Please let me know, are any of you interested in a “constitution study group”?
I can post a line, or article, or section of the constitution daily.
Then we can see if we agree or disagree about what it means.
The phrase “constitutional conservative” deserves an early death.
Tags: GOP Hypocrisy
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OK, without anyone saying “Yeah, Timbuk! Let’s DO this!”, WTF does the preamble mean, to you?
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
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What this means to me, in the loosest terms (and whether baggers like it, or not, the founders wrote it to be “loose”) it means it’s the responsibility of the government to make sure that we all have an EQUAL shot at “the American Dream”.
“We the people” means we’re in charge, not a king. Or the new government.
“Perfect union” isn’t a state of what’s happening in 1776, but a statement of what we can BUILD.
“Establish justice” doesn’t mean, for example, “unilateral rule”. Note the word “Freedom” repeated, over and over. “Justice” is best taken in context with the rest of the constitution.
“Insure domestic tranqulity”: honestly, I see this as using power, which they lacked at the time, to protect individual rights. As in “I’m happy to fuck my wife and eat some turkey” as long as I don’t have to worry about foreign invasion.
“Provide for the common defense” provides for an Air Force, even though it couldn’t have been envisioned, at the time. It means there are some “arms” that “citizens” can’t maintain, monetarily or physically.
“Promote the general welfare”. Well, isn’t that a fine kettle of fish. Here, I suspect the most objection from teabaggers, et. al. But isn’t it obvious? This “new” government is meant to provide the freedom to do as we please, unless it interferes with others to do as THEY please. The contrast is, there were a few people in 1775 who owned 90% of the land. Now, we’ have lots of folks who need their “welfare” protected from the wealthy.
“Liberty” has a definition: “the concept of ideological and political philosophy that identifies the condition to which an individual has the right to behave according to one’s own personal responsibility and free will.”
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I thought it was too early in “the series” to go into the compromises that were made to write the constitution in the first place.
Maybe that’s the best place to start?
I’d prefer to let “the community” drive, for a while, so whattayou think?
But yeah, some people who were absolutely horrified by slavery gave in on that because their fear of England was greater.
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I found a copy of the Constitution amid my helter-skelter library. So now it is in my hand. And I am ready.
The preamble was discussed in a slate political gabfest, the one before last.
Trashing everything I wrote. Much of the time I am humbled by the thinking on this board. I can’t always tune in to what you all are discussing, for it takes on a kaleidoscope of topics that I have simply not thought about. So I am thinking that I will mostly read, and then add a comment when I have the compulsion to do so.
I will not presume to meet you intellectually.
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Oh dear, I trashed what you one upped. Tim, I just don’t think I can meet the high quality of mental exercises that are on this board.
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I deleted the words and replaced them.
I think we have to think about the word “union”. I mean, that word has seriously negative connotations to some people. And it must ruffle some feathers to know that use of that word was the preamble of the US Constitution. While I am sure they mean, the union of the states, while assuring the states to act independently, that they must stand together against challenges that befall any one of those states. How far we have traveled from those days. But if a question was posed to me if I could choose what era of our country’s history would I most like to live thru or during, I think it would be now, at this time. Well, the wild west is extremely intriguing. But I wouldn’t want to be a woman back then. I like how far this country has travelled in understanding and legislating the human condition. This is the time, folks, the rare and valuable present. We live the apex of the US Constitution. It is my hope our children do as well.
Welfare. Blessings of Liberty.
Welfare, the promote the well-being of all citizens in a noble aim. With health, prosperity, happinesss. But these are things a country can promote, but it cannot hand it to you. IMHO, the above are active verbs. They are actions we go out into this world and DO, and live. Or we don’t. I think sometimes people are feeling freedom overload, the Blessing of Liberty too overwhelming for a fatigued mind (or is it the poison we put in the tap water to save the most replaceable body part available). Perhaps they don’t really know how to, or are unwilling to, live happiness, prosperity and health. Is it our country’s job to teach these people how to flow into these active verbs? Suddenly “union” takes on a whole new meaning.
I think we live in a drugged society.
I think we are guided in what to think, how to think by clever use of words.Do I think today that our own legislators could write something as profound as the US Constitution? No, none of them have lived the times that necessitated this kind of document.
Oh my beloved boys are here!!
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And the word welfare has a real negative connotation in today’s world too. I think there is just a lot of doublespeak going on these days, where connotations are adjusted to mean something opposite of the true meaning of the word. The Patriot Act, one of the most Constitution-diminishing acts of any US Congress and they called it the Patriot Act.
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