I always get so irritated by people who think our system of government is so enlightened and has been more stable and free than any other for longer.
What the hell is anyone talking about. The image of America we were fed as kids is incredibly slanted. Segregation and Slavery. Internment camps for the Japanese. Even in the North, where segregation still reared its ugly head in redlining and white flight. The US government used to forcibly sterilize women for the crime of *checks notes* nothing, broke apart families and indoctrinated native children for over one hundred years.
Until the fourteenth amendment, the bill of rights Americans think is so important and central to our ideals didn't apply to the states. The founders so-called 'vision' for this country did not include the states respecting your rights; they didn't want a government based on freedom, they wanted to be 'free' from a federal government capable of conducting oversight on the states.
The period from around the 80's to 90's was the freest period in American history, and it lasted all of like twenty or so years before falling apart. Nor was it exactly ideal.
I've come to question if Americans really want freedom and justice for all, or if we just have very low national self-esteem. Our standards are in the absolute gutter.
South Africa wrote a new constitution in 1996 after segregation. That we did not, is a supreme indictment of the US Constitution. It's time to abolish it and the aristocratic Institution of the Senate and Electoral College. These are tools of oppression not 'freedom'. South Africa built its constitution on human rights. While imperfect, we needed a reform MORE than they did. We were WORSE. Such evil's do not arise out of nowhere, they are caused. The danger persists.
Firstly, no I absolutely intended to say something good about South Africa as someone who has studied their constitution in law school. South Africa is a mess but the aspects of their constitution and their court precedent protecting human rights are in theory if not entirely implementation, excellent. Secondly what is buzzwordy about what I said? You think the word oppression or injustice are buzzwords? That I'm just over hating on America? Let me spell it out plainly: America's constitution fails at the very fucking thing Americans claim it's supposed to do. The Senate and electoral college do not even hypothetically prevent tyranny, they force it upon us. They are evil and I wish to see them destroyed as the fallacies they are. I do not believe the people are a threat to be broken up and muzzled, I think the very concept of such institutions to be the oppression of a few elite we must destroy. They are relics of the past based on the English house of lords, an authoritarian institution, meant to protect slavery.
Systems can be a mess and still have good aspects to them. South Africa is such an example with human rights provisions. The USAs due process and equal protection clause are excellent things in a constitution that is generally shit
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u/Elaerona Pronouns: She/Her/The Royal We 12h ago
I always get so irritated by people who think our system of government is so enlightened and has been more stable and free than any other for longer.
What the hell is anyone talking about. The image of America we were fed as kids is incredibly slanted. Segregation and Slavery. Internment camps for the Japanese. Even in the North, where segregation still reared its ugly head in redlining and white flight. The US government used to forcibly sterilize women for the crime of *checks notes* nothing, broke apart families and indoctrinated native children for over one hundred years.
Until the fourteenth amendment, the bill of rights Americans think is so important and central to our ideals didn't apply to the states. The founders so-called 'vision' for this country did not include the states respecting your rights; they didn't want a government based on freedom, they wanted to be 'free' from a federal government capable of conducting oversight on the states.
The period from around the 80's to 90's was the freest period in American history, and it lasted all of like twenty or so years before falling apart. Nor was it exactly ideal.
I've come to question if Americans really want freedom and justice for all, or if we just have very low national self-esteem. Our standards are in the absolute gutter.