On Nov 5, 2009, at 6:56 PM, James Heartfield wrote:
> Shane writes that the founders 'made absolutely sure that neither
> the word nor the concept appear in their Constitution and
> Declaration. Even the Bill of Democratic Rights that they were
> forced to accept (in words only) includes no mention of democracy'
>
> Yes, but Marx says 'Democracy is the solution to the riddle of every
> constitution. In it we find the constitution founded on its true
> ground: real human beings and real people; not merely implicity and
> in essence, but in existence and in reality. The constitution is
> thus posited as the people's own creation. The constitution is in
> appearance what it is in reality: the free creation of man.'
> Critique of Hegel's Doctrine of the State, in the Penguin Early
> Writings collection, p 87
>
> In other words, just the act of making the constitution contains the
> germ of democracy.
Of course I agree. That is exactly why I called the "Bill of Rights" (first tern amendments) the "Bill of Democratic Rights." And why I argue that the proper legal interpretation of the Constitution is its *literal* interpretation.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos