American History, Pt 2: The Articles of Confederation

  The Articles of Confederation is probably the most-forgotten about document of American History. I admit that I had to research several places before remembering & understanding what it said as well as the intentions behind it.
  Think back in time. The colonists, a small and relatively unorganized group of rebels, had just fought and defeated the most powerful army in the world. Today this would be like what the Afghani people did to the Soviets, then to the Americans--they never gave in. But I digress.
  The colonists won their independence, so what's next? The Articles of Confederation were the blueprint for what was to come. Almost. The colonists had an idea of what they wanted, but didn't consider some of the ramifications of what they might say. The document took effect March 1, 1781.
  The Articles setup a framework of government and two branches which still exist (legislative and judicial) and named the country which it represented, but it's weaknesses were many. For example, in Article IV, it refers to 'friendship between the states'. Friendship? In politics? These colonists had clearly never thought of a political action committee.
  However, the biggest single weakness was that of the federal government. There was no national army, no federal court system, amendments to the Articles required a unanimous vote (families can't even get a unanimous vote; how could 13 states do anything without opposition?) , Congress had no power to tax...in summary, the federal government could do very little. This may sound fine in theory, but when there's a problem in one state, other states are unable to help. Also, each state had only one vote in Congress (regardless of size) and laws required a 9/13 majority to pass. This was truly a supermajority situation, in which the minority (as few as 5 of the states) could keep any law from passing.
  This was replaced by the US Constitution on March 4, 1789. I'll discuss the Bill of Rights in the next post and will conclude discussions of all the amendments before the presidential election.

American History, Pt 1: Declaration of Independence

The election for president is under 2 months away. We all know that. Thus, I'm devoting the blogs between now and then to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Today I'm devoting to the Declaration of Independence.

First, I'll address some common misconceptions. "God" is never explicitly mentioned, although "Nature's God" is (once). We're left to decide on our own who "Nature's God" is--the founding fathers didn't want to decide that. (In all fairness, "Creator" is also mentioned once.) The point is that there is no specific religion mentioned as "official"--the founding fathers, thankfully, didn't make that mistake. When I see how well an official religion hasn't worked in other countries, I'm happy we don't have one.

The most famous phrase in it states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". This is the core phrase of the entire document; after stating this, the founders list their grievances (long and varied) against the king. So, bit by bit, and briefly:

"All men are created equal..." This is possibly the most hypocritical thing ever said. As many before me have said, a group of white men, half of whom owned slaves as property, stated that all men are created equal. Women couldn't vote for until the 20th century, so did they not have the same rights as men?

The document states that "among these rights..." That said, this implies that this is by no means an exclusive, end-all, be-all list. The founders were starting with the basic inalienable rights and seemed to imply that there are rights other than those specified.

The next major phrase is my favorite, and it states that among the rights of "all men" are "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". "Life"--when does life begin? Conception? Birth? (I'd note that there's no tax deduction for unborn babies, so I think we have our answer already. Also, what if a woman is pregnant 12/31 but doesn't know until after taxes are filed? Refile?) Then, again, if all men have the right to life, no government can execute them--yet our government did in Colonial times and does so now. Have we strayed from this? Are convicted felons no longer "men"?

"Liberty"--liberty is, I'd argue, where we as a society place the most emphasis. The Nazis marched in Skokie in the 70s, based on their right to free speech. Citizens United v FCC decided that corporations are people--therefore, I'd argue, they're also "men". Our Constitution (which I'll get to in future blogs, 5-10 amendments at a time) guarantees many other freedoms, such as religion, press, and right to peaceful assembly. Could we be more free? Unequivocally, yes. It's up to us to remove restrictions placed in the way of our liberties by our government. (How's that war on drugs going? War on poverty? War on hunger? War on anything that doesn't have a face & name?)

"the Pursuit of Happiness"--I'd argue that this is the most misread phrase. Reread it. It doesn't say "Happiness", it says "Pursuit of Happiness". All men are entitled to the pursuit of happiness, but--much like a road trip--the journey is yours.

Finally, and as a reminder of how bad things were, the founders devoted twenty-nine paragraphs (1-3 sentences each) addressing the grievances with the King of England. I'd challenge any American to get to ten complaints of the same magnitude that the Colonists had.