The new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives plans to read the Constitution as the new session opens.
The attitude displayed in the video below illustrates why I don't think it will do a damn bit of good:
The Constitution is a simple, straightforward document. It's next to impossible to misunderstand. The language it's written in is plain, and unadorned by the standards of the time it was written, and is still pretty plain--especially when compared with the legalese that current bills (which must be passed before we can learn what's in them) are written in.
In fact, the Constitution is so simple and easy to understand that it takes a lawyer or a progressive linguist like Noam Chompsky to misunderstand what it says. We, the people of the United States understand it just fine. And we're not happy that congress has deliberately misconstrued what Article I, section 8 says it can do, and has deliberately ignored that what isn't listed in that section, it can't do: those are the things that are reserved to the states or to the people.
You know, like forcing people to buy health insurance. Or like seizing GM.
12 minutes ago
2 problems.....
ReplyDeleteThe 'dust' from handling the old document will choke everybody up..and that some of the congress critters will not get IT!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!metyebr
Absolutely, on problem #2. Like I said: it takes a lawyer to misunderstand what the Constitution lays out for what government can and can't do. And most of our nation's senators and representatives are lawyers.
ReplyDeleteMost Democrats and many Republicans don't believe the Constitution is relevant for today. Those in congress, especially the lawyers, believe they're much smarter than the Founding Fathers and therefore are superior to the Constitution they forged to govern America.
ReplyDeleteThe person Democrats fear most is a Supreme Court nominee who believes in a literal interpretation of the Constitution.
Smarter? No. Better educated? Absolutely not. I doubt any of our current crop of congresscritters read Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, and we can tell by their lack of understanding of the Constitution that they can't read plain English, either.
ReplyDelete