Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Politicing from the Keyboard



So after months of thinking of starting a blog I finally decided it was time, what does this mean to me, well it means an outlet for some frustrations of seeing friends post what to me, (and maybe I'm just an unthinking shill),  seem poorly thought rants on society.  I won't point anything out directly at this point as I'm just not that kinda guy but I'm sure in the future you will see some post by me that will have a direct relation to a friends comment, and this would be my response, if I didn't want to lose that friend.

So this being my first post of consequence I am going to start out by going over my feelings on the founding document of the great country of yours and mine.  The United States Constitution, over the next few weeks/months (depending on how often that I decide to write here, and interspersed with other topics) I will be going over the entire document.  Thus touching on something that I feel is sorely lacking in today's schools, a firm understanding of the way our nation was founded.  So lets start at the beginning folks:

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(All wording herein is directly from the Federal Archive)

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


1.  WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES


So here it is, the basic tenants of the United States of America, it starts off easily enough, "We the People of the United States"  There it is the 39 signers of this document, having been selected by their many peers to represent the states and people of those states drafted a document that would create the foundation of a powerful and free nation.


Those men risked all their rights, lands, titles, families, everything on the basis that they would create a free and elected government one that would protect it's people and it's land from the harms that could and would come to the shores of the country.  These men getting together as often as possible in a time far before the internet or even the US Postal Service came together to draft a document to...


2.  IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION


Yup form a MORE perfect union (my emphasis here), this to create a union of independent states whose entire existence was to be better than what they had lived in before, that being the general tyranny, or at the least perceived tyranny of the British Monarchy.  Now I am not yet getting into the topic of my preferred form of government that is best left for a post all itself but I am going on about the fact that the US was formed to create a better system of rule than that of the generally brutish one leader system.


Now that we have gotten through those two points we are left with the information that 'The People' wrote this document to 'Form a more perfect union' now what was that union to do well they were to...


3.  ESTABLISH JUSTICE


Yup, that would be the justice that would be set forth in the many laws that this country has developed since, how they would go about doing this we can (and will) go over in my coming posts, but they wrote the document to provide justice to the people of the United States, and this they seem to have done.  What else were they tasked with, why to...


4.  INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY


This is where at least to me the police force is 'created' this says to me, that the federal government is tasked with keeping the United States tranquil, or keeping every class, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc etc at peace with one another, domestically.  This tenant I think is one of the most forgotten portions of the constitution oft looked over for other more hot button issues, speaking of this leads us to...


5.  PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE


Providing for the common defence, this, being as it is written that the Federal Government has a duty to protect the country and it's citizens above all.  In which the government should provide protection how it sees fit, from all external threats, in other words, the government should keep a standing army, and provide that army with what is required to defend the country from external threats.


6.  PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE


To Promote the General Welfare, well here we are at one of the most controversial potions of the preamble to the constitution, what I see in this and of course with no way of being able to read the minds of the founders I could be completely wrong, this is to say that the Federal Government is to set out on the ability to do the best that it can to the general population, working within it's restrictions, this does not say provide the general welfare but promote the general welfare.


This is where I feel that we need to look at the definition of the two words.  


To Promote:  Further the progress of, support or actively encourage.  
To Provide:  Make available for use; supply


So what's the difference one may ask well for one, to Promote does not mean to just give a person their own general welfare, as to Provide does, what this instructs is that the Federal Government, should make it easy for people to provide to their own welfare, not to give them everything.


7.  SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY


And the final portion of the preambles declarations, is here, securing the BLESSINGS (zomg they were god fearing people get over it) of liberty for the nation's peoples and their descendants, in other words to secure the freedom of all people within the states.  While the country did for many years not ascribe this to all peoples it is now the right to all in the country.




8.  DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


And here the many represented by the few set forth that they certify that what they write in the coming document is what the people of the many states would want.  The constitution as first drafted combined Thirteen individual British Colonies into one Nation, who would one day grow to become one of the Worlds Super Power's and would be founded on the desire to be free in all ways, and pursuant to that would modify even this founding document to properly reflect that desire.




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So with all that said, and I don't know how much of my own bias came out in the wash there but we have completed the preamble to the constitution of the United States of America.  My first blog post and hopefully I will gain some readers from my what I hope is common sense interpretation of each phrase of this portion of our founding document.

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