Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
Joel Send a noteboard - 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
People no longer write like that because few can be bothered to read and comprehend it. Ending government by sound bite is as simple as demanding better instead of demanding simplicity. Heaven knows we should; the Constitutions text well demonstrates most government policy is too complex to fully address in five words.
As in, if only laws nowadays were even remotely as easy and clear to read as those. If you compare the Bill of Rights and the like to other countries' constitutions that mostly date to later periods, one of the things that will strike you is how succinct and simple the phrasing of the Bill of Rights is.
However, the body of the Constitution has some rather lengthy sentences with hordes of clauses. Consider Article 1, Section 8, which contains a number of critical (and several still hotly debated) clauses:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
One sentence, and several of the clauses are by themselves longer than what most people prefer in a sentence today.
Edit: Which goes a fair way in explaining why soundbites nowadays are so popular - politics have simply become so complicated that, unlike in the Founding Fathers' time, a reasonably well-educated citizen can't keep up with it all or even fully understand most bills, perhaps not even if (s)he dedicated every available moment of his/her time to it.
So it really was a simpler time? Nuance is certainly the order of the day; as I have often noted, long standing controversies would be neither long standing nor controversial if they admitted simple easy solutions. Perhaps there are non-paternalistic reasons the founders reserved the franchise to the gentry: They had the free time to dissect policy matters rather than trying to do so based on thirty minutes to an hour of media oversimplification after an eight (or ten, or twelve) hour job and before bed. Matters are undoubtedly more complex now, but that is ultimately just another argument against soundbites obscuring rather than clarifying the issues. People want politicians to simplify challenging issues but, once again, if that were possible we would not need 500+ congressmen and a president to decide them.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Anybody here ever studied the founding fathers of America?
30/08/2012 07:34:28 PM
- 749 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite?
30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM
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No, never, not even briefly.
30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
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What? Nooooo way
30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
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My US history class was an hour long and I always got distracted by a butterfly or something.
30/08/2012 08:50:39 PM
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Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers?
30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
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Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me.
30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
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Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite.
30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM
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Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
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You're projecting. *NM*
31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM
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I am aspiring.
31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM
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As a personal aside ...
31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM
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Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting.
31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
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Re:
31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM
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Re: Re:
31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM
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Well
31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM
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It does get repetitive too often.
31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM
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Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it.
31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
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I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal.
31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM
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Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM*
31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM
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... and big government.
01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM
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I don't really buy that.....
01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM
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Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government.
01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM
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I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating
31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM
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You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right?
01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
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I would want better intelligenstia first
01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM
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Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument.
01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM
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*wonders if we could test*
02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM
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no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work
02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM
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I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed
02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM
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Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree.
02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM
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I like the Starship Trooper approach
02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM
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I run very hot and cold on that one.
02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM
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What was that again about "you have a right to your own opinion, not your own facts"?
03/09/2012 06:39:01 PM
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Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s
03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM
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If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part
04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM
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Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers.
05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM
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