The United States - a Brilliant Mistake?

[speak easy]

There is a DU post that got me thinking - if the Founding Fathers could have seen into the future, would the Constitution read the way it does

I think the bigger question is - if the Founding Fathers could have seen into the future, would there have even been a Constitution?. If Benjamin Franklin had been given the opportunity to be heard by TPTB, if the colonies had settled their differences with GIII, would we be all that worse off?

The obvious comparison is Canada, but the mother ship and all of it's english speaking former colonies, all have kept the hardest RW at bay, all- except this one. When was the last time RW thugs occupied the parliaments of the UK/Canada/Australia/New Zealand to overturn an election? A: There was not one.

I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this hurting feeling disappear
Like it was common sense
It was a fine idea at the time
Now it's a brilliant mistake
Elvis Costello

[brer cat]

1. It is interesting food for thought.

I would love to talk to our founders and see what they would think now. I don't think it was a mistake, but I sure wish some things had been done very differently along the way, starting with a Senate that is based on population. And then that pesky 2nd Amendment...

[rickyhall]

4. And a better method for removing a bad president.

[Paka]

2. And you don't think the current UK PM is not extreme RW?

[TwilightZone]

3. Compared to the right wing in the US?

He's not even in the ballpark. He's more an opportunist than a extremist. He goes whichever way the wind blows and pretty much always has. He's certainly more socially liberal than the vast majority of American conservatives, particularly the leadership.

Sure, he's a hack and an opportunist, but overall, he can't really hold a candle to Trump or even someone like Ted Cruz on the conservative scale.

"As always, Johnson’s ideological flexibility was key — so much so that it led him to resist the more doctrinaire forces in his own party. As mayor, Johnson complained about the austerity measures of the Tory Cameron government. And as prime minister, he has immediately ramped up public spending on the police, schools, and hospitals. He shelved a previous proposal to lower the corporation tax and has focused on raising the income threshold at which Brits pay the equivalent of the Social Security tax and on raising the minimum wage nationwide. He has urged people to “Buy British” — a slogan anathema to market economics. Whether this is posturing or serious, no one knows exactly, but it sure is a sharp move rhetorically left for the Tories, away from the wealthy and austerity and toward the working poor and debt."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/boris-johnson-brexit.html

More:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/19/boris-johnson-liberal-nuanced-cautious

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/how-right-wing-is-boris-johnson-election-parliament-brexit

[Justice matters.]

5. Neither Trump nor Qruz are "Conservatives"

They're both in it for the money and white power.

[Paka]

10. Fair enough.

But he's still a right wing hack. The rise of the right wing nuts across Europe has me shaking my head.

[Bev54]

6. Well I do feel that we in Canada, under a parliamentary system, we

are far more free than the US. We are free to put gun restrictions on, we have healthcare, sick leave, paternity leave and automatic voting rights, we don't have to proclaim a political party or a religion. When we have a minority government they work together to get things done. I think the fore fathers thoughts were well placed but now your constitution has hogtied the country from progressing when you have a party who fails to work for the good of the country, dark money and a lot of it with constant campaigning and citizens that claim rights that were never meant to be under the constitution and little that can be done to change things. I think it can be changed if the dems win a majority and have the will to make some radical changes. You need to convince a couple of senators to get there.

[roamer65]

7. The regional differences are problems for both of us.

For us it’s states like Texas, for you it’s provinces like Alberta and Quebec.

[Bev54]

9. Yes, I agree but mostly it is Quebec

Alberta (I live in right now) is redneck oil and ranch country but the population is not big enough to really affect the federal government, except that when oil prices are high the feds get a lot of revenue. Quebec is a heavily populated province and can have a big affect on our federal government. They are a different breed and would like to be their own country but cannot because they need federal transfer payments, from the richer provinces, to survive, much like your Kentucky.

[Ron Green]

8. We've got multiple brands of toothpaste and two political parties.

It should be the other way around.

We’re sophisticated consumers and political morons.