You need a strong constitution
I just saw this video posted on Breitbart. It has a man at a town hall meeting with Congressman LoBiondo (R-NJ) asking the Congressman various 'trick' questions about the Constitution of the United States. At first, you may feel a little sorry for the Rep, since no one wants to be put on the spot or have to memorize law books, but this one is different.
The way I see it, fortunes can be won or lost on whether a particular law has the word "and" or the word "or" in a certain position and lawyers will beat a semantic phrase to death to get their point across. Also, political fortunes can we won or lost based on what the meaning of "is" is.
So, it is with that backdrop that I think that it is infinitely more important that all of our representatives, who swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, should know what they are upholding and defending.
The basic Constitution is really not that long or that difficult to read. Some of the phraseology is a little stilted some 230 years after it was written, but there is plenty of background on the meaning (see the Federalist Papers) and precedent on how it has been interpreted. Every citizen should have to read it once per year and every lawmaker should have a copy glued to their wall.
When I was in the Navy, we had the UCMJ posted all over the place; every workplace is supposed to have the State and Federal employment rules posted in a prominent place and Congress wants to have nutrition information displayed on menus. Why? So that we are constantly reminded of these things.
Is there a copy of the Constitution posted on the wall in every Congressman and Senator's office? I doubt it. If it was, perhaps we wouldn't be in the state that we are now.
So, IMHO, those were valid questions and crappy answers in that video.
The way I see it, fortunes can be won or lost on whether a particular law has the word "and" or the word "or" in a certain position and lawyers will beat a semantic phrase to death to get their point across. Also, political fortunes can we won or lost based on what the meaning of "is" is.
So, it is with that backdrop that I think that it is infinitely more important that all of our representatives, who swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, should know what they are upholding and defending.
The basic Constitution is really not that long or that difficult to read. Some of the phraseology is a little stilted some 230 years after it was written, but there is plenty of background on the meaning (see the Federalist Papers) and precedent on how it has been interpreted. Every citizen should have to read it once per year and every lawmaker should have a copy glued to their wall.
When I was in the Navy, we had the UCMJ posted all over the place; every workplace is supposed to have the State and Federal employment rules posted in a prominent place and Congress wants to have nutrition information displayed on menus. Why? So that we are constantly reminded of these things.
Is there a copy of the Constitution posted on the wall in every Congressman and Senator's office? I doubt it. If it was, perhaps we wouldn't be in the state that we are now.
So, IMHO, those were valid questions and crappy answers in that video.
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