28 Jul 2015, 10:54 am
JimHackerMP wrote:With that in mind, Dr Fate, should we begin a thread on the merits and demerits of the Supreme Court?
Not really sure. To me, it is this:
1. We have three branches of government.
2. The one branch that was envisioned as doing most of the "work" of legislating does little of it.
3. The power of the executive branch (and by extension, the massive bureaucracy, which cranks out tens of thousands of pages of regulations a year) has become too extensive. The President rarely consults or lobbies Congress. Instead, he simply issues executive orders or new regulations via agencies (EPA, ICE, etc.)
4. The power of the USSC is similarly unchecked. Whether one agrees with the decisions on Kelo, Roe, Citizen's United, homosexual marriage, and others, they are the law of the land unless the Constitution is amended or a new Court strikes down old decisions.
5. There is a growing divide in this country. It is not based on wealth. It is based on principle. Is the Federal government supposed to be intervening in how we manage our private property, redistributing tax money (to corporations), etc.? What are the limits to Federal control? There are two fundamentally opposed ideologies: 1) the Federal government should regulate anything of importance and make sure everyone has their "fair share;" 2) The Federal government is too big and too intrusive. Those two notions have very little overlap.
When I suggest we are heading for a civil war, I'm not fully joking. The dividing point may well come over the 2nd Amendment. When the people who don't like guns try to take them away from those who do, we may finally reach the breaking point.
Now here: viewtopic.php?uid=86&f=4&t=3069&start=0
