Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Elections

 While I began a review and analysis of OUR Constitution in my last blog, there is little time before the next federal elections, so, I'm switching to issues which need to be addressed.  I will get back to that.

Just a reminder -- I am not a member of any political party and expect that to be the case for the rest of my life.  I feel very strongly that the 2 major parties are most of the problem with our political system.  

Our sitting president has decided to withdraw his candidacy and is endorsing our Vice President as the Democratic candidate for the presidency.  So, I'm taking a look at information about our federal elections including what's in OUR Constitution.  That will take a few days. 

So, this is it for now; except that I feel very strongly that every Citizen has the right to vote; the right to a secret vote; and the right to not vote.  However, the last should be clear, to everyone, more or less, that to not vote means you're excluded from being represented.

Onward. 



Sunday, June 23, 2024

Analysis of our Constitution and more: paragraph 1

 Analysis of our Constitution and more: 

The writers of out Constitution were people, imperfect people.  They didn't all agree on every little detail in the end product.  I'm not a Constitutional scholar; just an ordinary citizen. These are simply my opinions.  I do, however, have over 37 years in public service, in 4 states, in multiple libraries working for the boards and sometimes municipal councils.  There is a process of arriving at decisions and results that is commonly accepted, with some variations.  Some of you think that's part of the problem but it's certainly a lot better than yelling and screaming and shooting at each other to solve problems.  It's called being civilized.

There is a great deal in the Constitution that has been amended; there's a great deal that still needs to be amended.  Rewriting the entire thing as some have proposed and even I have considered would be a dangerous thing, especially in times like today when people are so at odds because we live in a country that has long been established, has history, a body of laws, a stable, though varied cultured and an attempt to start over would be enormously disruptive and could lead, today, to potentially unresolvable conflicts and violence.  Better to write more amendments. 

 Using a transcription of the original Constitution with the original spellings and capitalization, the original words will appear in “  “ and bold font.

 An analysis and suggestions will follow:

The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription

 “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 This introductory paragraph of our Constitution outlines the purposes of the establishment of the nation and the primary functions of the government:

  •     …to form a more perfect union,…

·        …to establish Justice,…

·        …to insure domestic tranquility,…

·        …to provide for the common defense, …

·        …to secure the blessings of liberty…

 Many of these are vague, some are/were debatable.  The vaguery can be seen as necessary because we cannot know the future or the needs of the people in that future.  To be too specific, would mean endless amendments and laws to cover all the possibilities.  So, general principles are presented. 

 I think, in view of today’s citizens, there may be a strong debate about establishing a union; and where is the definition of “perfect”.  Even as the Constitution was being drafted, there may have been some who came to this continent without a thought of their relationship with the rest of the people here.  The divisiveness of today could destroy our “union”.  Do the majority think the country is worth preserving?

 To insure domestic tranquility and to provide for the common defense seem fairly straightforward aims.

 To establish Justice and to secure the blessings of liberty are the most vague but the phrasing of each seems quite telling.  To establish Justice seems clear that the government will take on that responsibility for the citizenry.  It seems to establish the authority of the federal government.  To secure the blessings of liberty, to this reader, is a foolish promise.  First, you have to define liberty, then the blessings of liberty and exactly how are either to be secured.  One can argue that life itself does not do that.  It is, perhaps, why we have so many laws and regulations that are unenforceable.  Certainly, there is nothing in this paragraph limiting liberty as one might anticipate that the liberty of one will undoubtedly sometimes conflict with the liberty of another.

 The paragraph is, in part, a bombastic pronouncement of the intentions of the drafters of our Constitution.  It is an official decree of the establishment of a federal government. The more concrete intentions are acceptable; the others wishful thinking.

No suggestions for improvement here.

There is a page, see the menu at the top of the blog, with the entire text of our Constitution.

Comments are welcome.


Thursday, May 9, 2024

Reviving my Presidential Campaign (just for fun)

We need a president and other representatives who can stand in front of reality and make decisions that benefit the majority of Americans; not people who cling to concepts that cannot solve currents needs.

Not Trump

Not Biden

Not RFK, Jr.

Not anyone else that I know of who is currently running.

Even Pete Buttigieg has disappointed me lately, although I think he's the most intelligent person in D. C.

So....

I believe that a thinking person will be conservative about some things and liberal about others.  I believe that I'm such a person.  I know that I'm conservative thinking about some things and liberal thinking about others because that's what I think works.  

One needs to look at a view of the life of every American and what they need to live their life.

It is NOT the function of ANY of our representatives to decide what that life should be but to facilitate, as much as possible, and to remove as many obstacles as possible to fulfilling that life.  As long as that life does NOT interfere with another's.

Over the next weeks, I will post an analysis and interpretation of our Constitution, as I see it and as I, as an educated person, believe the founders intended it.  And, BTW, they didn't live in a world anything like the world we live in today and they're all DEAD, so what they might do now is COMPLETELY IRREVELANT.  Still, I will read the words of our Constitution and explain what I think they intended.

I have not yet read the Federalist Papers and I'm guessing that most of you have not either.  I will attempt to read them, understand them and refer to them, if I think they are relevant to our existing Constitution which is the basis of our country's operations and laws.  Our Founding Fathers did not agree on everything but they signed our Constitution.

I will, also, over the next weeks, outline various policies I would like to see in place, that I think would make the lives of most Americans better and to live easier in relationship to each other and our country as a whole.  We, after all, live in a country, a society; we are not isolated from each other, except in our own minds.

More soon....




Friday, June 23, 2023

How the legislation process should work


I'm new at this so forgive me my ignorance and naivete but it appears that the Legislative Branch spends too much time in party fighting, in campaigning for their next stint and in wasting time.  I have worked with and sat on several boards, however, and it is tempting to forget the purpose of any public body and become just a group of personalities who can't seem to get anything done, homo sapiens being homo sapiens, especially now that they get air time to spew their every opinion and fantasy with cameras and microphones in their face every day.  Aren't We Special.

Let's get to work.

Every law enacted should have a clearly stated aim; should include in its test all arguments for and against and a test against the preamble of the Constitution:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

If it doesn't meet on of those very broad aims, it's unnecessary and should be a state matter.

In addition, all laws are dated and it should be the work of Congress to review, revise, update and remove all laws on a scheduled basis.  That will keep them busy.

Article I. Section 6. of our Constitution addresses the compensation of Congress but, other than the Senate's sole responsibility in impeachments, nothing, before Section 6 addresses the job of Congress until after Section 6.  That is poor personnel practice.  You do not discuss compensation before definition the job.  It is, after all job.  A variety of types of legislation, imagined by the founding fathers, is outlined in Sections 8 and 9 but no where is there a clear definition of the actual work of the Legislative Branch, particularly as it applies to the clear aims of the Preamble, as shown above.  Therefore, I propose the following Constitution amendment:

Proposed Amendment:  It shall be the job and function of the Legislative Branch to enact such laws are determined useful in satisfying the aims of the Preamble of our Constitution which will preface each resolution and proposal.  In addition, it shall be the function of the Legislative Branch to review, revise, update and/or remove any laws previously enacted, on a scheduled basis.  Included in the text of each proposed legislation will be the justification of that proposal as it applies to the aims of our Constitution.  Also included, will be a proposed period of time for the first and subsequent reviews.

Let's be clear, the founding fathers were predominantly aristocrats.  They did not envision a Boebert nor a Santos being in office.  They did not envision many things.  That assessment is obviously biased and I am in the process of reading at least some biographical information about each of the founding fathers and will, hopefully, include a brief biographical sketch of each in the Resources.

That's it for now....