If the Constitution were yours to change...

[dblack]

Everyone should have to earn the right to vote.

By doing what?

Feats of strength!

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Everyone should have to earn the right to vote.

By doing what?

Feats of strength!

passing a test like you would to drive a car to do brain surgery

 

[bornright]

Everyone should have to earn the right to vote.

By doing what?

Service in the military and paying taxes. That would totally destroy the democratic party.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Everyone should have to earn the right to vote.

By doing what?

Service in the military and paying taxes. That would totally destroy the democratic party.

it would but its better to know the issues before voting rather than to have paid taxes or served in the military

 

[dblack]

By doing what?

Feats of strength!

passing a test like you would to drive a car to do brain surgery

So voters should be regulated? Required to have insurance? Pass certification exams?

Nanny state uber alles!

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Feats of strength!

passing a test like you would to drive a car to do brain surgery

So voters should be regulated? Required to have insurance? Pass certification exams?

Nanny state uber alles!

all agree you must be 18 to vote because it means you're hopefully intelligent enough and experienced enough to vote. 35 to be president, etc, etc.

 

[Wonky Pundit]

Everyone should have to earn the right to vote.

By doing what?

Service in the military and paying taxes. That would totally destroy the democratic party.

So people who can't pass the medical can never vote?

 

[TemplarKormac]

What changes, if any, would you make to it?

The Constitution is fine the way it is.

I wonder if the slaves thought that during the Lincoln presidency? I wonder if women thought that when it was still illegal for a woman to vote in America? The statement is unconsidered. Just imagine if everyone had those attitudes then, the whole idea set forth by the founders would not be fully embraced, and people would still go on being mistreated and discriminated against.

I'm shocked anyone could make such a statement. The Constitution is a living document! It is never "fine the way it is."

 

[dblack]

passing a test like you would to drive a car to do brain surgery

So voters should be regulated? Required to have insurance? Pass certification exams?

Nanny state uber alles!

all agree you must be 18 to vote because it means you're hopefully intelligent enough and experienced enough to vote. 35 to be president, etc, etc.

What about insurance? Should they be required to carry liability insurance, like brain surgeons and automobile owners? You know, in case they fuck up and elect another idiot?

 

[TemplarKormac]

Change the 14th Amendment definition of a citizen, make it bar Illegal Aliens from taking any benefits of a citizen in the US period. They are not citizens.

"Aliens are subjects of a foreign power"

-Thomas Jefferson

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

The Constitution is a living document! It is never "fine the way it is."

The Constitution was intended to be a dead document to insure conservative Republican libertarian government forever.

You could say amendments make it a living document but an amendment needs a large majority and as such is only supposed to extend the principles of Republican conservative libertarian government. A liberal or Nazi amendment, for example, would not be consistent with the Constitution and would probably indicate the end of the Republican was near because it would be at once be part of the Constitution and yet opposed to it.

 

[IlarMeilyr]

What changes, if any, would you make to it?

The Constitution is fine the way it is.

I wonder if the slaves thought that during the Lincoln presidency? I wonder if women thought that when it was still illegal for a woman to vote in America? The statement is unconsidered. Just imagine if everyone had those attitudes then, the whole idea set forth by the founders would not be fully embraced, and people would still go on being mistreated and discriminated against.

I'm shocked anyone could make such a statement. The Constitution is a living document! It is never "fine the way it is."

The Constitution is simply and flatly NOT a "living document."

The claim that it is happens to be completely false.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

The Constitution is simply and flatly NOT a "living document."

imagine if our Founders went to the people and said, " don't even bother to read it, its a living document, it can mean whatever you want it to mean."

"We want freedom from big liberal government, but if in a month or so you want big liberal governemnt and no freedom you can have that too with our living Constitution".

It never would have passed and there never would have been the America we know.

 

[IlarMeilyr]

The Constitution is simply and flatly NOT a "living document."

imagine if our Founders went to the people and said, " don't even bother to read it, its a living document, it can mean whatever you want it to mean."

"We want freedom from big liberal government, but if in a month or so you want big liberal governemnt and no freedom you can have that too with our living Constitution".

