Was the US Constitution doomed from the start?

[Vastator]

How about the patriot act?

 

[regent]

Seems either the people had to stay exactly the same as in 1789 if they wanted the Constitution to stay the same, but our life-style changes and we interpret the Constitution to fit those life-style changes. It is too difficult to change the Constitution to fit those changes, so we use laws, Courts and simple changes make it all fit.

 

[Vastator]

Seem to remember a little death, war, and disregard for said constitution in there somewhere to make it all fit.

 

[konradv]

Seem to remember a little death, war, and disregard for said constitution in there somewhere to make it all fit.

I think your problem is with human nature, not the Constitution.

 

[Unkotare]

OP needs to calm the F down.

 

[PratchettFan]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

You are living in one the most prosperous nations in the world, and you feel free to criticize the government with no fear of reprisals whatsoever. What exactly do you have a problem with?

 

[PratchettFan]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

No, many conservatives think the same thing, and they're just as wrong as you.

So for instance had the phrase "all men are created equal", effectively abolished slavery; would the civil war have been prevented? What was plainly worded wasn't even in actual practice at the time. Slavery was.

What of matters of peacefully leaving the Union? Also absent. Surely had you been there, knowing what you know now... you'd be tempted to add maybe a tweak?

"All me are created equal" is not in the Constitution. That is from the Declaration of Independence, which was a piece of propaganda - not law.

 

[PratchettFan]

Seem to remember a little death, war, and disregard for said constitution in there somewhere to make it all fit.

If human beings always got along we wouldn't need law.

 

[rightwinger]

Seems to be working just fine thank you

This is one of those few times in life, that I'm truly shocked by a reply...
You can see no problem current, or past; that could've been remedied by a better drafting?

I see repeal of the 14th Amendment, which was passed at bayonet point during Reconstruction, as the solution to the main problems we face.

It has been interpreted to allow the feds to do almost anything they want.

The Great White Fathers had nothing to do with it.

As a citizen, you have a right to campaign for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. You might as well seek to repeal the 13th while you are at it

You have just as much a chance

 

[rightwinger]

Seems to be working just fine thank you

This is one of those few times in life, that I'm truly shocked by a reply...
You can see no problem current, or past; that could've been remedied by a better drafting?

Greatest document in our history

Still holding strong

Yep, despite the criminal Obama/Holder agenda.

You are welcome to take them before the courts. Our Constitution allows you to do that

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

yes, you are correct. Their intent was to make liberalism illegal but they were not clear enough so now we have a slow liberal decay.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Was the US Constitution doomed from the start?

All man made creations (witness EB's babbling above) are doomed from the start.

 

[whitehall]

The the American Founding Fathers crafted a document that was so revolutionary that Benjamin Franklin addressed the signers of the Declaration of Independence and quipped "we must all hang together or surely we will hang separately". Every functioning government in the entire world today relies on the concept created by the United States of America Founding Fathers and the people's control of the government. The F.F. realized that stupid ,ignorant nut cases would challenge their Constitution and they allowed for it. Try it numb nuts.

 

[Syriusly]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

No, many conservatives think the same thing, and they're just as wrong as you.

So for instance had the phrase "all men are created equal", effectively abolished slavery; would the civil war have been prevented? What was plainly worded wasn't even in actual practice at the time. Slavery was.

What of matters of peacefully leaving the Union? Also absent. Surely had you been there, knowing what you know now... you'd be tempted to add maybe a tweak?

If slavery had been outlawed in the Constitution, the Constitution would never have been ratified.

Thomas Jefferson himself would not have signed it.

The Constitution is a remarkable document- even stronger and more resiliant than the writers understood.

Look what happened last week.

There was an election- and election that happened peacefully. And there was a change in our government- and that will happen peacefully too.

Looking at the history of the world- that is remarkable.

And it works every election.

Amazing

 

[regent]

The election works well for some, not for others, and it is some of the "not for others" that can cause concern.

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

yes, you are correct. Their intent was to make liberalism illegal but they were not clear enough so now we have a slow liberal decay.

"For the framers of the Constitution were the most liberal thinkers of all the ages and the charter they produced out of the liberal revolution of their time has never been and is not now surpassed in liberal thought."
Douglas MacArthur






















'

 

[bendog]

This is one of those questions I've been struggling with for a while. It seems like the nation we are today is so far removed from the one the founding fathers envisioned that; I can only fault the document itself.
Am I the only one who would dare think they may have gotten it wrong?

Your post presumes the Founders did not anticipate that changes in science and world events would render their understanding of society as novel as the Greeks or Romans understandings. And, as a result, they produced a document capable of being adapted without altering the overall concept of representative democracy and compromise.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

"For the framers of the Constitution were the most liberal thinkers
Douglas MacArthur

'

of course the typical illiterate has no idea that liberal then meant they were for very very tiny tiny govt because our Founders realized that central govt had been the source of evil in human history.

Welcome to your first lesson in American History.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

. Every functioning government in the entire world today relies on the concept created by the United States of America Founding Fathers

if only that were true. Our Founders concept was freedom from liberal govt. If other governments practiced that the world would be free of problems today. Today we have liberals like ISIL and Putin using their wisdom and their control of central govt to threated the world.
LIberalism is cancer on human history that cant be wiped out.

 

[regent]

"For the framers of the Constitution were the most liberal thinkers
Douglas MacArthur

'

of course the typical illiterate has no idea that liberal then meant they were for very very tiny tiny govt because our Founders realized that central govt had been the source of evil in human history.

Welcome to your first lesson in American History.

Are you saying MacArthur, a West Point graduate, was an illiterate? Liberalism means the same today as when MacArthur made that speech to the Congress.
MacArthur was wrong however in calling the framers liberals, they were of different ideologies but some of the ideas used in the Constitution were from the Age of Enlightenment, and the ideas were liberal.
.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

"For the framers of the Constitution were the most liberal thinkers
Douglas MacArthur

'

of course the typical illiterate has no idea that liberal then meant they were for very very tiny tiny govt because our Founders realized that central govt had been the source of evil in human history.

Welcome to your first lesson in American History.

Are you saying MacArthur, a West Point graduate, was an illiterate? Liberalism means the same today as when MacArthur made that speech to the Congress.
MacArthur was wrong however in calling the framers liberals, they were of different ideologies but some of the ideas used in the Constitution were from the Age of Enlightenment, and the ideas were liberal.
.

dear stupid illiterate they were liberal only if liberal means very very tiny tiny government because thats all our founders believed in.

Here are some quotes from Jefferson and madison to teach you y our ABC's:

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Most bad government has grown out of too much government.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious