Hey. You guys are rewriting history.
They wanted to be different, and
they
achieved it. Where else, at the time, did you
find the concept of no
unreasonable search and
seizure? Or the concept of inalienable rights?
Plus
the French revolution ended up with
murders of the prior government, then a bit
of
chaos (the Reign of Terror) and then a
dictatorship (Napoleon). Yes.
Look it
up. Democracy was not the result.
What was the same was getting rid of a king
or
queen, seated by birth. At the time, the
French were influenced by the
American ideas,
not vice versa. That's why it was a big splash
when Jefferson
and Franklin visited France, which
had supported (even the king did) the
Americans
against the British. You can read more
here. The biggest
difference was sovereignty under the
French
Rights of Man and Citizen resided with the state
("The source of all
sovereignty is located in essence in the nation; nobody, no individual can
exercise authori(t)y which does not emanate from it expressly.").
None of that
inalienable rights and final say
by citizens, who give rights to the government,
not
the other way around (“deriving their [government’s] just powers from the
consent of the governed.”).
That is a huge difference. As the article
expresses it, "The American ideal was completely different in that it did not
trust the individuals who made up a government define the power of the state,
but rather let the people do so in the form of the American
Constitution."
Or
find a government divided into three parts,
each
independent of the others? Coming from such different ideas, you can see why
the US Constitution really was designed to protect individuals from the
overpowering hand of the state, because they had experienced despotic kings, and
they wanted none of that.
Needless to say, it's different now, but that
was indeed
the intent. And it's only because of the Constitutional
protections
(not that everyone pays attention to them
any more) that those kids pepper
sprayed in California while bound and kneeling on the ground just got
$30,000
each, because the government had no Constitutional right
to treat
them that way.
Everyone everywhere might agree about that. But here
the
courts actually insist, if such a case arrives before
them, if they follow the
Constitutional principles.
Nowadays, you probably couldn't get the
Constitution
voted into place, but one reason for that is they don't
teach it
any longer is schools, and the schools are
being neglected very badly, so kids
are ignorant of
such basic principles. But that really is the way it
was
designed to function.
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