On the U.S. Constitution

by **DoomYoshi** on Fri Feb 17, 2017 2:55 pm

http://www.modern-constitutions.de/nbu.php?page_id=8294b7496ae06609fa222b156332446b
https://www.constituteproject.org/search?lang=en
http://confinder.richmond.edu/

There's something special about the American Constitution, although I'm not sure what it is. Recently I have been cogitating on the "truthfulness" of Constitutions in general. For example, the Ukrainian constitution clearly states that Crimea is in the nation of Ukraine and nothing can stop that. Russia's constitution doesn't have any articles pertaining to Crimea but it does have military and governmental control over the area. To simply dismiss Constitutional truth out-of-hand leads to major legal problems, especially since most supreme courts are solely concerned with the question of "Constitutional or not".

The Premable includes the same type of truth, what I will call a "should" truth, as opposed to an "is" truth.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

If the Preamble was an "is" truth, also known as a fact, then the union would be more than perfect, and justice for all and all that. Modern thought seems to indicate that alternate facts are less than facts. In fact, they are greater than facts, as evidenced by our striving towards them.

show: Biblical Aside

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I read something today which makes a very different claim. The US Constitution is only 23% true and 77% bullshit. However, they used an entirely different standard.

http://harpers.org/archive/2017/03/good-plain-english/?single=1

by **riskllama** on Fri Feb 17, 2017 3:15 pm

china next, pls.

by **tzor** on Fri Feb 17, 2017 4:21 pm

DoomYoshi wrote:There's something special about the American Constitution, although I'm not sure what it is.

One of the things you have to consider when considering the American Constitution is that you have to look in two dimensions. First you need a reference to compare it to and then you need to look at what went before it.

Let's consider the first question. What would you compare it to? We are tempted to think of the Constitution as the document of the Nation State, but that's not accurate. The Constitution was ratified by 13 Nation States each with a fully functioning government. In other words it is more like a combination of NATO and the European Union, than a unique Nation State. In fact it was only after the Civil War that the "United States" became a singular noun. Prior to that sentences would say "The United States are ..."

Second you have to consider what came before. Originally you had colonies whose governments were made and broken by a remote executive (known as the King). This was replaced by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which was entirely legislative and almost impossible to get anything done. The failures of the Confederation led to the design of the Constitution. The Constitution is a result of compromise among the states; the division of power between the Legislature and the Executive and of course, a court system thrown in at the last minute. (Honestly, at least 75% of the so called powers of the Federal Courts aren't even in the Constitution. Most of the structure of the court is designed by the Legislature and not the Constitution.)

The design of the government was supposed to be (as Franklin commented) a "Republic." Various powers were balanced so that no one "faction" could take control of the entire structure. (Of course it was assumed that no one would be stupid enough just to yield ones own power, but effectively, the Legislature did that in return for the creation of the "establishment.") Powers were limited and enumerated (until some shit lawyer started to misuse the "general welfare" clause).

Indeed the only major problem with the Constitution is that it cannot defend its own honor. It cannot enforce itself and if people want to enforce something that it is not, it has no power to insist otherwise. The notion that factions would in order to keep their own power secure ensure that everything would be held in check was, in the end, a false one.