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DS9TREK
David Starkey Talks
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Comments by "DS9TREK" (@DS9TREK) on "US Constitution: Rethinking an American Myth" video.
Dr Starkey's point was that the Constitution creates the polarisation by giving the impression there are absolute rights and even a sense of absolute right and wrong. Even in the state legislatures compromise is hard to to come by because both sides see themselves as being on the side of absolute right. And so any compromise is seen as a step too far because it is an automatic betrayal of your absolute uncompromisable values.
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@docwhat8370 the distance between the British Isles and the American colonies wasn't the big issue you'd expect. When California was made a state in 1850 it was actually more difficult to travel from it, on the west coast, to Washington DC, on the east coast, than it was to travel across the Atlantic in the 1770s. So Californian delegates would have to sail around the Americas from West coast to East for almost two decades until the transcontinental railway was built. And still the Americans managed to make it work.
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@1who4me the Founder Father's didn't create anything new. They took English principles and wrote them down
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@uingaeoc3905 why not?
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How can the Declaration of Independence be an Act of Congress if Congress didn't exist at the time?
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England also has a history of ruling from the bottom up. In fact, it's what the English civil war was about. Royalists believed that power came from God the king. Parliamentarians believed power comes from the people and goes upwards
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Well, not most. By land area only 11 states are bigger than Britain, and by population none are bigger.
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The Bill of Rights isn't a constitution, it's a Bill of Rights.
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@lydiamalone1859 America became a democracy in the 20th century. Amending the constitution to make the senate elected and having primary elections for presidential nominees and every other public office made America one.
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You started with a fallacy and continued from there - that rules must be written down. No they don't. As long as everyone involved knows the rules, that's good enough.
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Starkey is correct. Without history and tradition a constitution isn't worth the paper it's written on. I mean, give the US Constitution to the Afghan's, Chinese, Iranians, Russians or North Koreans, do you think it will last more than 5 minutes and turn them all into Americans? The US isn't the great country it is because the Founding Fathers wrote high minded words onto paper. It's the great country it is because it's a product of English history and principles.
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But the PM does use the prerogative powers exclusively. Look at prorogation where the Lord President of the Council read out the PMs order for prorogation and the Queen could only say "approved". The only advice from the PM that the Queen can legally refuse is advice on who their successor as PM should be. Prerogative powers rest with the PM
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The flaw in your understanding is you imply all cultures will eventually develop to a point where they match Anglosphere values. You suggest that when you say "some are at different places in development". That implies that eventually everyone will catch up to our value system. We need to accept that most cultures won't develop that way. There's nothing inevitable about obtaining rights for women, free speech or democracy. We developed those things as a consequence of our unique culture, and different cultures don't care about or want those things. You see this in the hosts of the next football world cup, Qatar. Homosexuality is illegal there and they constantly send out messages saying "respect our culture and values - don't do anything to promote homosexual rights". They have no more desire to be like us than we have to be like them.
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Butt hurt much?
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@Valencetheshireman927 go on, justify your claim that the Royals prevent politicians becoming too powerful.
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@uingaeoc3905 calling himself a gay man isn't identifying as gay?
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