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Like it or not, times changed (for better or worse, depending on your view).
Some amendments of the constitution are simply irrelevant today. That is a fact. Other things at the center of current public debate are not even mentioned in the constitution. Its understandable, since the founding father could not tell 250 years in advance what US would be in the 21st century.
Here is a quick exercise: try to write a constitution for the society in 2250 and you'll find it very difficult. Here comes the "living constitution" idea. It breathes and changes with time and society. It can live for very long. The only other option is a dead document, we could bury today.
And perhaps one more exercise: Can you name one country (out of 220+) that live its daily life by closely following a document written 250 years ago?
Clearly you have never bothered to actually read the US Constitution. If you had you would have noticed that the document has been updated 27 times since it was ratified 225 years ago, the last time in 1992.
Furthermore, if you think parts of the US Constitution are "out of date," then get your Congress critter to propose an amendment. There are already more than 50 proposed amendments pending in Congress as we speak.
When they refer to the US Constitution as a "living document" it is reference to its ability to be amended. Only the grossly ignorant or the deliberately deceptive think "living document" means anything you want it to mean, like Obama.
Oh no! Some Constitutional conservatives will be rolling in their graves! Or spewing on their keyboards.
These guys had it all figured out back then. Horse and boar-hair toothbrushes are comin' back.....
Actually, I have much respect for the constitution. The fact that today we still use it, its the best argument for how well it was written. However, the argument is not with the written part, but with our interpretation of it. To allow the adaptation process, many things were left a little open ended by the original drafters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glitch
Clearly you have never bothered to actually read the US Constitution. If you had you would have noticed that the document has been updated 27 times since it was ratified 225 years ago, the last time in 1992.
Furthermore, if you think parts of the US Constitution are "out of date," then get your Congress critter to propose an amendment. There are already more than 50 proposed amendments pending in Congress as we speak.
When they refer to the US Constitution as a "living document" it is reference to its ability to be amended. Only the grossly ignorant or the deliberately deceptive think "living document" means anything you want it to mean, like Obama.
Again, its not the written part. Yes, it can be amended, but I am not sure more amendments will improve it. The constitution is was it is. However each generation has the duty to interpret it, to adapt it, so society can live with it. That's what people like Scalia will never understand.
Great ending tonight of an excellent series! The final moments just got to me!
Since we live in Manhattan, NYC and not very far from East 74th Street think will take a walk past Mrs. Roosevelt's last and former home. Have passed that townhouse countless times before however never knew about its famous resident.
Actually, I have much respect for the constitution. The fact that today we still use it, its the best argument for how well it was written. However, the argument is not with the written part, but with our interpretation of it. To allow the adaptation process, many things were left a little open ended by the original drafters.
Meaning twist it into whatever your agenda is. All one needs to do is read the the language of the men who were involved in the process to know its meaning. Anything else is dishonest.
I am enjoying this documentary. I only wish we had skilled politicians today. Today its all about talking points, building walls between factions, indeed building factions. The New Deal was far from perfect but much good grew from it.
I actually thought that his Baseball documentary was nothing but a long love letter to Jackie Robinson...that's how it felt to me.
Sorta like his Jazz documentary...that was a long, slobbering love letter to Louis Armstrong. It was SO obvious. Lol
Louis Armstrong was a giant of Jazz from the Age of Rag Time to the 1960s, add Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Charley Bird Parker, Billy Holliday, John Coltrane and Miles Davis and you pretty muck have hit the highlights of real American Music
It is notable that the largest contributors — I.G. Farben, German General Electric (and its affiliated company Osram), and Thyssen — were affiliated with Wall Street financiers. These Wall Street financiers were at the heart of the financial elite and they were prominent in contemporary American politics. Gerard Swope of General Electric was author of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Teagle was one of NRA’s top administrators, Paul Warburg and his associates at American I.G. Farben were Roosevelt advisors. It is perhaps not an extraordinary coincidence that Roosevelt’s New Deal — called a "fascist measure" by Herbert Hoover — should have so closely resembled Hitler’s program for Germany, and that both Hitler and Roosevelt took power in the same month of the same year — March 1933.
German Chemical technology in the 1930s was in many cases superior to that of Dow, DuPont or any other American Chemical Company and IG Farben held many US Patents on Chemicals and Processes to make those chemicals and hence could keep American companies out of many chemical industry sectors.
So one had to do business with IG Farben and exchange patents with them so they could take the technology and use it in Europe. For example the patent for a superior rubber gasket material called Buna N was obtained by giving IG the rights to make neopreme (a synthetic rubber) Thuis became crucial for Germany when the British and Americans cut off deliveries of natural rubber from Malaya and West Africa (Liberia). A lot of this happened until Dec 1941, .
Obama was basically a political naïf when he came into the WH and it showed.
Like it or not Obama has to get a mention because again the man regardless of if you agree with his policies did manage to make government work where it hadn't before.
I agree with the first sentence and wonder if you voted for him despite his obvious lack of experience and qualification for the most important job in our country?
As to you next sentence, I find it hard to believe you can be that brainwashed. If anything he has been one of the least effective presidents that has ever held the office, certainly in my lifetime. Let's not forget that the countries biggest problem when he came into office was the economy and lack of jobs. Instead of focusing on that as his primary issue, he used his political capital to push through Obamacare on a purely partisan basis and poisoned the well for any chance of working with the other side of the isle. So if Obamacare is the only thing to hang his hat on, you can hardly say he managed to get government working again.
All he and the (D's) did was create a situation to where they lost the House and set up gridlock which we are still experiencing today. The (D's) have no chance to take back the House this midterm, so regardless of what happens in the Senate, six of eight years will have been a disfunctioning government.
As I said, Obama seems incapable of getting the government to work because unlike those other presidents you mentioned, he does not have the leadership ability to do so. Maybe if he had some previous executive experience he might have been able to know how to bride the divide like Reagan/Clinton, but instead we are stuck with someone who will go down as one of the least effective leaders in our history.
I'd take any of the other POTUS's you listed at half capacity, and they would still be far more successful than Obama ever can be.
I am enjoying this documentary. I only wish we had skilled politicians today. Today its all about talking points, building walls between factions, indeed building factions. The New Deal was far from perfect but much good grew from it.
What good?
Do you mean that raising income taxes by over 400% from 1933 to 1944 to pay for FDR's illegal New Deal was a good thing? Or perhaps you mean delaying the recovery from the depression so that millions more could suffer was a good thing? Or maybe you meant having a fascist President who dictated his will rather than abide by the Supreme Law of the land was a good thing?
In either case, you have a very strange idea of what constitutes "much good."
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