What happend to Statesmen?

Our founders, as great and as visionary as they were didn't see our long standing party politics coming. Fortunately they did come up with the most versatile democratic system to date. Their ability to take 13 colonies with at first virtually no chance of throwing off the mother country, then taking 13 very independent countries into to a small federal republic on the edge of civilization, paving the way for it to become the greatest nation in the annals of great nations. The United States of America dominates every sphere it enters. The USA dominates land, sea, air and space. We are the financial and business center of the world and our culture is spreading the world over (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on who you are.) McDonald's, that American icon, is found in 119 countries and no country with a McDonald's has ever attacked the US. But we must remember history, no great civilization has ever been destroyed from without, but crumbled from within.

Let me share a story:

When I was 19 I voted for the first time in Hyattsville, MD. I had to walk to the school where the voting was due to lack of parking (no, I don't deserve a medal, but I did get a sticker.) I knew everything there was to know about the presidential candidates but on the local level I didn't have a clue. I had only just moved there and really didn't know or care about local politics. Luckily they came with a (D) or a (R) after their name so I knew how to vote. When it came to some of them, like judges, they didn't have a little (D) or (R) so utterly confused as to what to do I either did eni mini mo or left them blank.

We have a two party system in this country today run by politicians. Politicians have screwed this country over, big time. The need to get a (R) or (D) created the need to pay homage to the party elites and the corruption, partisanship and enforcement of the party line stifles patriotic fervor, selflessness and compromise. Our two party system, simply strangles statesmen and turns them into politicians. My favorite Congressional leadership position are the Party Whips. Party Whips are responsible for getting the members of the party to vote with the party. I am not sure how they go about that but that is where the name, Whips, comes from.

The founders risked all they had to create and serve their countrymen, even before there was a country. They were statesmen everyone, not doing it for personal gain or personal power but for the betterment of mankind. We live in a nation created by statesmen and run by politicians. If we are so great run by scoundrel politicians what would we be under more Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adams, Franklins or Handcocks?

"What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character
in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of
virtuous actions." -Aristotle

It depends on if your definition of "rights" is right

During the SCOTUS case, District of Columbia v. Heller, Obama was asked at a debate what he thought about the case. He responded that he thought the court would rule in favor of an individual right but added, "But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right."

I am sorry, did I hear that correctly? State and local Governments have the power to trample over Constitutional rights? What happened to "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."? As a lawyer he should know that federal law has supremacy over state and local and the Constitution over federal.

Let's step back for a minute and make-believe we are in Obama's world, (a scary thought I know) where unalienable rights are not guarantied by law and subject to the whims of lesser courts and lawmakers.

Right to Habeas Corpus:
Lets say a locality in the south decides to restrict the right of Habeas Corpus seeing as it is such a bother to tell blacks why the are in jail.......After all, do you even need a reason to arrest blacks? Isn't their skin color reason enough?

Right to have a lawyer present during questioning:
So expensive to provide a public defender to all the poor people, especially the ones we "know" are guilty. Let's have our city "restrict" public defenders to only those we think could be innocent not those SOBs we know are guilty.

Right against unreasonable search and seizure:
Waiting to get a search warrant hampers the Sheriff's office from busting suspected meth labs. Restrict need for a search warrant in drug related cases.

Right against self-incrimination:
We have ways to make you talk...........

Right to peaceably assemble:
Let's restrict gatherings of over 30 people to social events only so my opponent can't hold rallies.

Right to petition the government for redress of grievances:
"Hey, I am getting tried of people coming into city council taking up our time whining. Let's restrict access to the meetings to only those here to compliment or bribe us."

Freedom of the press:
"Newspapers keep running negative stories on the mayor, from now on all stories must first be approved by the mayor's office before publishing."

Freedom of religion:
"Our town church is now officially the First Baptist Church of Christ. Those not attending Sunday services will be subject to a $500 fine for first offense, 30 days jail for repeat offenders."


I could go on and on but you see what I am getting at: Rights are rights and if lower courts are free to "restrict" them then where does it end and what good is the Constitution? Talk about opening Pandora's Box, the best way to go about destroying the Constitution I have heard in a while.

Or maybe I have funny ideas about the meanings of words like "Unalienable" and phrases like "Shall not be infringed."