Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Apparently not, as the majority of them have neglected to answer that very simple question.
Had the OP asked the "simple question" and then stopped, there would have been simple answers. However, the OP's rant against Republicans prohibited any meaningful discussion.
So, you think that SCOTUS always interprets the Constitution correctly? You do know that SCOTUS has decided in ways that supported slavery?
Come on! You think that SCOTUS is always correct? You think that SCOTUS is the final arbitrator of the Constitution?
[It is] working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing like a thief over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the states, and the government of all be consolidated into one.
- Thomas Jefferson on the federal judiciary
Incorrectly.
Oh, please! So, because SCOTUS in the 1850s decided in favour of slavery in numerous cases, and that's why, per the Constitution, slavery still exists in the US and is constitutional.
Er... Not my personal interpretations. The Founding Fathers and framers of the Constitution wrote volumes and left a clear record of what they believed and intended.
I'm well-familiar with the text of the constitution, and with the Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist writings, and with the history of the debates and deliberations leading to ratification of our Constitution, and with the history that led up to the settlement of America and the war of independence from Great Britain.
You might want to read up a bit on all that before posting more errors!
I can quote many of the Founding Fathers and framers of the Constitution, if you'd like. Modern day challenges? That's a joke. The issue is simple and the ideals of the Constitution apply to modern day challenges easily.
The Constitution should be read after first reading the Declaration of Independence. You should give that a try! The purpose of the Constitution is to LIMIT the power of the Federal Government and SECURE the unalienable rights of the People.
How do you not know and understand this?
FYI: Thomas Jefferson was a hypocrite who not only owned other people like he owned his horses and cattle, but also tried to use the power of government to attack his political opponents, so he undoubtedly disliked having the SCOTUS thwart him. Your worship of his writings taken out of the context of the reality of his actions demonstrates your ignorance of Early American history. Even by the standards of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Jefferson failed to live up to most of his eloquent written words.
The Declaration of Independence has absolutely nothing to do with the US Constitution. It's a separate document written for a specific purpose: justifying rebellion against the King of the United Kingdom. The document that actually limited the central government was the Articles of Confederation, which created the document under which the US won its independence and began its existence as a sovereign state. The inability of the government created under the Articles to function effectively is why there was a constitutional convention in the first place.
The purpose of the US Constitution is NOT to limit the power of the federal government but exactly what it proclaims in the preamble: to make the government better and to provide for the general welfare, common defense, etc. It provided for a much stronger central government because the Articles proved that a loose confederation was unworkable. The only guarantees of individual rights in the Constitution were in the first ten amendment which were added in order to get the Constitution passed. Otherwise, it would have been a document guaranteed to protect the wealthy and their property from "the mob".
What I find absolutely amazing is how so many self-appointed "Constitutional experts" among conservatives are so absolutely and abysmally ignorant of US history. Maybe y'all ought to try reading a real history book instead of getting your "facts" from right wing pundits and web-sites.
Questions like this - filled with insults towards those to whom the question is supposedly directed - are a useless waste of time. You're not really asking a legitimate question. You don't really want legitimate answers. You're a conservative basher, ready to pounce on anybody who attempts to humor you by providing their perspective on your supposed question. And you're hoping like hell that others who feel the same way you do will join in on all the fun and bash right along with you.
My husband and I have two inside joke about liberals.
1. Liberals are big - everything about them is a little over-the-top. Facial expressions are bigger, body gestures are bigger, voices are louder, their humor and their angst are both bigger than conservatives. Everything is just a little too animated. Watch for it on news shows next time and then tell me I'm wrong.
2. Liberals in a group - I'm OK. And you're OK. And WE'RE OK..................aren't we?????
Have a nice night and sleep well Princess. Yes............you're OK..
The Liberals National Anthem, to the tune of "My Country Tis of Thee"
A Pox on me!
My Country's always wrong, This the Liberal's Song,
A Pox on meeeee;
Land Where we Should not be, We should have died at sea;
There is no country worse that we,
A pox on meeeee;
Indians feel like trees, We drove them to their knees,
A pox on meeee;
Smallpox and syphilis, They got it all from us; The are no people worse than us,
A pox on meeeee......
Conservatives pride themselves on being the party of patriotism, but what do they really love about this country?
To me, it seems like the America they love is a hypothetical, idealized America that never existed. One that is portrayed in shows like Leave it to Beaver and the Andy Griffith Show, all of which is fiction. They talk about traditional American values yet the only value that has been consistent since the American Revolution is progress. This country only had a decade (the 1950s) in which the values that the Republican Party wants to take us back to actually existed in some form, and even then, it wasn't what you see on the sitcoms of the era. The 1950s weren't as glorious or as pristine as what most Republicans will tell you...they had their dark side.
When it comes to the real U.S., it seems like conservatives actually hate it. They hate Obama to the core and won't even support him when he does what they would do. It's natural when your party is not in power to disagree with the President. Liberals derided Bush. However, no time in recent American history has a President been hated to the extent Obama is by the right.
Instead, they praise Putin.
Furthermore, its not uncommon for conservatives to wish death and destruction upon a large portion of the citizens of this nation because they are unhappy with a Supreme Court decision. Just this week, Rick Joyner said he was happy about the drought in California and prayed for it as means for God to punish California and America for tolerance of homosexuality. Many conservatives are actively praying for God to destroy this country for legalizing gay marriage. Glenn Beck, this week, said that America is more evil than Nazi Germany because a Ten Commandments statue got removed from the Oklahoma State Capitol. Is that evidence of a party that really loves America? Almost every prominent Republican Presidential candidate has vowed to place their interpretation of the Old Testament above the Constitution. Are they really going to do that and say they are the party of freedom and individual liberty?
