The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation
Where to buy The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Integration books online?
Product Description
Collected here in one affordable volume are the most vital documents of the United States of America: The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Integration. These three documents are the basis for our entire way of life. Every citizen should have a copy.
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The United States Constitution is a brilliant document that has secured liberty for millions of Americans, but serious flaws have begun to emerge as well as international challenges which, in my view, require an intelligent rethinking in a Second Constitutional Convention.
My problems with the current Constitution include:
(1) Awkward transition between presidents; from election day to the swearing in of the next president, there are effectively two presidents — one in office, one awaiting office, and this allows confusion.
(2) Under-representation of voters from populous states in the Senate.
(3) DC voters lack representation.
(4) Supreme Court has become a politicized institution. This dates back to Marshall’s Marbury v. Madison choice in which the Court usurped power, not granted by the Constitution, to strike down laws if it establish them “against the constitution”. The Framers never proposed for the judiciary to have such sweeping power. The Supreme Court, over time, has failed to protect the federal structure (with state governments having the most economic regulatory power) and as a replacement for promoted power shifting to Washington. The Supreme Court has made highly political choices, such as Roe v. Wade, which should have been left to individual state governments or national lawmakers.
(5) Original Constitution fails to include a right of privacy.
(6) Possibility of a military dictatorship should a significant terrorist attack take place such as a catastrophic attack on Congress.
(7) The Electoral college system is cumbersome and confusing.
(8) Well loved election of senators. Here’s a situation in which the original constitution was right (letting state governments choose Senators) but it was changed by an amendment. It’s vital for state governments to choose Senators to give state governments a voice in the national government.
(9) Inability to get rid of an incompetent president quickly. Examples: Wilson (suffered from an economic malady); possibly Roosevelt in last years in office; Bush (clearly incompetent choice to attack Iraq).
(10) Life tenure for unelected Supreme Court judges.
(11) The Ninth amendment has been seriously ignored.
These objections have been raised by constitutional scholars and there is honestly widespread agreement among them.
British constitutional scholar Adam Tomkins identifies a prime weakness in America’s constitution — that the prime role of checking government is supposedly handled by the judiciary, and not the legislature. He thinks the judiciary is ill-suited to rein in government ministers since it must wait for a court case to bubble up before it can act; plus, judges are not popularly elected and are therefore not accountable to the public. He thinks Britain’s system — where the Prime Minister must defend choices each week in a 30 minute meeting before Parliament — is superior to America’s. I agree.
I see more serious flaws with America’s governmental structure than the list above. The foreign policy architecture is deeply flawed — entrusting too much power in one overburdened official (the president, who has both domestic and foreign policy duties.) America’s foreign policy can only be as excellent as the president. An incompetent president, or one distracted with domestic matters, means that America’s foreign policy is likely to be mindless and erratic. Any intelligent review over the past 50 years of America’s foreign policy would see a long list of obvious mistakes (along with some successes, to be sure.) In the past, America could get away with this mindlessness because of its size and wealth; but in the nuclear age, foreign policy can’t be an conduct experiment, a fluke, rather it must be consistently sound and smart. So I propose a structure more like the Roman Senate (during the Republic years.) It rarely made mistakes. And therefore, this requires major changes to the constitution.
Further, the United States lacks an intelligent strategy to prevent terrorism. The Constitution is partly to blame here. It needs to confront the whole issue of anonymous movement in public — that is, how can we identify movement while preserving privacy? This is the key to preventing terrorism in my view. I argue in my book “Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism” that there is no adequate way to prevent serious terrorism lacking overhauling the Constitution.
Today’s US government is highly corrupt. Power has shifted to the president. Power is dangerously concentrated in this one office. The executive can essentially legislate by using a vast bureaucracy of agencies that are largely unaccountable to the public and hidden from debate. Presidents have begun issuing “signing statements” — a honestly recent innovation — when they clarify how they intend to interpret a law made by Congress, which effectively puts an executive twist on a law. The most egregious sign of concentrated executive power is, of course, the power to start wars lacking Congressional praise (Vietnam, Grenada, sou’wester, Iraq (there was a token vote)). The Constitution explicitly gave the war-building power to Congress. So why does the president have this power?
So, for these reasons and additional reasons, I’m advocating a Second Constitutional Convention to fix these flaws, and as a private citizen, I am summoning delegates to Independence Hall in Philadelphia beginning July 4th, 2009.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This thing is waaaay too ancient for life in today’s world.
Nobody honors it anyway. Certainly not our elected and appointed officials.
I say, let’s throw it out, go back to the Declaration of Independence and start all over again.
We could update the Declaration of Independence a bit, noting that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men, in all colors, all women, in all colors, all children (once they escape the womb and can make it in a solitary, grave and brutish world), of all races, creeds, non-creeds, wealth, poverty, are made equal, and are brilliant with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, health, the pursuit of wealth, education, skills, family tree, habeas corpus, to wear whatever clothes they choose, or ingest whatever substances they choose, or whatever else leads to their happiness, and, as the holders of all power, are brilliant with the inalienable right to overthrow any government that does not honor, support, defend and obey persons inalienable rights. And to that end, every man, woman and child should bear arms, in order to keep their elected and appointed officials in line.
(Because, as we’ve establish out, over thousands of years of human history, once you give a hominid a small power, they keep wanting more, and won’t stop until they control every thing of value, have power over every person, etc., until they’re brought up fleeting by We the People.)
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
A right American book. Its our Values,,,, WE BELIEVE
The Conservation Movement will prevail.
Lets Roll
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I thought that this was going to be one of persons small pocket-sized ones. It is not. Although super thin, it is larger than your average paperback. Disappointed, though possibly I shouldn’t have assumed.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Every US citizen should own a copy of the constitution. But more vital than just owning it, is understanding it. This edition of the constitution allows you to do so. The quality of the take in, binding, and paper is superb. If you are wanting a cop of the constitution, and you should if you do not already own one, this is a fine one to get. This edition also contains the Declaration of Independence, and The Articles of Integration. These are two bonuses that are certainly appreciated.
The largest complaint about this particular edition, is that there is a liberal disclaimer that is trying to get the horrible socialistic socialists to socialize your Nazism. Yes the statement is a bit silly, but don’t listen to it if it bothers you so much.
It seems that there are two main thoughts about the constitution today. One says that it was inspired by God, written by saints and is infallible and the answer to everything, others say that it was written by racist ignorant pigs, and does not apply to today’s time. The truth is somewhere in the middle of these two assertions. If you read and study this fantastic document, you will know it’s pros and cons, and likley feel as I do that the pros out way the cons. I cant reflect of a better edition of the US Constitution to do this with, than this one. You should certainly buy this, study it, and grow from it. You will not be disappointed.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5