Constitutional Convention

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
2

Now let me check the progressive playbook and see how they would try to stifle such a convention from happening.

1.It’s racist
2.It’s for the rich
3.It’s racist

Honestly, I would be extremely pleased if a convention were to happen. But what are the odds we walk away from it more screwed?

3

I’m afraid if a convention was held today, the whole thing would be scrapped and we’d end up screwed.

4

[quote]doogie wrote:
I’m afraid if a convention was held today, the whole thing would be scrapped and we’d end up screwed.[/quote]

I’m afraid you’re right.

I mean, we wouldn’t be able to get past the first three words of the preamble.

We’d have to define exactly who “We the People” are. That could take months.

5

And the convention would get so bogged down on which is more important, Providing for the Common Defence or Promoting the General Welfare that we’d never get around to the part about Securing the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves, let alone our Posterity.

Let’s call the whole thing off.

7


push:

I am certainly for this IN PRINCIPAL; and while it seems great that there are lawmakers who want to reign in the Leviathan of our Federal Government; I see those same lawmakers running into some major hurdles when balancing the budget hits home.

  1. As one writer wrote that the “Iraq Experiment” was bound to fail because the U.S. had woven itself into the “Hard Drive” of Iraq; the same can be said for the Federal Government’s relationship to the States.

In most cases; the Federal Government is woven into the “Hard Drive” of many (if not all?) States, and accounts for a large portion of their budgets (I’ve read figures like 60% for Mississippi).

  1. People are real “Gung Ho” to cut…as long as it’s those “other” people… or programs, subsidies, Federal Jobs, disability and medical benefits…the list goes on…that don’t directly affect them. (or at least they THINK don’t directly affect them).

The “Devil” in all this will ultimately be the details…and believe me, when you start cutting there will be screams from the Left AND the Right.

Mufasa

8

[quote]Alrightmiami19c wrote:
Now let me check the progressive playbook and see how they would try to stifle such a convention from happening.

1.It’s racist
2.It’s for the rich
3.It’s racist

Honestly, I would be extremely pleased if a convention were to happen. But what are the odds we walk away from it more screwed?[/quote]

You can take this to the Bank…

When cuts start there will be as much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth from both the Right AND Left.

Mufasa

9

Try a little “personal” exercise. (No need to post answers).

“What would I like to see cut in order to balance the Federal Budget”?

"Would this cut make a huge difference; or does it just make me “feel good”?

“What would I be willing to see cut that could have a significant impact on me personally”?

Mufasa

10

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Try a little “personal” exercise. (No need to post answers).

“What would I like to see cut in order to balance the Federal Budget”? [/quote]

Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid.
Home Land Security.

Huge difference.

[quote]
“What would I be willing to see cut that could have a significant impact on me personally”? [/quote]

Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid.
Defense spending.

11

[quote]doogie wrote:
I’m afraid if a convention was held today, the whole thing would be scrapped and we’d end up screwed.[/quote]

It barely made it in the 1780’s. It’s a miracle it got done back then, now it would never happen. Just getting the reps to show up was a problem in itself. The Founding Fathers were like the '60’s rock stars, a time of unprecedented concentrated genius that happened to collect and gel at the right time. It was a rare moment in history. Few people realize how close we were to monarchy vs. a republic. They called it “The Experiment” for a reason. It took a George Washington to make it stick. Without GW as the first President, it would have failed.

12

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Try a little “personal” exercise. (No need to post answers).

“What would I like to see cut in order to balance the Federal Budget”?

"Would this cut make a huge difference; or does it just make me “feel good”?

“What would I be willing to see cut that could have a significant impact on me personally”?

Mufasa[/quote]

I’m willing to bet there hasn’t been a single cut in the federal budget in the past 30 years. Baseline budget.

A balanced budget amendment would just make too much damn sense for it to ever happen.

13

This is a badly misunderstood process and people need to be careful as to what they are asking for because they are two very different processes. A “constitutional convention” is not the same as a “convention of the states”. A constitutional convention opens up the entire constitution for a complete rewrite of a new constitution. So for example a constitutional convention could chose to eliminate the entire bill of rights.

A “convention of the states” on the other hand is simply another way to add individual amendments to the existing constitution that is independent of the congress in Washington.

14

Honestly, I’m scared that we’d lose more of our “freedom” if it occurred.

Many of the big players of the Constitution Convention of 1787 were incredibly idealistic people (name me a big player of government, past and present, who can even come close to being as idealistic and influential as Thomas Jefferson was in his heyday), and they were the ones who really drove what we consider essential liberty into the Bill of Rights and structure of the government itself.

And, in spite of all this idealism, remember that the Bill of Rights (pretty much sacrosanct today in its symbolism) wasn’t even part of the original Constitution.

Furthermore, the majority of them came to the Constitution believing that they were not only making history, but changing the course of world history itself. Regardless of whether the Founding Fathers were all intelligent people or not (only a few really were- most were similar to powerful people today, and that’s why we don’t remember their names), it’s clear that they came with a certain sense of destiny.

A Convention at any other point in time would likely be ruinous.

16

I wish we could get my buddy and fellow T-Man to chime in on this.

Given that he IS a constitutional attorney, who DID legally change his name to “Jefferson” and who DID rewrite the Constitution so that it would protect even more liberty than the current one does, I’m sure he’d have an opinion or two.

http://www.moscowidaholawyer.com/personal-blog/constitution/

18

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
I wish we could get my buddy and fellow T-Man to chime in on this.

Given that he IS a constitutional attorney, who DID legally change his name to “Jefferson” and who DID rewrite the Constitution so that it would protect even more liberty than the current one does, I’m sure he’d have an opinion or two.

http://www.moscowidaholawyer.com/personal-blog/constitution/[/quote]

Wow, Mikey has been busy.[/quote]

I would live in a republic that had this as its constitution, how 'bout you?

20

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Looks good to me.[/quote]

Except, one imagines, for the proviso that infringes the right of the Individual to possess weapons with a kill radius exceeding ten meters.

I mean, I’m sure you’ll agree that if one cannot legally possess daisy cutters and tactical nukes, one cannot consider one’s personal freedom to be adequately protected. :wink: