Seriously, kid. SaveLiberty is right.... it's time to grow up. There ain't nothing new under the sun and your generation is not somehow more
special than any other that's gone before you. All this philosophy has been hashed and rehashed. Today's Progressivism, for example isn't much more that warmed-over, Mussolini-styled
fascism, which was quite lauded in its day. And wow, did you ever let loose your inner fascist in telling us what YOU are willing to "allow".
*yawn* Yes, yes, the first thing to do is to summarily surmise your opponents entire political ideology based on his accurate recollection of the goals of the american fore fathers and the constitution.
My generation isn't special. There are no "special" people, stop trying to frame me as some weird idealist, when in reality you stick to senseless ideals and must resort to categorizing philosophies because you lack the propensity to hybridize and incorporate various aspects of multifaceted ideologies. However, EACH generation of people exists within unique moments in which ideologies and institutions should be established, abolished or strengthened. Stagnation is stupidity.
The generation who fought in WWII were responsible for establishing the successful nuclear order we have today.
The generation who were reaching maturity during the 60's caused massive social and economic revolutions globally, either through liberalization of their own states globally, or here in America, where we spawned social changes that swept and enveloped the globe that last to this day.
The generation of the 90's brought the advent of true globalization and the reallocation of goods and services throughout the globe.
All of these leaps required unique innovations in thinking, institutions and rules. Some of them were reformations or variations of previous ideologies, some were radically different institutions like NATO, and the WTO. Despite all this, the most lasting and important institutions, those backed by the West, particularly America, were created BECAUSE voters elected political leaders who represented these interests.
That is to say, each of these things, the nuclear order, Western liberalization of the "rest", networked globalization et. al, are products of government BY and FOR the people.
If progressives were really about sovereign citizenship... they'd be
federalists. (We call those 'anarchic blocs of self-governance' States, btw.

)
Yea, that's what we call states in international relations. The "states" within America, aren't anarchic guy, they're subject to federal regulations and rules because while state's have their own rights, ultimately as a representative democracy the will of the people trumps the will of any other interests. Fortunately, we don't live in a pure democracy, and this states can have some amount of autonomy so that we DON'T have to have a majority rules decision for everything, but only for those issues which will affect us all.
The founders knew the dangers of an overly strong central government. And they knew that Democracy was no counter to it. Pure democracy always fails. It's "two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch". Democracy can only work when utilized within the confines of agreed-upon and established law. And not just any law. Not arbitrary law.
Are you serious? Is that not what i've been saying this ENTIRE thread? But the rules should not be ideologically based, they should be pragmatic and require as much or as little government intervention as possible. I don't care whether the government is as small as a pea or as big as a fuckin mountain, as long as it's doing what it's SUPPOSED to (SERVING THE PEOPLE), it doesn't matter.
THAT, is the point. It shouldn't matter because if we were all involved in making informed voting decisions, we would have leaders deliberating strongly in congress (instead of the nonsense I see on television from both parties) and all political decisions would be a reflection of the people's will after vigorous vetting and comprehensive debate.
Unfortunately, I don't make normative assumptions based on my ideals, but would prefer to operate within the parameters of the given context, not the context I would like to be given.
Anyway, before I post a tome... my point is that you kids think you're reinventing the wheel. But all your grand schemes are either tried and failed, or pondered upon and discarded. YOU are not Cicero. You're not Benjamin Franklin. And while your weight in human value might be the same as theirs... the weight of your philosophy is not.
What grand schemes? You don't even know me. You've concocted some enemy that you can deal with in your head because you don't have salient, legitimate points to my rebuttals. I have no wish to be like either of those people, they were both highly biased and convinced in their own thinking. I prefer to be amorphous in my own way of thinking.
And we don't think we're reinventing the wheel, we're just changing it off the rims and making certain we've got good treads to handle the rocky road of the future. It's been done in every prior generation, whether you've been blind to it or not, and will continue to occur as that's what history does, builds upon itself.
There is no reinvention of anything. In short,
there is no scratch. It seems people don't realize this anymore, and everyone wants to restart from the beginning, but remember,
there is no scratch.
Edit:
I see why you thought I was a political progressive. I meant install progressive in terms of those willing to be pragmatic in their approach to progressing the nation forward, not instilling those who believe the political ideology of Progressivism. My bad about that lack of clarity.