‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World

[JamesInFlorida]

That is not how I interpret it. The Bill of Rights (i.e the original Constitution) wasn't a reminder to the government to protect our rights, but a safeguard against government infringing upon our 'natural' rights.

For example, the First Amendment does not grant free speech in which the government needs to protect, but acts as a safeguard to curb against government from infringing upon free speech.

Not that I said exactly what you said word for word but wouldn't what I said be the affect of what you said? To protect wouldn't it also mean not to infringe upon?

While it may be the government's responsibility to protect and uphold the Constitution, the Bill of Rights was written to protect the individual from government. After all, our founding fathers spilled blood to fight off an intrusive government. The last thing the anti-federalists wanted to do was give a new found federal government too much power to take away the rights that they just fought for.

The BoR is more of a safeguard against the government and other entities from infringing upon the rights of the individual. If we didn't have then, then government would be the biggest violator of those rights, which they arguably already are.

100% right. The Bill of Rights restricts the government-not give individuals rights/liberties.

 

[editec]

The US constitution needs REGROOVING, folks.

 

[JDzBrain]

I disagree. I agree that the Declaration was "why", but it was why the founders signed the Lee Resolution. The Lee Resolution doesn't mention God, or religion at all. So I think that it's fair to say that the Declaration is the "why" to the Lee Resolution-but not the overall Constitution itself, and especially not the Bill of Rights.

The constitution is was really centralized all the states together to a singular nation.

I don't understand what you are disagreeing with James...other than maybe trying to deny the divinity the founders applied to our rights.

Th Lee Resolutions was written FIRST, then they delayed voting to pass the bill until they could gen up support. A 5 man committee was appointed on the day after it was introduced to write a document explaining the "effects" of the first resolution in Lee...the WHY and WHAT the founders viewed as the reasons our independence was necessary and the Lee Resolution was passed.

Then the the founders voted to approve the language in the Declaration of Independence as the definition of why and what of a brand new government. That what and why...which INCLUDED "Endow by Their Creator" was approve in the language in the Declaration by the founders. Had they not intended it to be applied to the founding of our government...they would NOT have voted to approve it. But it was UNANIMOUSLY approved!

And besides that James, I didn't say that the Declaration was to explain why or what was in the Constitution. It was a document to explain why and what were the REASONS for the need for independence and a new government.

In that respect, it actually had NOTHING to do the the Lee Resolution either. The Lee Bill was simply...and it was a VERY simple bill...it was simply an instrument to accomplish the first steps along the way. The only purpose of the document was as a declaration of intent to succeed from England and to direct Congress to draft a government.

As I said, I don't understand what you disagree with. Why write the Declaration of Independence to "justify" a bill that hand already been passed by the Second Continental Congress. They wouldn't.

The declaration was written to describe the EFFECTS of the independence declared by the Lee bill and the PRINCIPLES for why the Lee Bill was passed. That effect was the formation of a new government and the writing of a new Constitution to explain HOW to do that government. That is exactly what the minutes from that congress show.

The Declaration is the WHAT (preservation of man's inalienable rights) and WHY (because of repression by and unjust ruler) and the Constitution is the HOW...A Representative Republican form of government!

 

[bigrebnc1775]

The US constitution needs REGROOVING, folks.

bush worked on doing that and obama took off where bush left off. It's in the works.