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August 15, 2005

Ignorance about basic civics on proud display

Ay caramba! The ignorance about basis civics just boggles ... Matt Taibbi wrote a story for Rolling Stone on how Congress works, and concludes:

Taken all together, the whole thing is an ingenious system for inhibiting progress and the popular will. The deck is stacked just enough to make sure that nothing ever changes. But just enough is left to chance to make sure that hope never completely dies out. And who knows, maybe it evolved that way for a reason.

"nothing ever changes", which is why we still have slavery, right Matt? ...

Congress didn't "evolve" that way ... it was "designed" that way ... Matt, did you take high school civics or American history? ...did your editor? ... have you ever read the U.S. Constitution? ... is your story what passes for informed commentary about how Congress works? ... Ai yi yi yi yi ...

"Four Amendments & a Funeral: A month inside the house of horrors that is Congress," by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, August 10, 2005

Links

• U.S. Constitution, Article I., Section 7, Revenue Bills, Legislative Process, Presidential Veto

• The Federalist Papers, No. 62: "...a senate, as a second branch of the legislative assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy, where the ambition or corruption of one would otherwise be sufficient."

• The Federalist Papers, No. 72: "The propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments, has been already suggested and repeated; the insufficiency of a mere parchment delineation of the boundaries of each, has also been remarked upon; and the necessity of furnishing each with constitutional arms for its own defense, has been inferred and proved. From these clear and indubitable principles results the propriety of a negative, either absolute or qualified, in the Executive, upon the acts of the legislative branches. Without the one or the other, the former would be absolutely unable to defend himself against the depredations of the latter. He might gradually be stripped of his authorities by successive resolutions, or annihilated by a single vote. And in the one mode or the other, the legislative and executive powers might speedily come to be blended in the same hands. If even no propensity had ever discovered itself in the legislative body to invade the rights of the Executive, the rules of just reasoning and theoretic propriety would of themselves teach us, that the one ought not to be left to the mercy of the other, but ought to possess a constitutional and effectual power of self defense.

  But the power in question has a further use. It not only serves as a shield to the Executive, but it furnishes an additional security against the enaction of improper laws. It establishes a salutary check upon the legislative body, calculated to guard the community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, or of any impulse unfriendly to the public good, which may happen to influence a majority of that body."

• "'Virtual Congress' Would Weaken Deliberative Process," by Rep. David Drier (R-CA), Roll Call, December 20, 2001: "The founding fathers purposefully conceived Congress as a slow-moving, inefficient institution. Congress is not meant to react to the public emotions and demands of the moment. Indeed, by its very design, it serves to check the popular passions and develop legislation through a deliberative, consensus-building process."
  

Update - we're below the salt: we've been forwarded some comments made by our betters ... that we didn't understand the article ... and that Matt wasn't talking about the Congress as devised by the Founders ... Ai yi yi yi yi ... when Matt states "Taken all together, the whole thing is an ingenious system ...." suggest our betters go back to school ... take, or retake, civics 101 ... and familiarize themselves with ALL of the First Amendment ... including ... speech ... peaceable assembly ... petition the government ... lobbying is what special interests do ... but our betters, of course, don't belong to any special interests ... except their own ... no unions ... no coalitons ... no trade or academic associations ... no dreams of an even bigger state telling us all what to do ... no political parties ... no churches ... nope, no special interests there ... only those below the salt and other unworthy people belong to special interests ... after reading the First Amendment, go read Mancur Olson's "The Logic of Collective Action" and Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom"

Posted at August 15, 2005 07:58 AM | Categories: America , Ignorance , Politics

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