There are limits to how much a piece of legaleze can constrain a government. When theoretical government diverges from actual government, actual government wins.
We had democracy because we had a militia system of national defense and a sufficiently egalitarian wealth distribution. We had federalism because communication across the nation as a whole was slow, and arbitraging between state legal and tax systems was expensive and difficult.
We have a two-party system because we have First Past the Post elections for our most important offices. No amount of ballot access reform can fix the Two-Party System. Only changing how votes are counted can do that.
Likewise, now that we have fast transportation, social programs are going to gravitate to the federal government as long as there are no walls between states -- physical or virtual. Currently, we do have walls in the form of residency requirements for in state tuition and California's Proposition 13. Otherwise, it behooves one to live in a low tax state while productive and move to a welfare state if one gets sick or suffers bad fortune.
To bring back the Old Republic, we need to reinvigorate the militia spirit and put a damper on tax/welfare arbitrage. My candidate proposal for the former is to replace TSA frisking with a *civilian* Air Deputy system. Have hundreds of thousands of vetted frequent fliers armed with daggers and tasers in return for a small airfare discount. Likewise, have huge state militias ready to guard disaster areas against looters.
The true lesson of 9/11 is that a free society cannot rely on full time guardians in the event of Black Swan events. You need either a true militia or a police state.
Delete the whole thread if you like. I wish there were a more efficacious way to report things like this to the authors, but even so I could have done it more helpfully. Sorry about that.
There are limits to how much a piece of legaleze can constrain a government. When theoretical government diverges from actual government, actual government wins.
We had democracy because we had a militia system of national defense and a sufficiently egalitarian wealth distribution. We had federalism because communication across the nation as a whole was slow, and arbitraging between state legal and tax systems was expensive and difficult.
We have a two-party system because we have First Past the Post elections for our most important offices. No amount of ballot access reform can fix the Two-Party System. Only changing how votes are counted can do that.
Likewise, now that we have fast transportation, social programs are going to gravitate to the federal government as long as there are no walls between states -- physical or virtual. Currently, we do have walls in the form of residency requirements for in state tuition and California's Proposition 13. Otherwise, it behooves one to live in a low tax state while productive and move to a welfare state if one gets sick or suffers bad fortune.
To bring back the Old Republic, we need to reinvigorate the militia spirit and put a damper on tax/welfare arbitrage. My candidate proposal for the former is to replace TSA frisking with a *civilian* Air Deputy system. Have hundreds of thousands of vetted frequent fliers armed with daggers and tasers in return for a small airfare discount. Likewise, have huge state militias ready to guard disaster areas against looters.
The true lesson of 9/11 is that a free society cannot rely on full time guardians in the event of Black Swan events. You need either a true militia or a police state.
I should have been more careful in my extract or less arch in my comment: "September of 1991"?
"In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed, Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 was never ratified."
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript#:~:text=On%20September%2025,was%20never%20ratified.
Sorry, I deleted your first comment by mistake, and the clunky Substack interface doesn't seem to want to let me retrieve it.
It's all moot if you fix this: "Ten of the original twelve amendments were ratified by the requisite number of states by September of 1991".
I feel sure you meant 1791.
I finally figured out what you were talking about. Yeah, it was a typo. Fixed now.
Delete the whole thread if you like. I wish there were a more efficacious way to report things like this to the authors, but even so I could have done it more helpfully. Sorry about that.