2005-07-01 10:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldiscipline... of the UNITED STATES, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure 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.
Simple and to the point, is it not?
Then, we started to say things that might be frowned upon by the Powers That Be (if you're feeling saucy, the words you're looking for are "sedition," and "subversive.")
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Independence is not easy. Take off the training wheels, and you have the drop in the pit of your stomach, and may end up with a skinned knee.
King George (the one in England in 1776, not that asshole on the Potomac today) had been such an egregious butthead that a nation was founded to tell him to go fuck himself. How much more are we willing to take from the perversion and travesty we are subjected to daily - from the lies, to the abuses of power, to the utter contempt for criticism and rational thought - before we have had enough?
I don't think I'm up to re-writing the Constitution, but, then again, it was put brilliantly the first time.
Act like it's the law of the land, because, once upon a time, it was. And it wasn't a fairy-tale.
If you'll excuse me, I have a river to cross.
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(You pay utilities and you can ignore that. :P)
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Just got to think of what Rafe will do :) Oooh, that's too open a comment....
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I also agree that the constitution isn't some living will document that needs to be constantly diddled and fucked with. The principles laid out in it are well put - only under the ever changing thought of humanity it doesn't want to be adhered to.
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Anyone read "Animal Farm" when they were kids?
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"some animals are more equal than others"
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revolution . . . NOW?
Re: revolution . . . NOW?
my honor is not sacred to anyone but myself.
if there can be a guarantee that there are many deserving of forfeit for the cost of my own. . . i just want to see the aftermath.
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Of course, they're completely oblivious of the fact that such attitude is WHY things are that way.
In other words, I don't think we need a revolution. We just need to get off our collective asses and actually participate in the system.
Give me liberty, or give me free cable for a month!
Suicide bombings don't forward anyone's cause (but then, they aren't hitting anything of any strategic value, either).
Guillotining the aristocracy worked very well once upon a time in a land far away , but somehow I see that going over very well anymore.
Is there anything cushy in between that lazy, apathetic americans can do for themselves, or is it going take yet another world war?
Re: Give me liberty, or give me free cable for a month!
Why doesn't voting work? Voting would work just fine if people under the age of 50 actually got off their asses and did it.
What doesn't work is people telling other people that "voting doesn't work".
That attitude PISSES ME OFF. Does anyone have any idea how many people have died so that the franchise would be expanded to every American regardless of race or gender? I can't undertand how people spent the 20th century fighting for the goddamn right to vote, and people in our generation can so casually say "voting doesn't work."
Here's a little quiz for everyone reading this:
1. When's the last time you voted? (I've voted in every election I've been eligible to vote in since I've been 18. Wait, I missed one. I moved out to Vegas too close to election day for a municipal election, so I was unable to register before the voter rolls were closed.)
2. Why did you vote for the person/people you voted for? (I met most of the people on my ballot. With the exception of Kerry, I voted for people whom I thought would be good at the job they were asking me for. With Kerry, I held my nose and pushed the button. I couldn't vote for Bush and I live in a swing state which made, to me, voting for a third party a bad idea.)
3. Name at least 3 of the people who represent you, at any level of government. (I can name almost all of them, from smallest political subdivision to largest. I can name every single one that directly represents me. I'll miss some of the names of those who serve in offices like the State Comptroller and the County Judges. But I know the name of every direct representative, and I send them mail *very* frequently.)
4. Are they any good? If so, why. If not, why not? (Most of mine are. My State Assemblywoman is not, she's very ineffective and she is completely unresponsive to her constituents. So much so, in fact, that I considered runing against her last year. However, I'm planing on going out of state for graduate school, and winning a race for an office that I may well have had to resign after only serving half of it didn't seem fair to the district.)
5. If they aren't any good, what have you done about it? (See above. In addition, I run a PAC, write letters to my representatives whenever they're voting on something that impacts me, oh, yeah, and I ran a project that registered over 20000 new voters in the African American and Hispanic community for the 2004 election year. In a swing state. I also spent election day last year in areas of town that most people wouldn't feel comfortable in, doing lit drops with polling locations from 5am - 9am, and then switching over to knocking on doors, telling people their polling location and encouraging them to get out and vote from 9am-6:55pm.)
If you really want to hear my private pain, I spent this spring intensely opposing a candidate for Las Vegas City Council because he had a domestic violence conviction. He won. By 124 votes. That's really not a lot. I spent the next three days wondering: if I'd made one or two more phone calls a day between the primary and the election, if I'd sent out a few hundred more mailers, or knocked on a few more doors if that would have made the difference.
Less than 10% of eligible voters elected this bastard.
But he got his supporters to the polls just slightly more than we did.
So don't fucking tell me that voting doesn't work.
Re: Give me liberty, or give me free cable for a month!
Re: Give me liberty, or give me free cable for a month!
Moveon and their ilk lost us 2004. I know because I saw them. Purple-haired teens and stoned out 20-somethings running around upper-middle class neighborhoods trying to get out the vote. And making life really hard for everyone that was actually working. The Victory 2004 party at the Rio Casino was a depressing site. A handful of hard-core, hard working field operatives surrounded by imported freaks from other states. Didn't the DNC realize that those were the idots in the orange hats that lost Iowa for Dean? I had to drag a few members of team away from two of them who seemed to really want to violate federal election law.
Were there improprieties.. Sure. There always are, and every side does it. Actually, voter fraud annoys the crap out of me as someone who runs a political action group. The amount of money I spend mailing crap to voters that don't exist is *VERY* frustrating.
Look at voter demographics. Kerry won the 18-25 cohort by 5%. First of all, that's freeking pathetic. How the hell does the "electable" and "idealistic" candidate only win young voters by 5 percent. Second, the 18-25 year olds simply don't vote. The 65+ demographic is the demo that matters. Women in the 30-65 range count, somewhat, hence all the crap about soccer moms a few years ago. But young voters are good for a hip shot of the candidate on MTV, and nothing more. Strategy hardly even takes them in to account. The parties use them as an eager volunteer base, but generally farm GOTV efforts for young voters out to PACs and 527s. It's easier to do that than waste the time on a useless cause.
Re: Give me liberty, or I'll take it!
~My point exactly.
Thanks for the insight!