02-11-2022, 10:04 AM
(02-10-2022, 12:52 AM)JasonBlack Wrote:(02-03-2022, 04:30 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Donald Trump has shown the seams of our system. In the old days those who knew of those seams recognized the danger of exploiting those seams even if such was temporarily advantageous because finding shady way to do good would encourage someone else to find such a shady way for doing bad. We may need to rewrite much of the Constitution just to close those seams. I have long dreaded the prospect of another Constitutional Convention because such might enshrine special-interest policies that we might regret in a short time, or even allow one of the Parties to declare itself the "Leading Force in American politics", which is how Soviet constitutions enshrined the Communist Party.
From what I've gleaned so far of your other posts, you seem like someone I would hold some pretty different views on, but I share your sentiments here wholeheartedly. When politics is "humdrum", people are free to just be....left the ___ alone and focus on their own lives, their own meaning and their own mission. Unfortunately, times us crisis force everyone to think about politics more than is ideal.
That's fine. Nobody learns much from listening to or reading solely to those who share one's beliefs. There will be difference or there will be no progress. The Hegelian dialectic of conflict and resolution is the sole means that can get intellectual progress. On the other hand, it is impossible to find common ground on significant issues with people diametric opposites on all things.
Quote:In spite of our differences, we appear to have a shared sense that checks and balances are one of the most (if not the most) important aspects of a functioning free society. When a special interest group can swoop in and change everything by force, that's just about the worse possible scenario for anyone, left or right, who holds basically liberal views on things.
Undeniably true. The few exceptions that I can imagine involve emancipation.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.