I was asked to describe the U.S. Constitution to someone who
doesn’t know anything about it.
There are many people in the States who don’t know what it
is nor do they even bother to recall what is written in it. Even when they do
its often what General Electric, the Saudi Royals or Ted Turner wants people to
believe what it really is.
Without all the technical trash… here is what the
Constitution of the U.S. really is in layman’s terms followed by what needs to
be patched:
Think of the U.S. Constitution as Computer Software.
When new software is released, it is not perfect.
It is still going to have problems of its own upon launch.
When the Constitution was made the law of the land, that was
the case even in 1791.
The Amendments to the Constitution are system patches.
The whole point of the Amendment is to fix problems that
were not foreseen upon establishment.
Like software and computer programming in general, nothing
can be deleted as the system still needs to know about what has already been
done. So if something goes missing, things stop working as the system is still
requesting for that code or in the case of government: bad things happen.
That is why we know about what was originally implemented in
the Constitution upon launch before amendment changes.
To test the system, Madison proposed 19-20 Amendments.
Out of all those proposed, only 12 of them were approved
with 10 being ratified by the States. Those 10 would be known as the Bill of
Rights. The original 12th Amendment regarding Congressional pay
would not be ratified until 1992. While the original 11th Amendment
regarding an adjustment in representation would forever remain on the board until
ratification.
The two mentioned are what the original 1st and 2nd
Amendments when they were proposed.
Back then there were no expiration dates on Amendments. Thus
is why an approved amendment from over two centuries ago could still be
ratified by the States.
Out of the over two centuries of existence, the U.S.
Constitution still has problems today brought about from the Progressive Era.
The one that remains from that era is the 16th
Amendment regarding the Income Tax.
Originally it was supposed to go after rich people from what
was originally promoted in the newspapers in the early-20th Century.
But after over a century of it being in effect, the Income
Tax has instead destroyed more people’s lives than it has helped them. The
Income Tax was never meant to go after rich people, but instead provide a clear
line solution for government interests to consolidate control over everyday
people. The opposite of what an amendment is supposed to do.
If there were any amendment that needs to be repealed, the
16th Amendment would be it.
It is already the largest disaster in the history of our
country that should be left behind as a bad memory.
As for what needs to be amended: terms limits for Congress
and a strengthened 2nd Amendment.
Originally, Madison and the others thought there was no need
term limits as members would come and go like popcorn. But as time has shown
through two centuries that is not the case. Members of the House and Senate
have outstayed their welcome with several members sitting in their chairs for
decades to even over half a century.
Term limits may have its own alternate problems as seen in
Mexico.
But for the least it solidifies that no one can sit in the
same chair for long periods of time.
The 2nd Amendment needs to be strengthened up to
forbid the all forms of government from passing laws restricting or altering
the rights of the people from bearing arms.
The 2nd Amendment was supposed to do that. But as
any good citizen knows, it has some loopholes.
Government at all levels have been able to exploit those
loopholes to take away people’s rights despite the “shall not be infringed”
clause being active.
First government used those loopholes to go after Black
people and minority groups from owning guns and bladed weapons, then they used
those loopholes to go after all people’s rights to own bladed weapons in general,
and more recently the right of the people to own automatic guns before going
after the rest.
There has to be Amendment that clearly solidifies in place
that the government cannot and shall not infringe on the people’s rights to own
any weapon.
To do that there has to be a new clause that draws that
line.
Something that says that government at all levels are
forbidden from passing any law that restricts or forbids the people from
bearing arms.
With something like that in place, we can end this lengthy
debate about “what weapons can or can’t the people own” to other more
significant things that need to be taken care of.