A New Deal Constitution

Well, it certainly fits Yasafi's belief that only (leftist) politicians can determine how much liberty a man needs in order to be free.

In Art. 1, Mencken forgot to include the Girl Scouts as part of the armed forces reporting to the Commander in Chief. Today that wouldn't pass muster with the Title IX-eaucrats, or whatever Title it is. Heil King Roosevelt II!

http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/?p=95

http://www.westernjournalism.com/?page_id=3107

Interesting stuff, political of course.

It should be whatever muirbot approves of.

Don,
Don't forget to post FDR's Second Bill of Rights.

"This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

What a nightmare this has created.

Your telling me. I live in a farm state (Arkansas) now. The amount of money going to farm subsidies is mind boggling. All the while millions of poor people can't afford to eat so we give subsidies for them as well. Madness I tell you....madness!!!

Then there's the 1936 Soviet Constitution

" ARTICLE 118. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance With its quantity and quality.
The right to work is ensured by the socialist organization of the national economy, the steady growth of the productive forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic crises, and the abolition of unemployment.

ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native Ianguage, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people. "

http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/con...

Hey, want a laugh?

ARTICLE 125. In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed by law:

1. freedom of speech;
2. freedom of the press;
3. freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings;
4. reedom of street processions and demonstrations.

These civil rights are ensured by placing at the disposal of the working people and their organizations printing presses, stocks of paper, public buildings, the streets, communications facilities and other material requisites for the exercise of these rights.

ARTICLE 128. The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.

like the U.S., the USSR also had freedom of speech. Like the U.S., the USSR also had a "fairness doctrine" and a flag@whitehouse.gov. But, of course, it can't happen here since we have the constitution and all.

Article 42. Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection.

I don't know why a large minority in the U.S. is yearning for the right to third world medicine.

"Western intellectuals who remain attracted to communist ideals never had the disillusioning experience of living in an actual communist or socialist society."
-Prof Hollander (he escaped Communist Hungary)

Exactly.

Except intellectuals are a small minority, not a large one. I guess the rest are sheep.

I don't know about "the rest", but there most certainly is a large number of people who rely upon others to do their thinking for them.
So many times I have said something, an original thought that I came up with all by myself, and I'm challenged with "Who said that?".
As if I need an outside source to justify my own thinking.
And that makes total sense when I realize that the person who is challenging me is incapable of original thought, and instead relies upon the thoughts of others and judges those thoughts on how the thoughts make them feel.
Or rather how those thoughts can be used to rationalize their emotion.

A kind of bastardized deja vu many of us here share.

Yes, I'm familiar with that. Usually they don't bother asking me. Rather they TELL me that I need to stop getting my information from Limbaugh and Hannity - even though they themselves have no idea what either Limbaugh or Hannity say and neither do I. Well, bully for them. They think they'll be living at my expense and they'll soon find out they're going to be living "in the azzhole" (the polite translation of a popular Soviet description of Soviet living conditions).

"the abolition of unemployment"

In other words, forced labor. We may soon see the same here. At some point, free men will deny their abilities to those who exploit them. At which point, they must be conscripted.

"People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

I've read these words before. Funny, I always thought he meant them as a warning, but now I realize that they define a plan.

Even better!!! It's amazing how similar these all are don't ya think?


1. We demand the union of all Germany in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right of national self-determination.

2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and the revocation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain.

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus population.

4. Only members of the nation may be citizens of the State. Only those of German blood, whatever be their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may be a member of the nation.

5. Non-citizens may live in Germany only as guests and must be subject to laws for aliens.

6. The right to vote on the State's government and legislation shall be enjoyed by the citizens of the State alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich, in the states or in the smaller localities, shall be held by none but citizens.

We oppose the corrupting parliamentary custom of filling posts merely in accordance with party considerations, and without reference to character or abilities.

7. We demand that the State shall make it its primary duty to provide a livelihood for its citizens. If it should prove impossible to feed the entire population, foreign nationals (non-citizens) must be deported from the Reich.

8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany after 2 August 1914 shall be required to leave the Reich forthwith.

