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Well, technically the constitution doesn't grant anyone the right to vote, nor does it deny anyone the right to vote.
Exactly. When the Constitution was written voting was not considered to be a federal issue. To this day the Constitution has only a few things to say about voting. The Fourteenth Amendment was designed with the objective of universal 21+ male suffrage, but even then it's not an explicit prohibition, since there's only a penalty in representation:
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But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
The Fifteenth Amendment marks the first time the Constitution mandated or prohibited anything regarding voting:
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The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The next time voting was enshrined in the Constitution was the Twenty-fourth Amendment passed in the 1960's:
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The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Last but not least, an amendment was passed in the 1970's capping the voting age at 18:
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The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
So, even today a state can do pretty much anything it wants as long as no poll tax is charged, the right to vote isn't denied based on race, and the voting age isn't more than 18. This doesn't get into equal protection and all that, but that's all the Constitution has to say on voting.
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Nor does the US constitution make it a right to have slaves. It simply doesn't deny the individual states from having slavery.
Again, right on. The Constitution has the fugitive slave clause, a clause prohibiting Congress from banning the slave trade until 1808, and the three-fifths compromise with regards to apportioning representatives. The power to ban or regulate slavery is left to the states. This was critical even back then, since by 1788 Pennsylvania and every New England state had abolished slavery, and slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory, a prohibition which was continued by the 6 states it would later spawn. So, even when the Constitution was written, slavery was banned in a big chunk of the country.
Just as an aside, Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery, doing so in 1777, although it was an independent republic until 1791. The second was Pennsylvania in 1780. The last state to abolish slavery without federal interference was New York in 1817.
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I think its difficult to imagine going back to a certain time-period and being happier back then. I think most people are perfectly content with living in the present.
Not me. I'm only content with living in the future .
An why? I still can't figure out what you all are trying to preserve.
This guy looked up conservative in the dictionary, and based on the literal definition decided that all conservatives literally wanted to preserve everything about one exact moment in history.
We don't want to go back in time, we want the best parts of the spirit of the framers ideas and concepts of freedom, liberty and personal responsibility to be brought back to this time.
And the rest of us is against freedom, liberty and personal responsibility? Everybody comes up with his own meaning of those words, yet you assume your meaning is the most true and original. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Conservative from the word to "conserve". You cannot conserve vague ideas, it's been with us since forever, it doesn't require conservation. You can conserve institutions, customs, general way of life. What of those do you all try to conserve, at what time frame your ideal institutions, customs, etc. flourished?
This guy looked up conservative in the dictionary, and based on the literal definition decided that all conservatives literally wanted to preserve everything about one exact moment in history.
Which is retarded.
Yes, historically conservatives tried to "conserve" certain institutions and ways of life, it has never been about vague ideas until 20th century America, traditionally rootless country, where conservatism became synonymous with the rule of oligarchy unburdened with social concerns. You should go beyond talk radio in your conservative studies.
This guy looked up conservative in the dictionary, and based on the literal definition decided that all conservatives literally wanted to preserve everything about one exact moment in history.
Which is retarded.
He didn't decide that.
He just thought there might be somebody here that he could fool into thinking that was true.
He missed the memo: Americans no longer believe the maneuvers of disingenuous leftist liars any more.
Originally Posted by steven_h How about the Bill of Rights? This isn't a conservative or liberal question.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
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Originally Posted by pch1013
And where exactly in the Bill of Rights is that verbiage found?
Holy cow, literal much? It really isn't hard to apply critical thought to a post, unless of course you couldn't attack the meaning so you chose to attack the author.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are not mutually exclusive documents. They walk down the same roads, and lead to the same conclusions. We are born with a natural set of rights, given to us by our creator (whomever that might be) and not by man.
The question is: what time frame in history you are trying to preserve forever?
My answer is that it isn't a timeframe, but rather an idea.
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