Do Over: A new constitution and bill of rights? - discussion, questions, and brainstorming

in #constitution7 years ago (edited)

448px-Aristotle_Altemps_Inv8575.jpg

(this image comes from commons.wikimedia.org and is public domain)

The Union created by the constitution of the United States of America was a grand experiment in personal liberty. However, I would argue that this experiment is currently failing in its design to meet the intent of the founders. I would like to begin a discussion about what (if anything) could have been done better "in order to form a more perfect Union"

I invite participation in discussing the merits and follies. I also would like to gather questions to use as a jumping point for further discussions. Perhaps we could re-engage in the debates of the federalist papers, and beyond, and see if it is possible to make a more perfect system of preserving liberty while providing basic safety or recourse for violations against liberty.

Here are some of my initial questions: (please feel free to pose additional ones in the comments below)

  1. Is there a need for a centralized federal government?
    The founding fathers believed there was, though they wanted to limit its capacity to only providing for the common defense and for resolving differences that stretched across the boundaries of sovereign states. Initially, the jurisdiction of the federal government was only; to regulate interstate commerce, provide for the common defense, and to coin money.

  2. Through the rise of blockchain technologies, a decentralized trust model for coining money seems to have possibly obsoleted the need for a government to coin a nation's currency. Could a similar model do the same for the other two major responsibilities of the federal government?

  3. What rights should be enumerated in a bill of rights? Did our founders get it right when they amended the original document to include these? Is their order in the bill of rights correct? Should any of them be re-written so as to remove the ambiguity of their intent?

  4. What should the goals of a constitution be (aside from defining what constitutes a form of government)?

  5. What better forms of government have not yet been attempted?
    A democracy is mob rule, and the mob can be fooled from time to time, but a representative republic concentrates the decision-making power in representatives (who have been shown to be corruptible). If some people cannot be trusted, then how can we ensure that decisions are not left to the untrustworthy, and how do we prevent or safeguard against coercion of those with the decision-making authority?

  6. The Greeks (and specifically Aristotle) studied many potential forms of governments, are there any that have not yet been studied? Are there merits or faults originally not discovered by the greeks?

Sort:  

Congratulations @kenmizell! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made your First Vote
You made your First Comment
You got a First Vote
You got a First Reply

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Congratulations @kenmizell! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You published your First Post

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Congratulations @kenmizell! You have received a personal award!

1 Year on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @kenmizell! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.17
TRX 0.15
JST 0.028
BTC 62102.06
ETH 2415.08
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.49