Why Conservatives & Liberals Must Vie for Power

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Burning Giraffe

We hear the Constitution discussed as a “living, breathing document” as if our liberties and rights and protection from the Government is something that ought to be redefined with the times; as if freedom then somehow relied upon different principles than freedom now.

I happen to believe that the Constitution is a living, breathing document. If the Constitution was not, then how could you justify the use of Amendments, most notably the Bill of Rights? I just love the hypocrisies of politicians like Ron Paul, when they hate laws they consider "unconstitutional," but then they want to amend the constitution to make their ideas constitutional.

Remember boys and girls, Ron Paul is a pseudo-Libertarian.

[LittlePinky82]

Originally Posted by Burning Giraffe

We don't need a perfect system. We just need a good one. Ours started off pretty good, but has kind of fallen apart.

Oh yeah. I guess it was good when only white men who owned land could vote and people owned other people as slaves and don't even think about a woman having any type of voice. Yeah...that's a good system. I suggest you read "A People's History" by Howard Zinn. News flash: that system still exists. It didn't go anywhere. Things today are just more realistic with the said system than in the past.

[LittlePinky82]

Originally Posted by Darkness

I happen to believe that the Constitution is a living, breathing document. If the Constitution was not, then how could you justify the use of Amendments, most notably the Bill of Rights? I just love the hypocrisies of politicians like Ron Paul, when they hate laws they consider "unconstitutional," but then they want to amend the constitution to make their ideas constitutional.

Remember boys and girls, Ron Paul is a pseudo-Libertarian.

Last term my American government professor pointed out even the founding fathers believed the Constitution was a living and breathing document and they knew things would get added and amended as society changed and grew. Not even they expected things to always stay the same. LOL about Ron Paul. In the latest FISA disgusting "compromise" (which wasn't one at all if you read it and the Bush administration's response) Ron Paul didn't even bother to show up and vote!! He's too busy playing wonder boy hero. He also doesn't believe in the separation of church and state which is clearly in the first amendment. Here's where he states it- The War on Religion by Rep. Ron Paul LOL what a joke.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Ron Paul

As we celebrate another Yuletide season, it’s hard not to notice that Christmas in America simply doesn’t feel the same anymore. Although an overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, and those who don’t celebrate it overwhelmingly accept and respect our nation’s Christmas traditions, a certain shared public sentiment slowly has disappeared. The Christmas spirit, marked by a wonderful feeling of goodwill among men, is in danger of being lost in the ongoing war against religion. Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view. The justification is always that someone, somewhere, might possibly be offended or feel uncomfortable living in the midst of a largely Christian society, so all must yield to the fragile sensibilities of the few. The ultimate goal of the anti-religious elites is to transform America into a completely secular nation, a nation that is legally and culturally biased against Christianity.
This growing bias explains why many of our wonderful Christmas traditions have been lost. Christmas pageants and plays, including Handel’s Messiah, have been banned from schools and community halls. Nativity scenes have been ordered removed from town squares, and even criticized as offensive when placed on private church lawns. Office Christmas parties have become taboo, replaced by colorless seasonal parties to ensure no employees feel threatened by a “hostile environment.” Even wholly non-religious decorations featuring Santa Claus, snowmen, and the like have been called into question as Christmas symbols that might cause discomfort. Earlier this month, firemen near Chicago reluctantly removed Christmas decorations from their firehouse after a complaint by some embittered busybody. Most noticeably, however, the once commonplace refrain of “Merry Christmas” has been replaced by the vague, ubiquitous “Happy Holidays.” But what holiday? Is Christmas some kind of secret, a word that cannot be uttered in public? Why have we allowed the secularists to intimidate us into downplaying our most cherished and meaningful Christian celebration?
The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life.
The Founding Fathers envisioned a robustly Christian yet religiously tolerant America, with churches serving as vital institutions that would eclipse the state in importance. Throughout our nation’s history, churches have done what no government can ever do, namely teach morality and civility. Moral and civil individuals are largely governed by their own sense of right and wrong, and hence have little need for external government. This is the real reason the collectivist Left hates religion: Churches as institutions compete with the state for the people’s allegiance, and many devout people put their faith in God before their faith in the state. Knowing this, the secularists wage an ongoing war against religion, chipping away bit by bit at our nation’s Christian heritage. Christmas itself may soon be a casualty of that war.

