Happy Birthday Bill of Rights
December 15, 2006, is the 215th anniversary of the U.S. Bill of Rights. Most if not all the rights guaranteed and protected in the Bill of Rights were radical liberal ideas at the time they became law. We have become so accustom to these rights that we take them for granted.
However, conservatives don't take them for granted – as they are always reminding their liberal opponents. I wonder how they would feel if they realized their defense of the individual possession of a gun by a commoner was once a liberal idea. "You'll have to pull my cold dead fingers from around this liberal idea," just doesn't have the same ring to it, but it's nonetheless true.
The right to due process and protection from unreasonable search and seizure were radically liberal ideas when included in the Bill of Rights. The people who demanded these rights be the first amendments to the new constitution knew of a time when the king's men could come into your home and take anything they wanted, and there was nothing you could do about it. They didn't want their new government to have any such power to do the same and they wanted protection – in writing, spelled out, specifically, a law.
Royalty and the ruling class had rights such as these for some time but not commoners. The unalienable rights for all men mentioned in the Declaration of Independence (another liberal idea) were in effect codified in the Bill of Rights. What was a liberal idea has become the foundation of conservatism. Such is the way of history.
The separation of the British colonies from the king was a revolutionary liberal idea. Conservatives were loyalist who wanted to stay with England. It was those stinking liberals that wanted separation to form a whole new nation. So, the next time you hear someone trashing liberals, remember, they are talking about our founding fathers.
And if you have a chance to comment on a conservative blog – and I know the chance to comment on conservative blogs are slim – be sure and tell them: You’re Welcome! We got more were those came from. What of today’s liberal ideas will be the conservative foundations of tomorrow?
I wonder if these founding liberals realized just how loaded and pregnant the ideas were they wanted attached and apart of the new constitution. It would take hundreds of years for the impact of these ideas to include non-white non-European non-males. The struggle for racial, ethnic, and sexual equality, which continues even today, benefited greatly from the presents of these liberal ideas in the Constitution.
So, buck up all you depressed and muchly ridiculed and scorned liberals, sometimes you win one for the Gipper even if he would never admit it.
However, conservatives don't take them for granted – as they are always reminding their liberal opponents. I wonder how they would feel if they realized their defense of the individual possession of a gun by a commoner was once a liberal idea. "You'll have to pull my cold dead fingers from around this liberal idea," just doesn't have the same ring to it, but it's nonetheless true.
The right to due process and protection from unreasonable search and seizure were radically liberal ideas when included in the Bill of Rights. The people who demanded these rights be the first amendments to the new constitution knew of a time when the king's men could come into your home and take anything they wanted, and there was nothing you could do about it. They didn't want their new government to have any such power to do the same and they wanted protection – in writing, spelled out, specifically, a law.
Royalty and the ruling class had rights such as these for some time but not commoners. The unalienable rights for all men mentioned in the Declaration of Independence (another liberal idea) were in effect codified in the Bill of Rights. What was a liberal idea has become the foundation of conservatism. Such is the way of history.
The separation of the British colonies from the king was a revolutionary liberal idea. Conservatives were loyalist who wanted to stay with England. It was those stinking liberals that wanted separation to form a whole new nation. So, the next time you hear someone trashing liberals, remember, they are talking about our founding fathers.
And if you have a chance to comment on a conservative blog – and I know the chance to comment on conservative blogs are slim – be sure and tell them: You’re Welcome! We got more were those came from. What of today’s liberal ideas will be the conservative foundations of tomorrow?
I wonder if these founding liberals realized just how loaded and pregnant the ideas were they wanted attached and apart of the new constitution. It would take hundreds of years for the impact of these ideas to include non-white non-European non-males. The struggle for racial, ethnic, and sexual equality, which continues even today, benefited greatly from the presents of these liberal ideas in the Constitution.
So, buck up all you depressed and muchly ridiculed and scorned liberals, sometimes you win one for the Gipper even if he would never admit it.
posted by scout29c at 9:25 AM
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