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Edited on Tue Oct-05-10 04:01 PM by LuckyTheDog
The tea-hadists claim to speak for the "true intent" of the Founding Fathers. But, c'mon. That just flat-out does not make sense.
The Founders were a fairly diverse group of guys -- in thinking that is, not in any other way. They did not speak as one and had a wide variety of opinions. They contradicted each other. They even contradicted themselves at times. Because of that, the "intention of the Founding Fathers" isn't really one single thing.
Interpreting the the "true thinking" of the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence and wrote the Constitution is harder than reconciling the contradictions in the Gospels. We're dealing with PEOPLE here.
The federal government was established by MEN and intended to work in the REAL WORLD.
That means they clearly wanted the Constitution to leave some room for changing interpretations. If that was NOT their intent, then they would have offered us strict definitions of words and phrases like "times of good behavior," "unreasonable," or "cruel and unusual." Instead, they left things up to interpretation. That is part of the GENIUS of the Constitution and why it has lasted so long. It isn't rigid. It provides (dare I say it?) wiggle room for each generation.
If you attach too much inflexible dogma to a human institution designed to be strong but flexible, you end up creating something brittle that won't last. That is, I fear, what the Tea Party is trying to do.
I don't know if the Tea-hadists really want the republic to fall apart or whether they are just misguided. But I know this: If they get their way, the U.S. will more than likely come unglued. They claim to want to "return" the U.S. to its "roots." However, where they want to take is is a place we have never been before.
Am I right?
:shrug:
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