Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Declaration of Independence &the Constitution

I think the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are strongly constructed articles, with precise structure of government. I is surprisingly well planned to keep this nation from any way from being under dictated by one power. There are a lot of component s that help shape the government and the president’s power. It was a little overwhelming reading it all and the process the president must go through, and the different structure of government, considering I am not very well with politics.

Although I am not good with politics and understanding the government, but I feel like us as a nation we are not sticking by the Declaration of Independence. I hope this does not start any conflicts but we are entitled to our own opinions. I think the nation is too worry about Obama having too much power, but I think the government has too much power and is taking away the authority from Obama. The government seems to becoming too powerful then the other branches. In the Declaration it stated “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government”, (Boyer, A-1). I think that right of ours is being taken away from us, as if the government has become too strong we are afraid to stand up and ask for a change. Another statement that surprised me, as it was describing a ruling of a king was “For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us” (Boyer, A-2). When I read this statement it reminded me of the situation of Ferguson, Missouri. How they treat the people there as if they were at war with Iraq. I know times are different from 1770’s but I think our rights and our promises are slowly being taken away from us.    

1 comment:

  1. Hi Asia,

    I enjoyed reading your comments and observations. I think you're right, the government as a whole is becoming more and more involved in peoples' daily lives. There is less privacy now than ever before, and it's getting worse. As you noted, things are different now than when the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written, but we as a nation have been asked to sacrifice some personal liberties in the name of national security. Of course, the 9/11 attacks were a horrible thing, and a senseless act of violence by extremists. But, the amount of invasion that we are being asked to accept is sometimes as oppressive as the threat of more violence. I get annoyed at the fact that I have to get half-undressed (shoes, belt, pockets) every time I fly. I am not a fan of all the surveillance that our government performs on private citizens under the guise of "The Patriot Act". On the whole, there is too much government involvement in most peoples' lives.

    However, it's all one government, with three separate branches (the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court). We can't get rid of one without getting rid of them all, and frankly, there's nothing better to replace them with. This is the whole idea of the checks and balances, which we do see at work, with the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court exerting power over each other. It's certainly not a perfect system, but it's also pretty smartly-designed for something that's over 200 years old. I think that what we as a nation need to do is to keep going back to the Declaration and to the Constitution,and to make sure that we are honoring not only the laws themselves, but also the spirit of those laws. We need to be enhancing freedom and inclusion, not cutting back on them. That's my two cents :)

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