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Why is the Constitution such a touchy subject in America?

Last posted Mar 05, 2018 at 09:33AM EST. Added Mar 05, 2018 at 06:35AM EST
3 posts from 3 users

I saw an user getting redded to oblivion for speaking against aspects of the Constitution he didn't like. I've actually been seeing an argument bursting in political entries and images, (mostly about gun control) about users who believe the Constitution has flaws vs others that don't, or at least believe the flaws are outweighed by the pros.

-What are the cons and pros of the Constitution in your opinion?
-Or in the other case why do you believe it is wholly good/bad?
-Why is it such a sensitive topic?

Well an important part of the constitution is to limit power, in my country Honduras there are (or at least were) laws set by the constitution to not be changable known as "articulos petreos" one of them was that no president could reelect themselves, contrast to the united states. Well Juan Orlando changed that so he could actually reelect himself, changing the constitution in a way that is in theory illegal but heeey its an outdated law right? What is the harm? Well…a) the guy fucking controls everything know, when only the comunist networks are allowed to speak negatively about an extremely corrupt president you know he has too much power b) he probably commited voted fraud and this created a rebellion against his goverment that often gets violent c) he pulled all the strings so that in theory, he can reelect himself over and over again and nobody is entirely sure how we are going to get rid of him now. On the other hand we have no gun laws written in our constitution, in theory the goverment could pass as many gun laws as they want, and we been fine (in that area at least).
So its a mixed bag, still its a touchy subject because the constitution (as you can see with my example of Honduras) is a pandora box, let it open it the wrong way and the flood of potential tirany opens, you need to have something that tells those at the top "enough is enough" so to speak, the people who make it to the top are also potentially the people with the ambition to become consumed by power.

Last edited Mar 05, 2018 at 08:33AM EST

So there are two aspects you must consider when thinking about the Constitution. The first is the literal Constitution and the words in it, the second is how it has been interpreted.

The US Constitution is often shown off to the rest of the world as the ideal foundations of a good democratic government. It puts limitations on what it can and cannot do, giving people rights. Some of these rights specifically mentioned in the Constitution seem a little odd today (the 4th amendment comes to mind, not saying it's bad by any means, but compared with many of the other amendments feels a bit odd.) but come from specific problems that British colonists in what would become the United States faced under British rule. One could see the rights protected under the original Constitution almost as a laundry list of problems the founding fathers had with the British government's rule.

While most of the Constitution has remained the same with just some additions (save the 18th amendment which was added and then repelled) how it has been interpreted by the Supreme Court has changed. Sometimes the courts have directly contradictory rulings when enough time has past. Because these are more subject to change, it is more common to find a person who disagrees with a court ruling (and by extension, an interpretation of the Constitution) than the literal wording of the Constitution itself. For example; Citizens United v. FEC and District of Columbia v. Heller are ones that people on the left are more likely to disagree with, while Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges are ones people on the right are more likely to disagree with.

One of the things about the Constitution (for better or worse) is that the wording is often vague, which does leave things open to interpretation. One could say that it leaves "wiggle room" for cases that are complicated, others would say that interpretations that deviate from the strictest interpretations of what the words meant at the time of the writing and what was most likely intended by the authors are wrong. Of course, the people who wrote the Constitution themselves often disagreed with each other on what specific parts of the Constitution meant.


So as for the fundamental question. While questioning interpretations of the Constitution in theory (as opposed to being someone who is breaking the the law because they just don't like what the Supreme Court has ruled) is generally fine. But questioning it in terms of certain bits of it should be gotten rid of, especially parts that were in the original Constitution is much less popular. Removing these limitations of the government to many is seen as tantamount to saying you want the government to no longer have a limitation to not do this, and to be able to do it however it sees fit.

Last edited Mar 05, 2018 at 12:00PM EST
Skeletor-sm

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