10 “truths” About the United States Government That are Demonstrably False
Some information about our government, just in time for the upcoming elections.
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“The United States is a Democracy”
Wrong. The United States is at best a “Democratic Republic”. When our federal government was created, only 1/6 of it was subject directly to the “will of the people”. The executive and judicial branches were appointed offices (the former by the Electoral College, the latter by the Chief Executive) and of the two houses of congress, only the House of Representatives was elected by the people. The more exclusive senate (only 26 original members) was appointed by the various State legislatures and governors. All of which begs the question: How much did the founders of our nation believe in the “Will of the people”?
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“The Founders of America trusted the Will of the People”
Sorry, no. As the structure of the government (above) demonstrates, the designers of the Constitution had a great mistrust of “mob rule” or “mobocracy”. The Federalist Papers, a series of documents written by the Framers of the Constitution to defend it, make clear that the government was designed to avoid the rash decisions of the easily-swayed masses, and champion the place of minority viewpoints.
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“The Constitution tells us that “All men are created equal””
That phrase does not appear in the US constitution; it’s from the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the Constitution specifically limited the value of certain groups of people to 3/5 of that of white, propertied men. It took four Amendments (13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th) to make the Constitution reflect the notion of equality under the law.
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“The Constitution was created as a Perfect form of Government”
Unfortunately, like most things that come from the government, the Constitution was built broken. Fortunately, it was written with a self-fixing element, that being the amendment process. Before the constitution was even ratified by the states, ten amendments (the Bill of Rights) had to be added. On the other hand, excluding the bill of rights, the document has only been amended fifteen times in 230 years, or so, so it wasn’t too shabby either. (27 amendments – 10 from the BOR – 2 for the 18th and the 21st, which cancelled each other out = 15)
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“Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the Constitution”
This one always bugged me. Not only did Jefferson NOT write the Constitution, he wasn’t even in the country when it was written.(He was living it up in France) Additionally, he didn’t really care for it; he felt (especially without a Bill Of Rights) that it was simply a re-creation of the Monarchy. The guy who came to the party with a draft of the Constitution written in advance was young (and tiny) James Madison.
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“We can’t know what the Drafters of the Constitution were thinking when they wrote…”
Leaving aside the fact that virtually all the concepts in the Constitution were cribbed from other sources, Madison spent the entire convention doing nothing more than documenting the procedure as it occurred. This statement is a bit more accurate as it pertains to the Bill of Rights, but most folks don’t understand those either.
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“The Bill of Rights is a comprehensive list of rights that all Americans share”
This is a huge misconception about American law. The bill of rights is a list of prohibitions that applied only to the Federal Government at the time. Almost all of the Amendments are written in the negative ie: “Congress Shall Pass NO law…”. The states were at first free to abridge any of these “rights” because the prohibitions were limited to Congress. It took several Supreme Court decisions to apply these various prohibitions to state agencies (and some of them were never so applied)
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“If it isn’t in the Bill of Rights, it’s not a right”
This is exactly backwards. According to the 10th Amendment, the failure of a right to appear on the list of the first nine means is DOES exist. The list was meant to highlight the most important rights, not deny the others. On the other hand, in order for a right to legally exist, it has to be found to be implied (by the Supreme Court), or legislated by Congress.
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“The Bill of Rights is Absolute”
Maybe in an ideal world, but the Supreme Court almost immediately began placing limitations on what these rights entail, and Chief Executives have been known to ignore them when they become inconvenient. Not to say these limitations are unreasonable, after all, should the Constitution protect your right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater? Former Chief Justice Brandeis said no, and few are inclined to disagree.
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“The Current Administration (as of 2008) is the Only One to Blatantly Disregard the Bill of Rights”
Afraid not. War has always been a good excuse for tabling the constitution and bill of rights. The first huge violator of the rule of law didn’t even have a war to excuse him: Andrew Jackson. He refused to comply with supreme court findings in the 1830s. Abraham Lincoln routinely violated Due Process (4th amendment) when rebellious Marylanders attacked federal troops in Baltimore. FDR ordered the confiscation of property and internment of thousands of individuals whose sole crime was Japanese ancestry. In 1946, a former Japanese internee sued the government for this violation and LOST. (Korimatsu v. US)
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