| | You can google up ANTI-FEDERALIST PAPERS, or you can buy a book, perhaps the one edited by Ralph Ketchum. The present Constitution was foisted on the people by a minority of insiders. Strong arguments from the very men who fought the Revolution warned against the new Constitution. Liberty as they knew it would be crushed by a centralized federalized republic. The very adoption of this plan was illegal because the constutution of the time, the Articles of Confederation, had a provision for amendment. Anything we have now -- the presidency, the income tax, votes for women -- would have been possible under the Articles. However, unable to bring about their grandiose schemes for a centralized state, the federalists carried out a coup d'etat.
Read the anti-federalist papers and discover the dangers in electing a president by a special "college" rather than being chosen by the governors of the states.
Read the anti-federalist papers and discover the dangers in a bicameral legislature.
Read the anti-federalist papers and discover the inherent contradiction in a nominally independent "supreme court" (serving for life!) while the federal judiciary below is created by Congress -- an argument with relevance at this moment, at least.
For 150 years we have been intellectually dragooned with the propaganda of jacobin democracy via public schools that were modeled after those of Prussia. So, we do not question votes for women, or the abolition of slavery. We claim now that the "horse and buggy era" gave way to modern transportation and so we must inaugurate the president on January 20 -- whether or not all of the ballots are counted correctly. Every amendment of the Constitution (except the first ten) has only demonstrated the inherent contradictions in this plan of government that turned our true republic into an oligarchy riding herd on a mob.
That all might be one way to look at things. Perhaps this is another.
The Constitution was amended according to fixed and known rules to keep pace with changes in society and in the tools of mechanical arts. Some changes -- such as votes for women, the abolition of slavery, and the income tax -- were fixes to an imperfect implimentation of the principles of the Revolution. Other changes -- the inauguration date of the president, direct election of senators -- were the result of mechanical improvements no more radical and threatening than the creation of Time Zones.
Many amendments were offered over the last 200 years. Some got farther than others. Some were adopted. Most failed. That is how the republic works.
On a deeper, philosophical level, there is "the phenomenon of the apple." Everything was fine, until we ate the apple. Then, we were punished and here we are today, seeking salvation, redemption, and reunion. If only we did not have direct election of senators, life would be much better, perhaps perfect as it was in the Garden of Political Eden.
I cannot take credit for this discovery. In Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, that line of thinking (if it is thinking) is exposed as a fallacy. Hoffer says that a mass movement can succeed without God, but that no mass movement can succeed without a devil. We once had a perfect world. Then, the devil stole it from us. However, if we do these things, we can regain that lost paradise, if not for ourselves, then for our posterity. Communism promised a return to the primitive. Capitalists also believe in a (nearly) perfect utopia of the 19th century which was stolen from us by "progressives" but if we write these things, and read them, and copy them, and pass them on, then some day, we can enjoy an even more glorious society of perfect justice.
Delineating the metaphysical from the man-made has some value. However, at some level, the actions of other people are no more under your control than is the weather. You can complain about the direct election of senators -- or granting the vote to ex-slaves -- or you can carry an umbrella when it looks like rain.
|
|
