The power of the government and whether more government enhances our liberties or suppresses them. Anti-federalists pointed to taxation by both state and federal bodies as an example of the "dangerous principles" that the constitution could represent (Graebner and Richards 143). Federalists in turn defended the document by announcing, "there is no quarrel between government and liberty; the former is the protector and shield of the latter" (Graebner and Richards 144). In today's political landscape, small government conservatives often clash with liberals who advocate expanding services and benefits available to the populace. Our government today still struggles to reconcile the voice of the people, with the interests of the elite. "Gentleman politicians" are more common than those from the working, or even middle-class. We tend to elect politicians, similar to the delegates, who have a background of higher education...
Not only that, but our political system is structured so that aspiring politicians without means have a more difficult time winning elections and, in the event that they do win, are rewarded with a salary and access to benefits and privileges that quickly puts them into the realm of the upper middle-class. Nonetheless the "losers" are still heard, as elections are more hard-fought than ever and politicians are concerned with being seen as populists and not the aristocracy. Some states have enacted measures like term limit laws, ballot initiatives, and recall votes to exercise their united voice. Thus the debates of the constitution still rage on, while the constitution is held up by many as a respected and flawless document.
In addition it was agreed that issues of federal budget, revenue and taxation would originate with the House of Representatives. The Great Compromise issued in a spirit of success to the convention and essentially ended the division between the small and large states. However, it did nothing to alleviate the pending debate between the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist. Decisions on how much power to give to the people and to
The U.S. Constitution also included many of those Magna Carta rights from the first state constitutions. Equally important in developing the rights delineated in the Bill of Rights was another 17th century English document, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, which limited power of the monarch, mandated free elections, gave the citizens the right to petition laws they deemed unjust, and created the concept of a system of checks and
Constitution/Homeland Security FISA FISA -- The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act dictates the way the United States government carries out communication surveillance (e.g., telefaxes, emails, telephone calls, Internet websites, etc.) that passes through the United States physically and both the recipient and the sender or either of the two are/is a foreign power, according to FISA definition. FISA's initial purpose, as far back as in 1978, was to make use of the FISA
Essentially, the forefathers that justified the American Revolution did not like the idea of a centralized government because of what they had just been through with Britain. Thus, if each state could keep its sovereignty, they thought that this would take care of a lot of issues. The thinking is not wrong considering what they had gone through with the Revolution, but it left for a weak nation because
Articles of Confederation: The Articles of Confederation were approved in November, 1777 and were the basic format for what would become the Constitution and Bill of Rights for the United States. There were, of course, deficiencies in the document, this was a new experiment and getting the delegates to agree in kind to pass any sort of document was challenging at best. The Articles did allow a semblance of unity,
The death penalty is not unconstitutional and is even mandatory for certain crimes with the judge and jury having little discretion in the matter in order to avoid violating the provision that prohibits 'cruel and unusual punishment' the methods used for execution of the death penalty should be humane and sensible. While the criminal may lack in possessing any compassion whatsoever that this complete lack of the ability to have
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