The article's list of reasons why the U.S. Constitution may hold less appeal worldwide leaves out the most important one: it limits the power of government to control the people. Most elites who write constitutions want to increase their power, not reduce it.
Blake? When, in the last 30+ years has the NYT NOT done so? Certainly since the Kid took over.
I suspect another reason for the "loss of appeal" is the visible evidence that even a Constitution won't stop a dishonest Envy monger from violating it with collusion from the Senate.
It just kinda seems like they've ditched all pretense and come out as socialist revolutionaries. But I guess not quite yet, they still won't admit it in plain language.
If the Constitution is a "breathing" document, then we will ultimately by "suffocated" by the tyranny of those who subvert it and the masses that willingly ignore that we are slowly returning to the Rule of Man rather than the Rule of Law. Read your history, then think, and then think again.
The Roman Empire went down this path and the end result wasn't pretty. It never ends good via the Rule of Man even though the initial promises invariably are seductive.
The Constitution is the ONLY thing that we have that separates us from tyranny. Benjamin Franklin warned us that it is OUR responsibility to keep the Republic. Too many well intentioned but Useful Idiots are eternally omnipresent and can't see beyond their noses of the danger of losing our Republic, one "fair" step at a time. The current Executive Branch is playing a very dangerous game by circumventing the Legislative Branch while a politicized Judicial Branch looks the other way. I am optimistic that even a Liberal with a modicum of education can see this and join us in saying "Enough, Mr. President".
Thomas Friedman, from his mansion, looks at China with awe and envy at the amazing things that are accomplished with such rapidity. Germania was going to be pretty exciting too. I look at the exact things that Friedman covets and I see despotism. I say "no thanks". Our Republic is designed to be sloppy, slow, yet methodic. This is a GOOD thing. I enjoy eating sausage even though its production tends to be grizzly. So goes our Constitution which eternally keeps Man in check. So be patient, ye slugs O Badweb.
I don't see why anyone, other than a leader would have a problem with the US Constitution. It's widely used as a model for emerging democracies! Whether or not these emerging democracies have the ability to keep inline with the US Constitution is a case-by-case scenario. Imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery...
The only people who want socialism/communism haven't read about what actually happens, and see the utopian view (which is attractive). They think they can do it better, or that it can be done better than those who have attempted before, and failed.
Bill Whittle explained it best. Liberals and Socialists see Man as inherently good and he can be changed using scientific social principles. This has been shown time and time and time again to be untrue. A hundred million people died in the 20th century following this philosophy.
Conservatives see the world entirely different. Man is not good and is essentially unchangeable. Man's behavior has remained unchanged since the beginning of recorded history. The US Constitution was written from this perspective and permits people of all races and creeds to live together in relative harmony. Balkanize the US Constitution and you proceed at your own peril.
Fraid yer gonna hafta do yer homework and find it yerself.
The Second Amendment is the Primary Amendment. I actually heard people this weekend in NYC say the Second Amendment was not about guns. It all seems so silly ... until you are ordered to board the train to the East.
Read your history, then think, and then think again.
Rein I have a friend that survived the Holocaust he ran away from the trains. His family didnt they could not or would not believe they were going to be killed. A good site is the JPFO site Jews for the preservation of firearms ownership. Aaron Zelmans site he had stats on how many that mindset killed in the last century.
Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2012 - 08:15 am:
Scary to see a sitting justice on the Supreme Court saying that our constitution is outdated and Egypt should look at South Aficia's constitution as a model. I saw just part of a commentary on this yesterday morning by Judge Napalitano (I was just on my way out and had to leave). He pointed out that South Africa's constitution focuses on the things that the government MUST provide for it's people. It is a case for big government. People need to understand that a government can only give what it first takes away. That provides neither liberty or security. He also had copies of the SA constitution and the US constitution in front of him. Ours is a short pamphlet. The SA constitution is a large book hundreds of pages long. I'm sure that few regular people can begin to fathom their rights under the SA constitution.
Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2012 - 10:11 am:
Obama, the constitutional law professor, along with the flotsam and jetsam of ACLU types like Justice Ruth Bader and Pinch Sulzberger (who is bankrupting the NYT) are using our Constitution to destroy our Constitution.
Liberal, progressive, dopers, mopers and unable to copers. I always enjoy a good conspiracy rant (mine or someone else's). Today's cut and paste emphasizes the ideological subversion at the hands of today's Progs (progressives) and their Red forbearers over the last century.
KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov interview, transcribed extract:
YB: Ideological subversion is the process which is legitimate, overt and open. You can see it with your own eyes. All you have to do, all American mass media has to do, is unplug the bananas from their ears, open up their eyes and they can see it ....
What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country. It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided in four basic stages. The first one being demoralization. It takes from fifteen to twenty years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which is required to educate one generation of students in the country of you enemy. Expose to the ideology of the enemy. In other words Marxism/Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students without being challenged or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism- American patriotism. The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the 60s, drop outs or half baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational system. You are stuck with them, you cannot get rid of them, they are contaminated. They are programed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind, even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words, ... the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To get rid of these people, you need another fifteen or twenty years to educate a new generation of patriotically minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of the United States society.
Our prog friends should not watch or listen to this, but all freedom lovers may enjoy seeing and hearing how we got to where we are in this country, today. It's 30 years old, but underwrites my crypto-conspiracy paranoia.
Nice find on YouTube there Max! Thanks for sharing. Would be nice to find copies of his diagrams and other documentation.
Interesting to note how the audience laughed at a number of very serious points. Apparently some are so terrified of reality, they make reality into a joke.
Quote: “America is in danger, I think, of becoming something of a legal backwater,” Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia said in a 2001 interview. He said that he looked instead to India, South Africa and New Zealand.
That's a joke. New Zealand, a country without a written constitution, but a 'special' unwritten one. I've yet to find out what it is. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is elected by the 'party' and has unbridled 'power' for 3 years. New Zealand doesn't even have an Upper House to keep these bozos in check. The system is a politician's wet dream.
And South Africa has a Constitution spelling out one's rights. Governments can't give rights, they can only take them away and issue 'privileges'.
You guys have traitors working among you. Be careful.
I agree. And thinking of the proposed solutions pPotentially reveals Fox News in a whole other light.
I'm afraid we've hit critical mass though. We're into the 4th or 5th generation of subverted thinking are we not, and our gov't is actively allied with the process at the very highest level.
Only one generation has to be reclaimed from the "big ruse." I'm hoping our Obamunist has gone too far with his attacks on religion and enough of the faithful remain to force him to change course. Or lose big time.
This next election will be our last chance, unless we remove the monsters in it. Do not let them kill the last dream of freedom. There is nowhere left to run.