The Constitution:
Bull dung.
The constitution is an insurance policy. Without it there is no gurentee that under the right circumstances (that’s how the Patriot Act was passed), the government would not go the way of other tyrannical regimes in history seem to go. This would all be under the guise of “national security” or “national interest,” but isn’t that the mindset that has guided all tyrants?
The purpose of the Constitution is to protect the American people from the Federal Government.
If you want to argue with this, look at Iraq where U.S. officials have the power to do whatever they want. No Constitution or constitutional barriers. No elected officials. No congress or legislature. Just a top-down, command-and-control system in which the ruling authorities have more power than any Soviet dictator ever had.
This power has resulted in curfews, warrantless searches of homes, arbitrary seizures of people, indefinite detaining of suspects without charging them, concentration camps, shooting of criminal suspects, suppression of free speech, ban on elections, destruction of personal and real property, and many other things that reasonable people would consider to be tyrannical in nature. Rule in Iraq is by order and decree, rather than by legislative action, and the orders and edicts are enforced by U.S. military forces.
Doesn’t the need to stop terrorism justify this?
Hitler faced the threat of terrorism, which was exemplified by the firebombing of the Reichstag. Immediately after that terrorist attack, the German parliament granted Hitler’s request for temporary emergency powers to wage war against terrorism.
The problem is that the crises became deeper and deeper, which meant that the “temporary” powers being exercised became more entrenched, until the possibility of restoring the rights of the German people became almost impossible.
The German citizenry discovered too late the difficulty of regaining freedoms that had been temporarily surrendered to someone who then wields the power to prevent his temporary powers from being relinquished, especially someone who truly believes that such powers are needed to preserve the nation in the midst of crisis.
Think about this as you go to sleep:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin
The constitution is an insurance policy. Without it there is no gurentee that under the right circumstances (that’s how the Patriot Act was passed), the government would not go the way of other tyrannical regimes in history seem to go. This would all be under the guise of “national security” or “national interest,” but isn’t that the mindset that has guided all tyrants?
The purpose of the Constitution is to protect the American people from the Federal Government.
If you want to argue with this, look at Iraq where U.S. officials have the power to do whatever they want. No Constitution or constitutional barriers. No elected officials. No congress or legislature. Just a top-down, command-and-control system in which the ruling authorities have more power than any Soviet dictator ever had.
This power has resulted in curfews, warrantless searches of homes, arbitrary seizures of people, indefinite detaining of suspects without charging them, concentration camps, shooting of criminal suspects, suppression of free speech, ban on elections, destruction of personal and real property, and many other things that reasonable people would consider to be tyrannical in nature. Rule in Iraq is by order and decree, rather than by legislative action, and the orders and edicts are enforced by U.S. military forces.
Doesn’t the need to stop terrorism justify this?
Hitler faced the threat of terrorism, which was exemplified by the firebombing of the Reichstag. Immediately after that terrorist attack, the German parliament granted Hitler’s request for temporary emergency powers to wage war against terrorism.
The problem is that the crises became deeper and deeper, which meant that the “temporary” powers being exercised became more entrenched, until the possibility of restoring the rights of the German people became almost impossible.
The German citizenry discovered too late the difficulty of regaining freedoms that had been temporarily surrendered to someone who then wields the power to prevent his temporary powers from being relinquished, especially someone who truly believes that such powers are needed to preserve the nation in the midst of crisis.
Think about this as you go to sleep:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin