>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 02/09/00 08:25PM >>>
The Constitution is a text imbued with mystical power and authority by most Americans. My major beef with it, aside from that unthinking reverence, is the kind of governmental structure it gave us - designed quite consciously to frustrate popular will - three branches, the abomination of the Senate, states rights, all that. I think free speech, free assembly, and fair trials are good things, very good things in fact. We could use more of them in practice and not just on paper. "Paper" - reverence for the constitutional text rather than actual democratic practice - is one reason we don't have more of them.
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CB: If you were designing our governmental structure, what would be the main features different from the U.S. system ? Would you say the U.S. system , theoretcially and actually, is better than Cuba's ? China's ? Is there any in the world that you prefer to the U.S. system ?
CB