I was in local politics for six years JD. It is highly insulting to me that you think we all do it for selfish reasons.
LOL...well, we ARE free to feel however we want, but there really is no need to be liberty. Not only would I not presume to make such a blanket statement, but that wasn't even the point to the statement.
I THINK that if you reread my post, you'll see that my point was aimed squarely at the apathy of the average American voter who takes for grated the importance of EVERY vote. NOT just the national ones.
My point was NOT that being someone's cousin disqualifies them, but that it does not automatically qualify them as deserving of our vote. And until the number of people who understand that outnumber the number who don't...we are not going to get the representation we want.
The only issue I have with your argument JD, is what Congress and the President pass as law can be rescinded at any time the Congress and President wish to rescind it. And lately the President seems to be finding all kinds of loopholes to bypass Congress to make or rescind laws.
When the Constitution started out with the understanding by all signers that black people were not included in the unalienable rights afforded everybody else, I think the Constitution does have to correct that in order for it to be forever corrected. Ditto to women's suffrage. But I am certainly open to debating whether other amendments do in fact change original intent and need to be repealed.
First...and just to get this out of the way Foxy, there was NO such assumption written into the Constitution. At one point in our history, there were MORE whites and non blacks in slavery than there were blacks. ONE MORE of those things about our history most people don't know. Along with things like the FIRST slave owner in this country WAS BLACK!
YES, there were founders who owned slaves. However, there were free black men who played a huge part in our founding as well. That iconic picture of Washington crossing the Delaware, if you look closely, you'll notice that one of the fellas at his feet was a black man. A FREE black man who was at Washington's side throughout the War of Independence!
11 of 13 casualties in the first battle of our revolutionary war were black men. That's right, whites AND blacks fought at Lexington and Concord!
While there is no doubt that slavery was turned into a huge business of buying blacks from blacks and importing them to this country by the Dutch, it was NOT written into our Constitution or even presumed to it by the founders to be exclusively a black or white problem. Just an immoral practice and contrary to the founding principles written into the Declaration.
As a matter of fact, the so called, 3/5ths clause was written into the Constitution for the sole purpose of forcing future generations to deal with indentured servitude and slavery of ALL men AND women described as "all other Persons" in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution...NOT just blacks.
That out of the way, you are DEAD RIGHT!
It HAS become all to easy and routine for our elected officials to ignore the Constitution, the laws they pass and even their own rules. And you know what? It is all linked DIRECTLY back to a politically motivated Amendment!
When the 17th Amendment was passed, it not only took away the peoples leverage within the Congress, but within their own state governments. Does ANYONE honestly think that Obamacare would have ever seen the light of day if when the Senator's voted for it, they had to go back to the state representatives who elected them and explain how THEY were then going to explain to their constituents that they had to raise their state taxes to pay for the unfunded liabilities written into it? There's not a chanch in franch as they say over in central Kentucky. ;~)
Things like Obamacare ARE what comes from playing politics with the amendment process. Repelling the 17th Amendment and returning the appointment of Senators BACK to the states as was the ORIGINAL INTENT of our founders would go a long way toward restoring checks and balances to our government.
If we are to accept that our Senators are going to be corrupted, at least it would be by the selfish self interest of the citizens of their home states and not the highest bidder in Washington! LOL
If we could rein it in without controlling a person's right to be smart or stupid as he or she chooses, I would agree. But there is no way to protect people from their own stupidity without restricting the freedoms we all enjoy.
The free market has resulted in me having no fees on my credit card and, because we pay the balance in full every 30 days, we pay no interest at all. If the credit cards are not allowed to charge what they can get for interest, I wind up paying a fee to have my card and maybe lose the grace period too. I prefer free market principles along with the schools again teaching real subjects like borrowing and interest and budgeting, etc.
Perfectly stated Foxy. Maybe the only person who has ever said it better is Thomas Jefferson. "I prefer the inconvenience of too much liberty to the tyranny of too little of it." ;~)
And yes, we WILL allow you the "great minds think alike" comment since you stated the principle so well and provided such a great example. LOL
