I hate when this happens
Man, I hate this. Midway through a perfectly fine extended rant ("The Constitution in Plain English"), a friend has to point me to a wakeup call that suggests I've been barking up a good tree, but not quite the right one.
In "You Can Write It Down," Thomas Knapp suggests that the Constitution is not The Sacred Document that establishes our free society and sets down the rules by which a limited government operates; it is, in fact, the document that enables the strong central government and repeals the actual Sacred Document, the Articles of Confederation.
"In fact, the Constitution was 'originally intended' to seduce American liberty back under the yoke of the state; it was 'strictly constructed' as a charter of authority versus freedom; and any notions to the contrary were driven 'into exile' from the very beginning. The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion and the Alien and Sedition Acts soon followed. The Supreme Court's usurpation, in Marbury v. Madison, of the power to interpret an allegedly plain charter were nothing more than ribbons and bows affixed to the gift of power for the political class. Final delivery of that gift took awhile – the knock on the door was probably the War Between the States – but delivered it was."
Hoo boy. What's the point of pointing out the dozens of violations of the Constitution when, in point of fact, the Constitution itself may be a betrayal of the spirit enshrined in the Declaration of Independence? I'd dismiss the thought as tin-foil hat wackiness, except it makes too much sense. We're taught that the articles proved unworkable and so a constitutional convention was necessary, but of course we'd be taught that: History is written by the victors in any ideological battle or actual war.
This warrants a bit of study. I will probably finish the rant - it's handy to have a list available for when a well-meaning friend labors under the illusion that the Bill of Rights protects us. And I'll definitely be writing down what Mr. Knapp tells us to write down. I'd write it down here, but I'd hate to give away the big finish.
In "You Can Write It Down," Thomas Knapp suggests that the Constitution is not The Sacred Document that establishes our free society and sets down the rules by which a limited government operates; it is, in fact, the document that enables the strong central government and repeals the actual Sacred Document, the Articles of Confederation.
"In fact, the Constitution was 'originally intended' to seduce American liberty back under the yoke of the state; it was 'strictly constructed' as a charter of authority versus freedom; and any notions to the contrary were driven 'into exile' from the very beginning. The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion and the Alien and Sedition Acts soon followed. The Supreme Court's usurpation, in Marbury v. Madison, of the power to interpret an allegedly plain charter were nothing more than ribbons and bows affixed to the gift of power for the political class. Final delivery of that gift took awhile – the knock on the door was probably the War Between the States – but delivered it was."
Hoo boy. What's the point of pointing out the dozens of violations of the Constitution when, in point of fact, the Constitution itself may be a betrayal of the spirit enshrined in the Declaration of Independence? I'd dismiss the thought as tin-foil hat wackiness, except it makes too much sense. We're taught that the articles proved unworkable and so a constitutional convention was necessary, but of course we'd be taught that: History is written by the victors in any ideological battle or actual war.
This warrants a bit of study. I will probably finish the rant - it's handy to have a list available for when a well-meaning friend labors under the illusion that the Bill of Rights protects us. And I'll definitely be writing down what Mr. Knapp tells us to write down. I'd write it down here, but I'd hate to give away the big finish.
posted by B.W. Richardson at
8:08 AM
4 Comments:
I recommend for your perusal Charles A. Beard's Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, still in print and readily available.
I'm not so sure there is anything wrong with the document as much as the flaws of those given any little bit of power to oversee the document.
Maybe the corruption of the US Constitution by those who "oversee" it is just evidence that limited, constitutional government is a pipedream that just doesn't work.
Wally, maybe it is a pipedream, but we only tried it for about 10 minutes before they started screwing with it, so we may never know.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home