07-03-2016, 06:41 PM
(07-03-2016, 10:44 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: It's remarkable that the Stalin Constitution is heavily a plagiarism of the Constitution of the USA, even to the point of having a weak formal government. The Soviet Union is often understood as the epitome of big, bad government to the extreme -- but of course it was the Party and its boss that held all the power.
It's fashionable for the West to be smug in our victory over Communism, but when the party bosses and those who handle the means of production have their system of winks and nods, it is dismaying how little power can result from even a fine Constitution. I can pretty much agree with your portrayal of the Soviet experiment. I'm not sure, though, that we sufficiently value our own piece of paper.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.