9. All citizens shall have equal rights and duties.

10. It must be the first duty of every citizen to perform physical or mental work. The activities of the individual must not clash with the general interest, but must proceed within the framework of the community and be for the general good.

We demand therefore:

11. The abolition of incomes unearned by work.

The breaking of the slavery of interest

12. In view of the enormous sacrifices of life and property demanded of a nation by any war, personal enrichment from war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We demand therefore the ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations (trusts).

14. We demand profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises.

15. We demand the extensive development of insurance for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate communalizing of big department stores, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that the utmost consideration shall be shown to all small traders in the placing of State and municiple orders.

17. We demand a land reform suitable to our national requirements, the passing of a law for the expropriation of land for communal purposes without compensation; the abolition of ground rent, and the prohibition of all speculation in land. *

18. We demand the ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common interest. Common criminals, usurers, profiteers, etc., must be punished with death, whatever their creed or race.

19. We demand that Roman Law, which serves a materialistic world order, be replaced by a German common law.

20. The State must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of education (with the aim of opening up to every able and hard-working German the possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement). The curricula of all educational establishments must be brought into line with the requirements of practical life. The aim of the school must be to give the pupil, beginning with the first sign of intelligence, a grasp of the nation of the State (through the study of civic affairs). We demand the education of gifted children of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, at the expense of the State.

21. The State must ensure that the nation's health standards are raised by protecting mothers and infants, by prohibiting child labor, by promoting physical strength through legislation providing for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and by the extensive support of clubs engaged in the physical training of youth.

22. We demand the abolition of the mercenary army and the foundation of a people's army.

23. We demand legal warfare on deliberate political mendacity and its dissemination in the press. To facilitate the creation of a German national press we demand:

(a) that all editors of, and contributors to newspapers appearing in the German language must be members of the nation;
(b) that no non-German newspapers may appear without the express permission of the State. They must not be printed in the German language;
(c) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participating financially in or influencing German newspapers, and that the penalty for contravening such a law shall be the suppression of any such newspaper, and the immediate deportation of the non-Germans involved.
The publishing of papers which are not conducive to the national welfare must be forbidden. We demand the legal prosecution of all those tendencies in art and literature which corrupt our national life, and the suppression of cultural events which violate this demand.

24. We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State, provided they do not threaten its existence not offend the moral feelings of the German race.

The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not commit itself to any particular denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health only from within on the basis of the principle: The common interest before self-interest.

25. To put the whole of this programme into effect, we demand the creation of a strong central state power for the Reich; the unconditional authority of the political central Parliament over the entire Reich and its organizations; and the formation of Corporations based on estate and occupation for the purpose of carrying out the general legislation passed by the Reich in the various German states.
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ASLevel_Histor...

>It's amazing how similar these all are don't ya think?

They all have one common thread. Positive rights.

I think Keynes would have loved this one "11. The abolition of incomes unearned by work. The breaking of the slavery of interest"

One has to realize that in most "educated" opinion during the 1920s and 1930s there was an open contempt for the Founders; they were viewed as old-fashioned, as plutocrats (which some of them were obviously), as driven by primarily or wholly by monetary interests, etc. It is really the nadir of academia's, the intelligentsia's, etc. opinion of them. So it is not surprising that the administration of FDR would openly attack the Constitution as it was ratified in 1789.

It just illustrates how vulgarized intellectual arguments seep into the political discourse. FDR was no intellectual giant, but the basics of educated opinion did seep into his brain - things like that I described above, the notion that many economists had that problem with the modern order was over-competition, negative eugenics (Buck vs. Bell was to have I think a dramatic effect on the political discourse regarding the rights of the individual with regards the state well into the 1960s), etc.

And to think, just as the plot to assassinate Hitler failed, the plot to overthrow the Roosevelt regime failed.

Interesting point. But unlike Hitler, who's designs were aborted, FDR's designs are still with us, and causing enormous problems. Big enough problems that the people running the country have no politically feasible solution other than denial.

"no politically feasible solution other than denial."

...and repetition.

I prefer the 1787 version, personally :)