constitution

What Constitutional Crisis?

NOTE: This rant is not to poor cold water on Fire with Fire's essay, but that what started as a comment, turned into this... ramblings of a mindless lunatic!

How can there be a constitutional crisis when neither party, nor any federal or local law enforcement, actually recognizes the constitution any more? It's absurd.

Mitch McConnell Fails Oath of Office

mcconnellTeamTrump.jpg

Senator Mitch McConnell, as majority leader, gets a salary of $193,400 from the U.S. taxpayer. But he fails to do his job. Consider the oath of office that McConnell, and every civil servant, takes:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Well, it seems McConnell fails to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office." Here are four notable cases.

Bad Emergencies, Good Emergencies, and the Shock Doctrine

Politically aware people (and even a slim majority in Congress) are justifiably against Trump's assault on the Constitution over the Mexican Wall. However, Trump's veto will hold because the vote against the emergency declaration was a bare majority instead of a unanimous rejection of this blatantly dictatorial move.

Students Keep Aim True against Gun Violence

March for our Lives on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2018. (Phil Roeder from Des Moines, IA, USA (March for Our Lives)) (CC-BY)

Not long after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting massacre on February 14th in Parkland, Florida, many students of the school organized to cut gun violence in the USA. And their aim was true and clear. One of the students that expressed that aim was Emma Gonzalez. Just three days after the massacre, she gave a famous speech, which wound up with:

Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works. We call BS.

If you agree, register to vote. Contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind.

Let's look at some of the facts that back up Gonzales's statements, and call to action.

A Constitutional Umbrella for a Progressive Coalition

Back in 2015, I proposed a “Declaration of Rights And Grievances” [link is to TOP] for the Progressive Movement, having in mind the Declarations of earlier American political movements. Here's the Constitutional basis for that proposal, and how I believe it can unify our movement.

Six Simple Ideas to Strengthen Democracy in America

Ms. Liberty Bears Six Good Ideas

Fair and reliable elections, an informed citizenry, wide participation in governance -- these are cornerstones of democracy. But the recent election in the U.S.A. has pointed out serious cracks in those stones. Gerrymandered districts weakened voters of one party, and made races non-competitive. Recently-erected hurdles stopped many from voting. Big media focused on the horse race, and ignored policy issues. Persons trafficked in misleading and fake news on social media. And, in the end, demagogy and crackpottery carried the day. What follows are six simple ideas that can, I think, be easily implemented, and that might well go a long way toward fixing those cracks and strengthening our democracy.

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