Originally Posted by
Seneca Pilot
Read The Federalist. The framers intentionally structured the government to make it hard to do things. The fear (correct in my opinion) was that if it was easy to "move forward more than three inches a year" one side or the other would take power and completely change the structure of things to the detriment of the other side. The intent was a super majority to be necessary to make structural changes.
The only problem now is that progressives found a way to more easily do thing without congress by instituting the executive bureaucracy and activist judges who legislate from the bench. Those are other reasons for the states to call for a convention.
Originally Posted by
DH2time
I would like to add that we already have term limits. The House every 2 years and the Senate every 6 and the President every 4. It’s pretty simple. You don’t like your representation vote them out. Simple as that.
It’s the way the elitists who founded this country intended it. It’s written on the constitution. Oh and make no mistake you speak badly about the elitists who are in our government now, who do you think founded this country? It sure as heck wasn’t a bunch of rough and tumble farmers and blacksmiths. It was the richest of the rich. It was George Washington, who hid it well by placing most of his assets in his wife’s name, Two of the top 5 richest were Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock. Robert Morris, who was the richest, helped finance the Revolution and Stephen Girard and he financed the War of 1812. My point is the framers of this country were the elite, they were not the common man. They got their financing by appealing to the other elites and framed the constitution to their benefit. Why is it 200 and some odd years later you want to change it? If you like the economic history of this country you should want to keep it status quo. You speak like the inadequacy you see now is something new? Like you didn’t know the richest of the rich started the revolution to avoid paying the rightfully due tax to the King for protection during the French Indian War.
Related I always like going to an experienced mechanic for my car. Preferring one that has worked on my type of car, than trusting some new guy that just hung up his sign. I’m not saying the inexperienced guy is bad, just saying the experienced one statistically has a better chance of fixing my issue the first time. Sure the experienced one may charge me more for his experience and he may be able to fix the issue in 10 minutes and charge me the book rate of 2.5 labor hours but that’s part of the process and I understand it. Just saying this analogy says a lot about how I feel about politics.
Yeah, and the presidency also had a term limit every four years until 22nd amendment. You know what he meant, enacting similar amendment for congress or any other lifetime appointment.
Also, its preposterous to compare the founding fathers to today’s political elite. For one thing, the elites of our founding actually had careers outside government before seeking office. Today, we have someone running for president who hasn’t had a non-government elected job since 1970. And there are many more like him, career politicians who have spent more than a generation in elected office.
Next, the revolution wasn’t started by rich wanting to avoid taxes. If you read the declaration, and not just the first two of four parts of it, but also the third part that list the grievances. It’s a long list, not just rightful complaints of taxes. Besides, the same “elites” that took office in the new government have enacted taxes.
Lastly, as for experience, read the document. The only experience required for congress or pres/vp, is age (and citizenship). And the reason why is because unlike technical crafts like mechanics, elected office only requires the experience of living long enough in the country bounded by the laws enacted by government. You don’t need technical training on rules of order or how to write a bill. That’s done by congressional aides anyway. It’s the polices turned to bills that come from regular people who have earned a living under the laws passed by congress that is the only experience required to what to pass or not pass. It wouldn’t be any different than you or me deciding what is best for the country. We don’t need technical training for that, only experience in living within the country bound by the laws passed. So you comparison is absurd. Right now we have elected people who pass laws who feel they don’t have to abide by them, like getting hair done, buying jewelry, going to their lake home, going to the gym, etc. They’ve been there so long they either forgot what it was not to be an elite or never have had any other job!