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In reply to the discussion: Basic high school civics lessons we knew in 1948. THIS WAS ON PAGE 1! [View all]Hestia
(3,818 posts)88. You really want to know what the other side is doing? Here you go
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/right-wing-billionaires-have-project-going-rewrite-our-constitution-and-they-are?akid=15289.162216.Jt7SFs&rd=1&src=newsletter1073670&t=2
Imagine if the U.S. Constitution barred the EPA and Department of Education from existing. All union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with a national minimum wage.
Imagine that the Constitution makes it illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters, big banks and even big food and pharmaall are free to rip you off or poison you all they want, and your only remedy is in state courts and legislatures, because the Constitution prevents Congress from doing anything about any of it. The federal government can't even enforce voting or civil rights laws.
To add injury to insult, the federal government has to shut down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because all of these programs (along with food stamps, housing supports and any programs that help the middle class, the less fortunate or disabled) are beyond the reach of what the federal government can do.
A few years ago, it would have been a thought experiment; now it's nearly reality. Billionaires and the groups they fund are working to rewrite our Constitution to provide corporations and the rich with more and more protections and benefits, and chop away at anything smelling of socialism like Social Security or child labor laws.
Imagine if the U.S. Constitution barred the EPA and Department of Education from existing. All union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with a national minimum wage.
Imagine that the Constitution makes it illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters, big banks and even big food and pharmaall are free to rip you off or poison you all they want, and your only remedy is in state courts and legislatures, because the Constitution prevents Congress from doing anything about any of it. The federal government can't even enforce voting or civil rights laws.
To add injury to insult, the federal government has to shut down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because all of these programs (along with food stamps, housing supports and any programs that help the middle class, the less fortunate or disabled) are beyond the reach of what the federal government can do.
A few years ago, it would have been a thought experiment; now it's nearly reality. Billionaires and the groups they fund are working to rewrite our Constitution to provide corporations and the rich with more and more protections and benefits, and chop away at anything smelling of socialism like Social Security or child labor laws.
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Basic high school civics lessons we knew in 1948. THIS WAS ON PAGE 1! [View all]
Snarkoleptic
Mar 2017
OP
Your thread really applies to all those ignorant voters who liked trump because ....
Jim Beard
Mar 2017
#3
and therein lies the problem, sorta, that generation is dead or dying and there aren't the
Hestia
Mar 2017
#18
If FDR ran for office again he'd be called an ultra-liberal and marginalized by Repugs AND Dems
Doremus
Mar 2017
#32
I'm afraid that's not the problem at all, Hestia. My parents are of the generation before that and..
Nitram
Mar 2017
#85
Well, if they are trying to drag us back to the 1920s & 1930s, they have to deal with all of
Hestia
Mar 2017
#22
Right, the EPA just does superfluous things like requiring that our rivers don't catch on fire.
SunSeeker
Mar 2017
#38
I'm struck by how savvy "Oppression by strong and shrewd" is as a turn of phrase
ProfessorPlum
Mar 2017
#25
the current administration would keep that top category, except it would be for "direct oppression"
anarch
Mar 2017
#28