Food for Thought

[jainen]

>>Each state was originally regarded as something like an independent county that was part of an alliance among equals. <<

That was true, but after a few years they unanimously agreed to dump the Articles of Confederation and replace them with a Constitution that began, "we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...."

[Catherine]

That was true, but after a few years they unanimously agreed to dump the Articles of Confederation and replace them with a Constitution that began, "we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...."

The Articles of Confederation were too loose and too close to anarchy -- the new country did not have enough central power to do crucial business successfully.

The Constitution was meant to stay as close to anarchy as possible while still holding enough federal power to accomplish the essential items too large for individuals or individual states to accomplish. The founders had great reason to fear a strong central government -- they suck all power into themselves and, sooner or later, become tyrannies. They had just fought a long, nasty war to throw off the latest (in their time) iteration of this long pattern. They wanted people to be FREE to live their lives, without government jurisdiction of every move.

The problem today is that, for close to a hundred years, BOTH major parties have moved us closer and closer to total government control of everything. I don't care whether you call it fascism, communism, dictatorship, absolute monarchy, oligarchy, or Uncle Sheldon. It's the same -- too much power in Washington, too little in the states, WAY too little leftover for the individual -- which is where MOST of it was intended to be held.

Y'know, here in Massachusetts, there is LESS turnover of the state legislature than in the old USSR's Politburo. And we have the third in a row of former Speakers of the House under Federal indictment for criminal financial shenanigans. The rot goes very deep, and across the board, ALL the bums need to be thrown out of office.

I was raised Democrat (in Massachusetts? like there's a choice?), am socially very liberal, and have become politically very conservative because I have had it ground into me, painfully, that government ruins all it touches (including, Jainen, the 'social programs" that have vastly INCREASED and FOSSILIZED poverty since they started in the 1960's), hurts those it professes to help -- and does it all at QUINTUPLE (at least!) the cost of the same projects done by private hands. I am conservative politically BECAUSE I am liberal socially -- I want the most good for the most people, and that means get it OUT of the government's filthy, power-mad claws.

[kcjenkins]

I agree, Catherine. Thanks to the gerrymandering that is now institutionalized in all the states, it is almost impossible to change enough of the 'old guard' in both parties to make them actually change direction. And those in power are so chummy after years of living together in DC, or in any state capital, that it takes a real massive turnover to make for any change at all.

It did happen after Carter, but only after he gave us a combination of huge inflation and huge unemployment, an energy crisis that had us standing in long lines at the gas pumps, etc. His solution was to call for price controls, which thankfully he did not get. And even then he still got 41 percent of the votes when he ran for re-election, or 35.5 million voters.

[tilt]

Um, where did this get resurrected? I can't see any new post.

[JohnH]

Somebody probably edited something they had previously posted - I think an edit anywhere in a thread will bump it back up.

[tilt]

Weird! I did not post this on Oct. 12. I was sound asleep by 10:48 pm.