General Discussion

kpete

(71,996 posts) Mon Jun 25, 2012, 11:13 AM Jun 2012

Not red states, nor blue states, but the United States of America.

Liberal democracies like ours depend on rules but also on norms -- on the assumption that you'll go so far, but no further, to advance your political ends. The norms imply some loyalty to the system as a whole that outweighs your immediate partisan interest. Not red states, nor blue states, but the United States of America. It was out of loyalty to the system that Al Gore stepped aside after Bush v. Gore. Norms have given the Supreme Court its unquestioned legitimacy. The Roberts majority is barreling ahead without regard for the norms, and it is taking the court's legitimacy with it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/scotus-update-la-loi-cest-moi/258900/

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Not red states, nor blue states, but the United States of America. (Original Post) kpete Jun 2012 OP

The British love their Constitution malthaussen Jun 2012 #1

Please don't insult fungi. As crazy as he was, Nixon cared about people. Republicans now care about libinnyandia Jun 2012 #2

My sincere apologies to fungi, who do, after all, serve a useful purpose malthaussen Jun 2012 #3

The problem is, the Repugs have no limit on what they'll do to advance their political goals. Bake Jun 2012 #4

malthaussen

(17,204 posts)

1. The British love their Constitution

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Mon Jun 25, 2012, 11:33 AM

Jun 2012

Because it is unwritten. The implicit belief is that anyone who is truly a gentleman, and therefore worthy to engage in government, will not defy those unwritten laws.

Although we in the US have a written constitution, we have long held to the same belief, the essentially elitist one that those who rule are somehow of greater moral fibre than those they rule. We are now discovering, wholesale, that this turns out not to be the case. Creatures like Dick Nixon could be written off as psychotic aberrations to the rule. Compared to the fungi we have running things now, though, Nixon looks perfectly angelic.

-- Mal