Obama says constitution flawed!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-28-2004
Obama says constitution flawed!
113
Mon, 10-27-2008 - 10:08pm

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-20-2008
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 1:48am
Not to worry...the Obamessiah will re-write the Constitution with divine inspiration...from himself.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 6:58am

I work with law that is not gender neutral - older law and rules. New law is gender neutral, and that is a welcome change. Writing legal determinations where the reference is to 'he' or 'him' when it is to a woman is annoying.


There is a fix, the ERA, but some people actually fear implementing gender equality.


Full length fiction: worlds undone

"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:08am

It sounds as if he is talking about racism. Also, to be accurate, he says that the constitution REFLECTED (past tense, btw) a flaw in the culture, which flaw persists. What is so controversial about that? You do not think that the racism of the founders was reflected in the constitution? You do not think that racism persists in our culture today?

ETA: I found the a transcript of the "flaw" passage:

"I think it’s a remarkable document…

The original Constitution as well as the Civil War Amendments…but I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture, the Colonial culture nascent at that time.

African-Americans were not — first of all they weren’t African-Americans — the Africans at the time were not considered as part of the polity that was of concern to the Framers. I think that as Richard said it was a ‘nagging problem’ in the same way that these days we might think of environmental issues, or some other problem where you have to balance cost-benefits, as opposed to seeing it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth.

And in that sense, I think we can say that the Constitution reflected an enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day, and that the Framers had that same blind spot. I don’t think the two views are contradictory, to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now, and to say that it also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day." http://fairfaxareayrs.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/obama-us-constitution-reflects-the-fundamental-flaw-of-this-country-that-continues-to-this-day/

He is indeed talking about race, although the site that has the transcript is trying to present his statement as being about wealth distribution. It is not. It seems that Obama's biggest problem is that people are too thickheaded to understand what he is saying. His point is that racism was reflected in the constitution and that racism was and remains a feature of our society. The reflection of the flaw in the constitution was fixed, but the flaw itself persists as do the problems stemming from racism. He is saying that those problems can not be solved by the courts, that those problems are not legal problems and that those problems must be solved in other ways.




Edited 10/28/2008 7:26 am ET by sild
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:28am
No, he is not saying that. He is saying that the courts can NOT address this issue, that it is not part of the courts' purview.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:36am

No, he is NOT saying that. He is saying that people thought the Warren court was radical, but he then explains that it was not because it stayed within the traditional interpretation of the Constitution as a charter of negative liberties:

"It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties."

Which means:

"It says what the states can’t do to you, it says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn’t shifted."

THIS is the tragedy as he sees it:

"One of the I think tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributed change and in some ways we still suffer from that."

IOW, it is limited what the courts can do, given the constitutional constraints, and he is NOT saying this is bad, he is simply explaining it. Because of the legal focus of the civil rights movement it failed, in Obama's view, to pay adequate attention to other avenues for righting past wrongs. That is the tragedy-this failure of the movement. The tragedy is not what the Warren court did or did not do.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:38am
Yes, thank you! I just posted the same thing (before reading your post). Can't people read anymore?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:41am
That is overly simplistic. Even perfectly capitalistic societies redistribute some wealth. All western societies are capitalist in organization and all have a progressive tax rate, to start with the simplest example.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2008
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:49am

Thanks for finding that, Sopal.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2008
Tue, 10-28-2008 - 7:51am

In the transcript that Sopal found, Obama was talking about redistribution in terms of education.

 

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