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I can hear some folks already; "What! Another pinko liberal tree hugger!" My reply is "Guilty as charged." Personally, I think it's time for a re-think of our cherished document, which is contemporary to the beginning of real industrial age. This is not written by the "Hand of God," if you believe in such things. The First Amendment does not anticipate the likes of Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Trump's "Birther Movement."
The constitution, by its own words, was written to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Justice, tranquility, and welfare are easy words to say but very difficult to enforce. Is blocking a sitting President the power to appoint a candidate to the Supreme Court, justice? Is promoting hate of immigrants of a given faith, and even those who disagree with you, tranquility? Is denying citizens access to health care, welfare? Just because I can speak against the government, but at the same time spew slanderous lies against our fellow citizens and leaders simply in order to keep them out of power, liberty? Has our First Amendment given us these rights? It would seem so.
There is so much talk about the Second Amendment that the vitriol within this talk defeats all of the promises set forth in the preamble. This is so simple that distorting it requires such a stretch of logic that no one understands what is said. Here is the Second Amendment in its entirety: "A well 'regulated' Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." This is the entirety of the Second Amendment. What is meant by these words? What is included in the term "arms"? AR-15, M1 tanks, tactile nuclear weapons? I don't even see the word hunting in these words. That said, you would not enjoy a rabbit shot by an AR-15 any better than one killed with a hand grenade. There is ambiguity within this amendment, but if you research the Supreme Court's position you would find that they have sided against weapons of war in most every case.
I can't possibility cover all the distortions and perversions in just the Bill of Rights in five hundred words, much less all twenty-seven amendments. The Twelfth Amendment alone has overruled the will of the people twice in the last seventeen years. The electoral system is flawed whether you are a member of any political party. It was designed to overpower the will of the people in a case where all electors determine that the person who wins the popular vote is unqualified to hold the high office.
In my opinion the time has come to re-write the document so that we once again are a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
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