To me, it seems like the Republican Party is a party of hate and anger and they have no love for the U.S. as it is today. Republicans love the version of America portrayed in 1950s sitcoms that never actually existed but they hate America in 2015, so much so as they want to invoke their deity to destroy this nation by fire and brimstone. The thought of death, destruction, and suffering across this nation actually makes them happy.
So what, if anything, do conservatives actually love about today's America?
I love the fact that government officials are not permitted to drop people like you on their heads from 4 story buildings.
I'm not saying that it is wrong, necessarily, I'm just saying it is not permitted.
The purpose of the US Constitution is NOT to limit the power of the federal government but exactly what it proclaims in the preamble: to make the government better and to provide for the general welfare, common defense, etc. It provided for a much stronger central government because the Articles proved that a loose confederation was unworkable. The only guarantees of individual rights in the Constitution were in the first ten amendment which were added in order to get the Constitution passed. Otherwise, it would have been a document guaranteed to protect the wealthy and their property from "the mob".
What I find absolutely amazing is how so many self-appointed "Constitutional experts" among conservatives are so absolutely and abysmally ignorant of US history. Maybe y'all ought to try reading a real history book instead of getting your "facts" from right wing pundits and web-sites.
It provides for the general welfare and common defense via the enumerated powers of Article 1, Section 8:
Quote:
Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof
I may not be an "expert" but I can read and both the Constitution and the Federalist Papers aren't that difficult.
The OP has an obvious bias, but the question itself is fairly legitimate. What do conservatives really like about America? It's usually answer like the above: freedom; which is a parody of itself.
The thing with this, I don't hear this question a lot. I wish I heard it more. It's a good question. It'd be better if the little jabs were removed, but the question is an excellent one.
Now the 'are liberals actually communists' thing exists by the thousands. And it's completely void of intellect.
What you described as a Republican form of government is not a Republican form of government. What you described is called anarchy.
A republican form of government is simply a government where people play an active role in deciding how the government operates. We're a constitutional Republic, which is closer to what you described, in that the Constitution is supposed to limit what the governmetn is allowed to do. But that was written by the government, not the people.
Also, what you described as Democratic governmetn is also wrong. Democratic is painfully vague, but it's essentially a majority rule no matter what. It's very utilitarian. But it means the people decide on basically all things.
These definitions of course spring from your partisan thinking.
We also have always taken from some to give to others. That's what a tax is. That's what they've literally always been in every society. You just don't like that the taxes go to certain things. The military has always been funded by taxes. Your money is taken from you and given to them. Are you against that? I'm assuming not. You're against something like welfare though. See, you're arguing the wrong thing completely. Because of partisan thinking. Various conservative pundits have convinced you that the military is some natural state of being, but it's not. It's the same as welfare, you've just decided that you think it's more important. Which is insane given that we haven't been in a justifiable war since 1940 and have really only had 1 genuine foreign attack in that time (which was in 2001, and not from any country or entity that we actually declared war on).
I read through OPs post. He didn't say one thing to indicate what he believes the role of government. You have no evidence to back up your accusation, and didn't even attempt to answer his question. So why are you here, Lovehiscountry? And how ironic that you didn't answer.
But again, partisan thinking. He didn't voice an opinion that was identical to my own, so he's on the other team no matter what. And there's only two teams. And only one team is good because only one loves Jesus and America. That's what liberty is all about after all. Doing it my way!
First of all, I'm going to assume that you have never served in the military, comparing it to welfare is twisted logic. Money isn't just given to the individual, they have to earn it, this may be beyond your comprehension, but it is the way it works. Military personnel just don't sit around waiting for their pay to come in each month, again, they really do work for it.
Second, if we follow your logic about the military, then we can assume that all government employees are on government welfare. The average pay of a government employee is 80,000 a year, again this is average. The average wage of private sector employees is around 60,000 a year, again this is average.
So is it justifiable that we have 2.5 million government employees when our government has such a hard time even functioning. You speak of tax dollars being wasted on the military, how about all the waste being spent on dysfunctional government that is trying to cater the needs of that same government.
The conservatives message has always been about standing against something, being angry about something. They will never be happy, that is not their identity, theirs is one of anger, bigotry and spitefulness. They would rather see America falter rather than seeing their political adversaries do something for the good of the country. It's truly sad the polarization has resulted in something so grotesque.
It provides for the general welfare and common defense via the enumerated powers of Article 1, Section 8:
I may not be an "expert" but I can read and both the Constitution and the Federalist Papers aren't that difficult.
I hope you're not attempting to prove that the purpose of the Constitution is to limit the power of the federal government which is what the conservative poster claimed because
Quote:
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof
pretty much gives the federal government the right to do what it wants to do. That's why the promoters of the Constitution, which did NOT include St Thomas of Monticello, had to promise to add the Bill of Rights to the document lickety-split. It's also why almost all the limits on government power stem from either the Bill of Rights or the Civil War era amendments.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You do know that SCOTUS has decided in ways that supported slavery? 
So, because SCOTUS in the 1850s decided in favour of slavery in numerous cases, and that's why, per the Constitution, slavery still exists in the US and is constitutional.
That's NOT in the US Constitution.