(1) Not promoting Christianity at the expense of other religions is not prejudice.
(2) Most of the American-Left is religious.
(3) The United States was founded on Enlightenment principles, not Christian values.

[NoahideHiker]

Originally Posted by Burning Giraffe

Political philosophy in the United States has all but disappeared as a matter of theory, replaced instead by a national clamoring to get government to do our bidding in a kind of Democratic hysteria. There seems to be no solid principles upon which the US Government is kept in check by the people, who, in an attempt to keep with the times, find themselves desperate to keep their representatives in power in order to shape the direction of an ever growing federal authority. The people never stop to ask, by what right does the government continue to grow and regulate and tax every aspect of their lives. Instead, they consent out of either greed, fear, or ignorance, opting rather to use the hammer and chisel of federal power to define for themselves and their countrymen their rights and liberties as Americans.


The United States was not founded as a Democracy, but as a Constitutional Republic, for the purpose of preserving the liberty of the people by subjecting Government to the rule of law. Yet, over the years the Constitution has been eroded by a nefarious national acceptance of Subjectivism and relativism with regards to the interpretation of nearly every Constitutional article. We hear the Constitution discussed as a “living, breathing document” as if our liberties and rights and protection from the Government is something that ought to be redefined with the times; as if freedom then somehow relied upon different principles than freedom now.


In fact, there seems to be no tribute paid to the political principles of liberty as defined by the Constitution for the protection of individuals against the power of The State. Over the years, we’ve accepted that in times of national emergency or in the presence of social disharmony, that the government should have the authority to manufacture regulations to keep the country moving “forward” (however that subjective direction may be defined). As an alternative, we have become a people who have filled the intentional void of political power in the Constitution with Government. Whatever question arises that is undefined by the Constitution is assumed to be a political “no man’s land” for the federal government, to decide on the basis of popular opinion or the national good how the government should rule on these Constitutionally unaddressed questions; when, in fact, it was the purpose of the Constitution to limit the Federal Government’s power to those areas only prescribed to it through the Constitution.


Our opposition to this political principle has been disastrous and it seems nearly impossible to imagine a day when the federal government would be held to solely to the powers enumerated to it specifically by the Constitution and prohibited to rule or legislate on matters left unaddressed. That which went unaddressed was supposed to be left up to the liberty of the people, who have, stupidly, deferred those liberties back to the government, sacrificing the only real political power they have. Now, finding ourselves dependent upon the good will and graces of our commanding Federal Establishment, we are all that much more desperate to control it. This is the cause for the great fear of our age, that our political rivals would control the Beast into which our government has evolved.

Nice post! I have become increasingly irritated by the shifting role in government. Also in what people view as "rights". A buddy of mine tried to argue that education and healthcare are a Constitutional right of the people and he tried to use the 9th Amendment of the Bill of Rights as proof. WTH? He is a wickedly smart guy too. LOL!

How we got to the point where people view the Constitution as a list of goodies the government is supposed to give us is beyond me? The Constitution does not guarantee the government will give us what is found therein but simply says the government can't stand in our way of going out and getting them.

One of my favorite quotes:

"A government big enough to give you everything you need is a government big enough to take everything you have."

-Ronald Reagan

[LittlePinky82]

Originally Posted by NoahideHiker

Nice post! I have become increasingly irritated by the shifting role in government. Also in what people view as "rights". A buddy of mine tried to argue that education and healthcare are a Constitutional right of the people and he tried to use the 9th Amendment of the Bill of Rights as proof. WTH? He is a wickedly smart guy too. LOL!

How we got to the point where people view the Constitution as a list of goodies the government is supposed to give us is beyond me? The Constitution does not guarantee the government will give us what is found therein but simply says the government can't stand in our way of going out and getting them.

One of my favorite quotes:

"A government big enough to give you everything you need is a government big enough to take everything you have."

-Ronald Reagan

It's a human right. LOL you're quoting Ronald Reagan? What a joke that is! The same Reagan involved with Iran-Contra? Where was the big government quote then?