Independence Day Hypocrisy, Not Democracy
By Stephen Lendman
July 04,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
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On July 4,
1776, America gained independence from Britain.
Everything changed but stayed the same under new
management - the way the framers planned it.
Today we'd
call them a Wall Street crowd - a deplorable
bunch, including bankers, merchants, planters,
ship owners, lawyers, politicians, judges, slave
owners and traders, speculators, smugglers,
privateers, and other type wheeler-dealers.
“We the
people,” meant them, not us. They created a
government of men, not laws. Property owners
alone had rights. Ordinary people didn't matter,
entirely left out.
America’s
first chief Supreme Court Justice John Jay said
America should be run by men who own it. John
Adams stressed having “the rich, well-born and
able” in charge.
Government
of, by and for the people was doublespeak, the
general welfare for the privileged few,
democracy verboten. America’s founders had their
own interests alone in mind.
The
Constitution they created was no masterpiece of
political architecture. Alexander Hamilton
called it “a shilly shally thing of mere milk
and water…a frail and worthless document.”
Benjamin Franklin had doubts, America’s grand
old man, an enfeebled figurehead at the time.
Mischaracterized father of the Constitution
James Madison said “I am not of the number, if
there be such, who think (it’s) a faultless
work.” After its adoption, he explained
“(s)omething, anything, was better than
nothing.” Later he spent years disapproving of
what’s in it.
None of
the 55 framers believed the Constitution was the
glorious achievement it’s portrayed to be. Only
39 signed it. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
were abroad at the time, serving in
ambassadorial roles to Britain and France
respectively.
Adams was
the leading constitutional theorist of his time.
He spent years criticizing it privately.
Jefferson was disaffected. Until it was added,
he objected to the omission of a Bill of Rights
- belatedly included to protect the interests of
the nation’s privileged, not its ordinary
people.
Jefferson
believed America’s founding document couldn’t
stand the test of time. He urged a new
convention every 20 years to fix problems and
make the Constitution relevant to the times.
It was the
product of duplicitous framers and close allies,
scheming to cut the best deals for themselves,
democracy never considered.
Expanding
America from sea to shining sea followed, the
beginning of its global imperial project, today
threatening world peace and humanity’s survival.
The
supreme law of the land deters no president or
sitting government from doing what they please,
inventing reasons as justification. We the
people are entirely left out.
Powerful
interests control things, usurping coup d’etat
authority, duopoly power with two right wings in
charge.
Elections
are farcical when held, mocking legitimacy, an
illusory veneer of democracy. America’s sham
system disregards the real thing. The framers
designed it this way.
“We the
People of the United States,” the constitution’s
opening words, are meaningless window dressing.
Free-wheeling/self-serving politicians operate
in their own self-interest. Popular needs and
concerns don’t matter.
America’s
deplorable state reflects Franklin’s warning
about “(a) republic, if you can keep it.” He
understood significant challenges ahead, likely
never imagining how bad things would get.
Tyranny
today is on a slippery slope toward becoming
full-blown, fundamental freedoms disappearing.
War on
humanity rages, survival perhaps threatened like
never before. Celebratory weekend activities
distract from what’s most important.
America’s
shameful state should focus attention on how to
change things. Otherwise we’re all doomed.
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