[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[Shannon Hendrix]

On May 23, 2008, at 14:53 , Michael Parson wrote:

> I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut on this one, but I almost believe that
> there is a purposeful movement out there to make the citizens of the
> US believe that they live in a democracy, which we don't, as you said,
> we're a constitutional republic.

Ha, it's pretty blindingly obvious if you ask me.

For example, find a textbook that has been in print for 50 years, and  
look how different the original version is from the current in how it  
describes our government.

> We were never supposed to be a democracy, those that wrote the
> constitution did everything they could to ensure we would never be  
> one.

...and people who didn't like that almost immediately started trying  
to change it.

> The only part of the federal government we, as citizens, were supposed
> to have any direct say in was the election of members to the House of
> Representatives.

It's a little more complicated than that.  The House was supposed to  
also be the government's representative in a way, but made up of  
districted elected members to dilute federal influence.

The Senate is supposed to represent their sovereign states, but of  
course they stopped doing that some time ago, most of them anyway.

Just for curiosity, I ask people now and then at random if they know  
what a US state is, and most don't.  They don't realize they are  
independent nations and that the republic is (supposed to be) a  
voluntary union.

> It was the 17th amendment to the Constitution that
> gave us direct election of members to the Senate.  Originally, they  
> were
> to be chosen by the legislatures of their member states.  Personally,
> I think we should go back to doing it that way, but I seem to be in a
> minority on that one, mostly, because too many people think they live
> in a democracy and their vote counts.

That won't really solve the basic problem though: senators are not  
doing their job.

How they are elected probably won't change that, we need to reverse a  
lot of law and momentum to get senators back to the job of state  
representation.

Basically all they do now is run the federal government at the behest  
of their political and corporate allies.

They are supposed to swear an oath of loyalty to their state and its  
people, and to uphold their prescribed duties.

So are state governors.


-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com