I
started reading "A
How-To Guide ..." and quickly grew a chip on my shoulder because—
1) the title itself; and 2) stuff
like this.
"Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was pilloried when she told
Egyptian
revolutionaries last year that she "would not look to the U.S.
Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012." But
her sentiment is taken for granted by anyone who has actually tried to
write a constitution since politicians stopped wearing powdered
wigs.
I don't like RBG. She is a Justice only because her
husband lobbied
Clinton more strenuously than did others under consideration.
"Lobbying Clinton" is accepted code for cash money gifts;
seven-figures was rumored at the time. She's ex-ACLU, and acts
like it. The only modicum of respect she gets from me, besides
her office, is because Justice Scalia likes her.
Okay. I'm wired. Wrote my headline, and began
picking through Alex Seitz-Wald's piece for more incendiary
statements. Like
these quotes from the Thomas
Jefferson to James Madison correspondence.
"
But with respect to future debts,
would it not be wise and just
for
that nation to declare, in the constitution they are forming, that neither the legislature, nor
the nation
itself, can validly contract more debt than they may pay within their
own age, or within the term of 19. years? And that all future
contracts will be deemed void as to what shall remain unpaid at the end
of 19. years from their date? This would put the lenders, and the
borrowers also, on their guard."
And THIS!
"
On similar ground it may be
proved that no society
can
make a perpetual constitution, or
even a perpetual law. The
earth
belongs always to the living generation.[...] Every constitution then,
and every law,
naturally expires at
the end of 19 years. If it be
enforced longer, it is an act of
force, and not of right.--It may be said that the succeeding generation
exercising in fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if
the constitution or law has been expressly limited to 19 years only."
Oh, now they like Jefferson. How nice.
Wait. WTF am I
doing? Arguing against the idea of hard-wired fiscal
policies? Arguing against sunset laws—on every piece of
legislation? Am I nuts? No. I was acting like
a
knee-jerk Democrat— who sees a Rush Limbaugh,
or a Fox News
attribution, and swings into full chimp mode. I saw "Blow up the Constitution and—
MFCS!
You may disagree, but I think Alex Seitz-Wald is on the right
track Towards the end, inevitably, rewriting
the Constitution is addressed. I am here filled with he same dread as you. In a country so politically corrupt—where
Democrats
achieved super majorities in both Houses through election fraud,
who can you trust?
"
When the original constitutional convention convened
in May 1787, members were tasked, simply, with proposing amendments to
the Articles of Confederation. But once they got going, they realized
that the Articles were so flawed and they wanted to change so much that
they would need to start from scratch.
What a convention might look like is for the public to decide. It
might, as Levinson proposes, be populated by citizens selected by
lottery and given two years and plenty of staff and resources to come
up with something."
I cannot buy into it. If I feel that the United
States can never
again win any war if post-Nixon Democrats have any meaningful voice in
its conduct, and I most assuredly do, then no way I want them rewriting
the constitution. But Wait!
Here again, it is Thomas
Jefferson who solves the problem—in his 1787
letter to William
Smith. .
"
God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a
rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always well informed.
The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under
such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the
public liberty.
We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has
been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a
half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & a
half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's
liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their
people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
I
have suggested that it was time for both sides to meet in the
desert. No quarter
given. Brilliant. The losers won't be around to suffer the
horrors of balanced budgets, honest elections, secure borders and
subdued
Judiciary branch. Peace in our Time! Click-click.
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