It was noted here earlier (by you, in fact), but they DID allow for that possibility.

However, they made the process (the Amendment process) quite cumbersome. For a reason.

You are absolutely correct.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

The Constitution is simply and flatly NOT a "living document."

imagine if our Founders went to the people and said, " don't even bother to read it, its a living document, it can mean whatever you want it to mean."

"We want freedom from big liberal government, but if in a month or so you want big liberal governemnt and no freedom you can have that too with our living Constitution".

It was noted here earlier (by you, in fact), but they DID allow for that possibility.

However, they made the process (the Amendment process) quite cumbersome. For a reason.

You are absolutely correct.

yes, cumbersome in the belief that their wisdom and the wisdom of those who voted for the Constitution should rarely be overtuned, and when it was, only by a very large majority of human beings who in the end they felt would be the greatest guarantors of their original wisdom.

 

[TemplarKormac]

The Constitution is fine the way it is.

I wonder if the slaves thought that during the Lincoln presidency? I wonder if women thought that when it was still illegal for a woman to vote in America? The statement is unconsidered. Just imagine if everyone had those attitudes then, the whole idea set forth by the founders would not be fully embraced, and people would still go on being mistreated and discriminated against.

I'm shocked anyone could make such a statement. The Constitution is a living document! It is never "fine the way it is."

The Constitution is simply and flatly NOT a "living document."

The claim that it is happens to be completely false.

Then why are there amendments? Why do we make amendments in our own state Constitutions every election cycle? I hate to break it to you, but if the document were still static, blacks would still be slaves, wouldn't be able to vote, Native Americans like me would still be considered three fifths of a person, women would still not be able to vote.. and so on.

Go learn some American history before you lecture me on the Constitution.

 

[TemplarKormac]

Laws change all the time. Laws are amended, changed, or tweaked. But the founders did make the process hard to accomplish. People need to have a good reason to change it. But to say it cannot be, and that it isn't a living document is foolish.

 

[candycorn]

gee, we're in middle of huge recession with 22 million unemployed, we're may be about to attack Iran and N Korea and you're worried about something that could happen, no one expects to happen, and has never happened in 200 years????

Are you a liberal?? How could your thinking be so irrelevent and disorganized??

Your post is the textbook example of irrelevance relative to the OP.

ok, the Constitution should end with:

In conclusion: the above Constitution is obviously written to make big government liberalism illegal on these shores. You must always be vigilant, day in and day out to insure the above words are not subverted to suit the liberal's cancerous and treasonous purposes.

If you would like to stick to the spirit of the question in the OP...I'll be happy to tell you why specifics beat rhetoric any day of the week. But then again, I doubt you'll be able to understand the reasoning.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Your post is the textbook example of irrelevance relative to the OP.

ok, the Constitution should end with:

In conclusion: the above Constitution is obviously written to make big government liberalism illegal on these shores. You must always be vigilant, day in and day out to insure the above words are not subverted to suit the liberal's cancerous and treasonous purposes.

If you would like to stick to the spirit of the question in the OP...I'll be happy to tell you why specifics beat rhetoric any day of the week. But then again, I doubt you'll be able to understand the reasoning.

As per OP:

In conclusion: the above Constitution is obviously written to make big government liberalism illegal on these shores. You must always be vigilant, day in and day out, to insure the above words are not subverted to suit the liberal's cancerous and treasonous big government, anti-freedom agenda.

 

[candycorn]

ok, the Constitution should end with:

In conclusion: the above Constitution is obviously written to make big government liberalism illegal on these shores. You must always be vigilant, day in and day out to insure the above words are not subverted to suit the liberal's cancerous and treasonous purposes.

If you would like to stick to the spirit of the question in the OP...I'll be happy to tell you why specifics beat rhetoric any day of the week. But then again, I doubt you'll be able to understand the reasoning.

As per OP:

In conclusion: the above Constitution is obviously written to make big government liberalism illegal on these shores. You must always be vigilant, day in and day out, to insure the above words are not subverted to suit the liberal's cancerous and treasonous big government, anti-freedom agenda.

"What changes, if any, would you make to it?"

So that is the only change you'd make?

The Constitution was ratified by liberals by and large.