sharon kinsella wrote:There were 13 colonies and how many people then Roy?
The GDP was what? Level of access to educations and technology was what?
"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?"
Yoda, Empire Strikes Back
[sarcasm]
You know, you're right, Sharon. Everyone was just a dumb hick with less than a 4th graded education by today's standards. They were so stupid they couldn't possibly have been able to do anything for themselves. Its a wonder this country ever amounted to anything. That's why they had to build so many social programs into the Constitution, so the people could survive until new technologies could be invented overseas in Europe and education could allow the people to become more self-sufficient.
[/sarcasm]
When a people become more educated, they should become less reliant on the government and more on themselves. When you learned to tie your own shoes, did you continue to run to mommy or daddy to tie them for you?
So, let me ask, are we really more educated?
"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."
--James Madison, University of New Jersey
Are we really free?
"... I am committed against every thing which, in my judgment, may weaken endanger, or destroy [the Constitution] ... and especially against all extension of Executive power; and I am committed against any attempt to rule the free people of this country by the power and the patronage of the Government itself"
--Daniel Webster, Dartmouth
Or are we soon to be slaves to our own debt?
"To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt...I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple."
--Thomas Jefferson, William and Mary, founder ot the University of Virginia
You're right, a loss at the polls doesn't mean tyranny exists. It is the actions that followed (and some that preceded) that make me scared for my country.Sean Wheeler wrote:But a loss at the polls doesn't mean that a tyranny exists, it means that democracy worked. And I'd rather see hypocrisy than dogged fundamentalism any day.
"On every question of construction, [let us] carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probably one in which it was passed."
--Thomas Jefferson
As for our democracy working, we are a republic, NOT a democracy. Ben Franklin was asked by an old woman upon leaving Independence Hall after the signing of the Constitution, "Well. Mr Franklin, what have you given us? A monarchy or a republic?" His reply was, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Have we really kept it?
