Comment by landl0rd

Comment by landl0rd a day ago

3 replies

No it's not. Constitutions are the bones of a republic. They are the framework that gives the government power and that checks that power. Letting it mess with that too much or too often is bad.

Constitutions should be simple. They should delegate very little power to governments and focus mostly on constraining those governments. They should be changed very rarely.

Adaptable government with changing scopes belongs at lower levels of governance (mostly very local) or nowhere.

maigret 18 hours ago

France disagrees. They iterated 5 times on it and it fixed big flaws each time.

What keeps a country in check is not a constitution but a politically informed and active population. The US shows us right now that the constitution is just a piece of paper.

  • AnthonyMouse 7 hours ago

    > The US shows us right now that the constitution is just a piece of paper.

    A constitution isn't just words, it creates a structure that exists in actual reality. The day before the tyrant comes you have multiple branches and levels of government. That stuff doesn't instantaneously cease to exist if they try to rip up the piece of paper, and its purpose is to fight against anyone who tries to rip it up.

    If it fails at that purpose, your constitution contained insufficient checks and balances.(Notice that several of the ones in the original US constitution have been removed, and that was a mistake.)

  • landl0rd 10 hours ago

    France had a vastly bloodier path to that constitution as you know. And france’s constitution today is pretty bad. It fails to protect basic freedoms like speech and arms. It moves too much responsibility to the feds. Etc.