Well-regulated, part 3

Well-regulated, part 3 Following up on the two previous posts– As written earlier, as often as we hear about “the second amendment” in the public discourse, we seldom hear the phrase “well regulated.” The first is a slogan for banners and bumper stickers; the second is being obliterated. But the framers of the constitution included [...]

Well-regulated, part 3

Well-regulated, part 3 Following up on the two previous posts– As written earlier, as often as we hear about “the second amendment” in the public discourse, we seldom hear the phrase “well regulated.” The first is a slogan for banners and bumper stickers; the second is being obliterated. But the framers of the constitution included [...]

“Well regulated,” part 2: Strict constructionism means paid lobbyists?

“Well regulated,” part 2: Strict constructionism means paid lobbyists? Picking up where the previous post left off– “Well regulated” was praise in this country at the time America was born. For eighteenth-century American colonists, well-regulated was everything the ridiculous Georges on the English throne were not. The Swiftian, satire-worthy courts under the British kings were [...]

Well regulated currency

Well regulated currency The ordinariness of “well regulated” in eighteenth-century America The following is a quick, representative list of American newspapers before and after the Revolutionary War explicitly recommending, or reminding of the need for, a “well regulated currency”: New England Weekly Journal (Boston, Mass.) February 4, 1734. Issue CCCLVIII, page 1. “Money well regulated [...]

Free Speech and Attacking Social Security

Applying lessons from some of the history below, up top: Regardless of the individual views of ordinary Republicans as citizens, the national party apparatus of the GOP has never ceased trying to undo Social Security; The GOP-and-finance-sector daisy chain indicated below, potent as it has been in some elections, is dwarfed by current use of [...]

Free Speech and Campaign Contributions

Another in an occasional series on free speech: One person, one vote. One person, one amount. Following up previous posts, again on the recent legal argument that money, in the context of political donations, is speech; that huge political donations are a form of political participation like other ways of participating; and that corporations are [...]

Free Speech and Campaign Contributions

Update re Stephen Colbert and PAC: www.rollcall.com/news/Stephen-Colbert-PAC-FEC-video-205563-1.html?ET=rollcall:e10287:80103659a:&st=email&pos=epol Today, class, we will deal with that strange position of our time, the legal argument that money, in the context of political donations, is speech; that huge political donations are a form of political participation like other ways of participating; and that corporations are persons and can contribute [...]