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Constitution, Laws; and society's comprehension of the system


  3. freedomisfree
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I have just completed my first year on college. I have taken two courses that have introduced me to the system of government we live by, and i've come to realise, what average person can make sense of this? In order to understand the government fully your in for alot of reading and comprehension struggles. I can't see why we can't fix things so the average American understands everything about the government. It boggles me as to why we have an electorial college, it bothers me that i can't see what my tax money is used on, and there's no way to boycott tax money for purposes i dont want it used for. I don't understand why the majority of us don't know every single states' laws, and system of doing things. I was not introduced to the way in which our government conducts itself untill i reached college, i didn't get a taste of it once in high school or anything. I think it would be good to advocate education to each generation about how it's run, so that they wont have such a hard time taking initiative. Who can name off all of the states ways of running caucuses or primaries without looking it up? it's almost absurd. I think that all of the laws we don't use need to be scrapped out, and what we have needs to be improved so every citizen or most can understand the system they live in. I'm not saying we should make the constitution definate, becasue i know that it's very broad nature makes it so future interpretation can be made, but why can't we make it a little more...understandable? I think everone has the right to know their rights, the laws, and the system in which they live by, not just those who have to take classes to satisfy their core credits. I also think learning about our government is more important than MCAS, but thats just an opinion.
freedomisfree

6 responses // Constitution, Laws; and society's comprehension of the system

  • If you want to understand the Constitution there are many fine books out there...go right ahead and read some of them:)

    If you want to understand the political system take a Poly-Sci 101 course too.
    PatrickEdwardMurray
  • Seeing that you have taken a couple of courses, don't they teach Civics in High School anymore:)?
    PatrickEdwardMurray
  • It's convoluted because the system of government we now have is not much related to the one established by the Constitution. Read the Constitution. Article I, Section 8 is a particular interesting area because it defines the powers of the central government ot act. Note what the powers of Congress are vs what they are now. Also, the general welfare clause in this section was not intended to provide for welfare generally (words of teh authors, not mine). Note that the Bill of Rights pertains to individuals and are a restriction on the power of the central government.
    Oh, the electorial college was intended to put smalll, sparsly polulated states on par with the larger ones with urban areas. This country is not supposed to be a democracy, hence the electorial college. We are supposed to be a Constitutionally restricted Republic, a concept unknown in many circles today. It's a shame that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are not really taught today. Much is said about how the Contsitution is a "living, breathing document that means whatever it means at the time", a postition that betrays the ignorance of those who subscribe to this. We need better educators.
    Paratus
  • "....the electorial college was intended to put smalll, sparsly polulated states on par with the larger ones...."

    Not exactly. At the time of the constitutional convention, the state with the largest population was Virginia. The pink elephant in the room at the convention, that no one talked about was slavery. The electoral college, along with the 3/5 rule, allowed the slave states to be over represented and prevented the free states from outlawing slavery. It worked as intended for about 60 years.

    The bonus question for this round is "how many times are the words slavery and or slave mentioned in the constitution.
    seeker561
  • I agree that we need better educators. I do not know of a single government class that was offered at my high school. And what was taught barely covered anything about the subject. It was MCAS, you don't pass you don't graduate. Everything I learned was basically about the MCAS or had to do with the MCAS. For god sakes we were required to write ONE essay my senior year in English. We spent months on looking up sources, making index cards of our sources, making notes on index cards, then trying to piece the index cards together to make paragraphs. It's didn't prepare me for any higher education at all. The first day of my State and Local government class we were given maps to fill out. It seems were learning the least about geography, none of us got all of the states and territories right the first time. 65% of American students can't find England on a map. When are they going to stop NCLB(and/or) MCAS?
    freedomisfree
  • Without the electorial college, large urban areas would carry the day every time. This is not a democracy. We do not elect by popular vote. Virginia may have had a large population but generally, the states in the south were less populated than their counter parts in the North. Since slavery existed north of the Potomac River, except Massachusetts I believe, I don't know what the "free states" were. Note that Lincolns Emancipation speech did not free any slaves except those in the South. It had no effect on any in the Union.
    The 3/5 clause was a problem but only in that the Northern states felt that it gave the South disproportionate representation.

    I don't believe the words "slavery" exist anywhere in the Constitution.
    Paratus

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