dennisbmurphy
2 min readAug 14, 2023

--

I appreciate your optimistic approach but find it rather faulty.

1.Popular Sovereignty: the power and authority of the U.S. government is derived from the consent of the governed.

The problem here is that there is a large faction of Americans that do NOT consent to the current governance. Republicans specifically have devolved into a group of people for whom NO election is legitimate unless their side wins.

2. Except that the Constitution was not the "supreme law of the land." It wasn't until well after the civil war with the passage of the 13-14-15th amendments that federal constitution rights were considered to be compelled onto the states. For example, the federal government could not abridge your freedom of speech, but your state government could.

3. The Supreme Court has now proven that it is the supreme branch. They have set themselves up as being able to over-rule the other two branches including overturning even bi-partisan legislation with specious arguments and made up doctrines. The court has gone rogue and practically told the legislature that it had no power to regulate the court.

5. States and conservatives have routinely used the 10th amendment as a tool to oppress their own citizens.

6. The Bill of Rights does NOT spell out inalienable rights. I wrote an article on this subject and link it below [1]. But in short, the rights in the Constitution are legal rights, not inalienable. The definition of inalienable is "unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor." John Locke famously wrote "life, liberty, and property." However, property can be taken or sold or given away which is why Jefferson changed it to "the pursuit of happiness." The fact that some in society view these as inalienable has led to the worst gun violence in the developed world. Apparently we can't regulate guns but can commit voter suppression.

[1]

https://dennisbmurphy.medium.com/revisiting-rights-9502d494ca5c

--

--

dennisbmurphy
dennisbmurphy

Written by dennisbmurphy

Cyclist, runner. Backpacking, kayaking. .Enjoy travel, love reading history. Congressional candidate in 2016. Anti-facist. Home chef. BMuEd. Quality Engineer

No responses yet