Maintain a C across the board and you do. Do all this monitoring through elementary and secondary. If some go through college, they get auto-registered. Doing all this during younger formative years could vastly improve the voter pools.
Sounds like you agree with Plato. It makes sense.
