Fundamental Flaw in US Form of Government

[xd9fan]

This is why I get so pissed at most baby boomers. They are the most socially conformed group since the country was formed. Too many of them simply believe that collectivism works. Look at the illegal immigrant problem, look at the energy problem, look at what that generation has doing to public education!!! They walk around thinking they deserve something. They used to be anti-Govt crowd in the 60's.......now they ARE the Govt and they like it.

The problem is the legal american citizen.
The illegal immigrants know this country is weak....thats why the are enbolded enough to walk in mass to demand that they be reward in their breaking of the law.....and it will work for them too.

We deligate WAY too much responsibilty to the state/Fed Govt.

We have meet the enemy......

 

[Ivy Mike]

Beachmaster, you sound a bit like Heinlein.
Not that I think thats bad, I'd just like to point out that its totally impractical...kinda like you as a dictator promising to be the dictator for a limited period of time...set by you.

I must also take issue with your mandatory 25 year addition to weapons used in a crime convictions. What if the person thought they were acting in self-defense, but then discovered that this was not true? You could send a man to the gas chambers for a mistake in a law decided by other fallable humans. Mandatory minimums are not good. Give the judge control of the sentencing.

BTW, I think service should be voluntary, but that term would gain the person an absolute right to vote. They would earn it through service to the citizens via the government.

Can you imagine what having a fully trained corps of disaster responders would have done to alleviate problems in New Orleans?

 

[pcf]

There's a fundamental flaw, it's the people. How can we expect a government of the people to function correctly, when the majority of the people do not understand how it functions? The average American can't tell you who represents them, how the government should work or how it does work.

Ask your coworkers:
"What is the first word in the preamble to the Constutition?"
We

"Who signed his name in large letters on the Consitution, so the King could easily read his signature?"
No one

"What rights does the Bill Of Rights grant the people?"
None

"The Bill of Rights comprises how many amendments?"
Ten

"How many people represent you in the House of Representatives?"
One

"How does a bill become a law?"
Legislative process.....

"What State did the Nullification Controversy start in?"
South Carolina

"What was Massachusetts primary motivation for opening public schools in the 1820's?"
Teach the children of immigrants American Values and Culture

I feel lucky if I can find anyone who can answer more than two correctly.

 

[Thin Black Line]

No Flaw

There is absolutely no flaw in our form of goverment as set up on paper
and according to its rules. As pointed out earlier, "we" are the source
of the majority of flaws in that we let things get away from us. It is
during periods of warfare that it seems the flaws are magnified. I
think some of you will find the following quotes of interest in that
regard. However, I've been warned that the content of my posts are
under scrutiny for their "poetic" content. This is especially true when
it can be construed to be anything at all negative against the current
administration.

Therefore, as usual I will rely on the spirit of the Founding Fathers.
If it is seen as something negative against the current administration
by high-lighting one current cause of the "fundamental flaw in
....government", then what can I say? Hopefully, some of you will get a
chance to read this before it disappears like some of my other posts have
recently

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/1/202757.shtml:

The Founding Fathers were weary of entanglements in foreign alliances and of inciting hostilities and wars in foreign lands. James Madison, the master builder of the U.S. Constitution, noted in 1795: "Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few. ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

Likewise, in 1793, Alexander Hamilton, among the Founding Fathers one of the staunchest proponents for the executive branch, explained: "It is the providence and duty of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a state of War."

In an informative essay discussing the morality of war, William Norman Grigg also cites a 1798 letter to Thomas Jefferson in which James Madison pointed out: "The Constitution supposes, what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature."

Grigg warns that "allowing the executive to decide unilaterally 'the question of war' will be tantamount to ... potentially setting the stage for 'continued warfare,' a condition in which liberty cannot long survive."

 

[Waitone]

There IS a fundamental flaw, it's the 17th amendment, direct election of Senators.

The way our government was originally set up, it relied on setting interest against interest. Divide the power, and put it in the hands of people who had little reason to cooperate with each other unless on something self-evidently worth doing.

As part of this, the Senate consisted of people appointed by state legislatures, and subject to removal by them. They were there to represent the interests of state governments, and did a pretty good job of making sure that federal power did not grow at the expense of the states. If they didn't, they could be replaced.

The 17th amendment's direct election of Senators changed all that.

Dead nuts correct. Right now there is no check and balance in place that stops the flow of power to the federal government. There was at one time when senators were employees of their respective states. Would that be in place today our entire political landscape would be different.

I cite one very recent example. The senate just debate and eventually sunk an immigration reform bill. The entire country and media was focused on the provisions of amnesty based on the number of years illegally in this country. Well ignore the utter asininity of the entire concept and how it has no chance of being enforced. What was missed by everyone was a little-bitty provision buried deep in the bowels of the bill that would have granted to illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates. Here is the fed.gov mandating state tuition practices. I can assure you it would never made it to the bill had the senators been employees of the state and not the federal government.