• Gigan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why? Because a lot of their ideas were good. Creating a system of government that is immune or even resilient to corruption is very difficult, but the US has done pretty good all things considered.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Treating the constitution as if it cant be changed because it is “perfect” is wildly different than not wanting the government to boundary test how it can skirt the constitution to get what it wants. When the US government doesnt follow the rules that it was supposed to be bound to via the constitution, it is almost never a good thing.

        The constitution set rules for how to change it legitimately. It was designed to be changed over time not flagrently ignored.

        • yata@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          That’s the problem, it cannot be changed anymore, the base problems with the system itself prevents it from doing so.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Sounds like you have an issue with these “base problems”, not the Constitution itself

        • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          The constitution was designed to be vaguely descriptive, so that in the case that society does change, then statements can be interpreted in a way that supports the new view of the modern country.

          For instance, while not in the constitution, the government set up no offical state language or religion, in the case that society had changed making what they said redundant.

      • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Constitutions form the foundation on which everything else–laws, the economy, public services, politics, culture, national security–is built.

        It’s one thing to look at how a new constitution might solve our current social ills, or to demonstrate how the old one is imperfect, it’s another thing to really consider the side effects of a change in constitution. What things we would lose that we take for granted, and to do so honestly, and critically?

        Would America still be an imperialistic hegemony with a swedish constitution? If no, are Americans really truly ready to give up the benefits they enjoy that come with being a global hegemony?

        We won’t really find answers to these questions in a tweet.

      • yemmly@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Who is the head of state of Sweden? How are they selected? What is their term of service in the role?

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The West Wing S06 E14 - The Wake Up Call is a pretty good episode about the US constitution as a model.

        We’re aware there are better constitutions, especially more modern ones. But if the US were to rewrite our constitution today, we’d be the United States of Bank of America. We have to appreciate what we do have or it’ll be gone.

        The reverence for our constitution is important because it helps to enforce it. The piece of paper doesn’t do much on its own.

    • forrgott@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      One of their ideas I personally think would be amazing: allegedly, Thomas Jefferson predicted the Construction would only last less than twenty years before we would completely overhaul our core document of governance. I believe rebuilding the specific details every couple decades would’ve helped tremendously…

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah but a lot were also bad which is why it’s stupid when people act like the opinions of the founding fathers should matter more than the opinions of contemporary Americans when the same founding fathers were smart enough to realize the constitution should be a living document and not a holy totem to use as a club to stifle any progress.

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think there were only a couple bad ideas, which have been mostly fixed by amendments. It is a living document, it has changed over time. You could argue that it should be easier to change, but there would be consequences for that too.

    • yata@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It has done a horrible job of it all things considered. Basically all the fabled checks and balances have turned out to be based on nothing but good faith. The founders refused to consider that partisanship would evolve at all, let alone to the extremes it has turned into today.

      Lots of other Western democracies are doing a lot better job at it, not least because they have been allowed to evolve and change with the times, while the core of the US political system has petrified in all its archaism.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Creating a system of government that is immune or even resilient to corruption is very difficult, but the US has done pretty good all things considered.

      What cave were you living in between 2016 and 2020?

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Creating a system of government that is immune or even resilient to corruption is very difficult, but the US has done pretty good all things considered.

      Really? You think so, even tho we are essentially an Oligarchy with a huge amount of corruption, especially in the Supreme Court

      • Josh@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Okay, but consider the fact that you are able to write that, and even take to the streets vocally demand change. Things might be bad, but you truly have no idea what it means to live in fear of your government.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      We made it less than a century before the first civil war. That’s an epic failure in my book.