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What do you believe is the chief role of government?

What is the main role of government?

  • To uphold the constitution

    Votes: 30 56.6%

  • To keep America safe

    Votes: 4 7.5%

  • Other - please explain

    Votes: 19 35.8%
  • Total voters
    53
  • Poll closed .
The main purpose of government is to leave me alone.
 
Nightrider said:
Obama said government's main role is to keep America safe...

Romney said government's #1 responsibility is to uphold the constitution.
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Can't they both be right? Role and responsibility are two different things.
 
To promote stability, unity, and cupcakes.
 
Nightrider said:
It was asked in the debate last night: What is the chief role of government?

Obama said government's main role is to keep America safe...

Romney said government's #1 responsibility is to uphold the constitution.

I agree with Romney - Obama's answer (if you read between the lines) is based on giving the federal government more power and control.... The constitution is about giving more power and control to the people. After all, this is our country, not the politicians'... Obama failed the test, imo.

Anyway, what do you think?
Click to expand...


I do not agree with romney...first of all and foremost the constitution is worth nothing if the country is not safe. If were under thread of being overwhelmed in war and ruled by others you can use the constitution as toilet paper.
Secondly any one that doesnt try to use the constitution as an excuse to be against anything for anyone realizes its an outdated document that was written before we had sewar plants and toilet bowls and doesnt address most issues of today. When it was written it didnt cover much of anything that applies today.
There are far righters that 'recently' decided to use the constitution as a crutch to get what they want.
 
Jetboogieman said:
Hate to break this to yah buddy, but the deceleration of independence while a fantastic document, is not a governing document.
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Neither is the Constitution, unless you want to force us to obey, for all time, the hasty decisions of a small unrepresentative elite from the Eighteenth Century, when the world and the understanding of it were far different from what they are today.
 
Upholding the Constitution does the second idea. The Constitution safeguards us from our enemies abroad, and our enemies at home.
 
Nightrider said:
It was asked in the debate last night: What is the chief role of government?

Anyway, what do you think?
Click to expand...
This is fairly simple to answer from a logical and dispassionate POV. The constitution lays out many rolls of government and some rolls that are not of government, if there was chief roll it would be clearly defined in the document itself. In my reasoning we will hot have our constitution if we are not keeping USA safe.
 
lpast said:
I do not agree with romney...first of all and foremost the constitution is worth nothing if the country is not safe. If were under thread of being overwhelmed in war and ruled by others you can use the constitution as toilet paper.
Secondly any one that doesnt try to use the constitution as an excuse to be against anything for anyone realizes its an outdated document that was written before we had sewar plants and toilet bowls and doesnt address most issues of today. When it was written it didnt cover much of anything that applies today.
There are far righters that 'recently' decided to use the constitution as a crutch to get what they want.
Click to expand...

The United States is a Constitutional Republic in which the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is not a democracy, as many seem to think, in which the rule of the majority is the supreme law of the land.

The chief difference between a constitutional republic and a police state is constitutional restraints on the power of government. That issue is as important today as it was when it was written.

We've already begun to allow government to trample on the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. That is a dangerous precedent, and one that needs to be stopped and reversed before it gets worse.
 
Dittohead not! said:
We've already begun to allow government to trample on the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. That is a dangerous precedent, and one that needs to be stopped and reversed before it gets worse.
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Begun? No, we're in the final stages. And Obamney and Robama will both drive us to completion.
 
PrometheusBound said:
Neither is the Constitution, unless you want to force us to obey, for all time, the hasty decisions of a small unrepresentative elite from the Eighteenth Century, when the world and the understanding of it were far different from what they are today.
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How is the Constitution NOT a governing document. It is THE governing document of this country. Everything else is based on it. Any 9th grader can tell you that. It is a Constitution and therefore by definition a governing document because a CONSTITUTION explains how and by what powers the government operates.

Or are you one of the ill informed minority that thing the Federal Papers rule this country? Or maybe the Bible?

So sad
 
The constitution is a collectivist (not collectism) document (We the people) which explains how the governement will work for the benefit of all the people. the governments chief role then is to comply with the precipts of the Constititution and thereby govern and keep the people safe.
 
I do not look at keeping us safe as paternalistic but as basic. If we should lose our country keeping the constitution would be irrelevant. Both answers carry equal weight with me.
 
Ikari said:
Begun? No, we're in the final stages. And Obamney and Robama will both drive us to completion.
Click to expand...

You are an optimist. I expect the process to go much further than it already has.
 
Nightrider said:
It was asked in the debate last night: What is the chief role of government?

Obama said government's main role is to keep America safe...

Romney said government's #1 responsibility is to uphold the constitution.

I agree with Romney - Obama's answer (if you read between the lines) is based on giving the federal government more power and control.... The constitution is about giving more power and control to the people. After all, this is our country, not the politicians'... Obama failed the test, imo.

Anyway, what do you think?
Click to expand...

The main role of governance is to protect the rights of the people.

In the United States, this is enshrined in the Constitution, which is governments most highly enshrined duty.



They both sort of said the same thing.
 
The role of government is to combine a bunch of separate entities into one unified group.
 
cpwill said:
The main role of governance is to protect the rights of the people.

In the United States, this is enshrined in the Constitution, which is governments most highly enshrined duty.



They both sort of said the same thing.
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Well, I don't agree that they said the same thing... Jim asked - "Do you believe there is a fundamental difference between the two of you as to how you view the mission of the federal govt.?" Obama answered: "I definitely think there are differences..." Was he (Obama) talking about fundamental differences or just in general? To be fair, he didn't really specify. Obama said the first role is to keep America safe and then added "but..." He went on to talk about the government (federal govt.) helping to open up opportunity and create "ladders of opportunity" where the American people can succeed..... By the way, I believe in equal opportunity, just not equality of OUTCOME, but let's put that aside... He did mention freedom being important and then said "but" again. To me, Obama was vague and shifty in his response - not believable enough for my taste. I'll be frank - trying to analyze his responses/debating style is kind of driving me crazy, as there were a lot of "yes, buts..." Romney nailed HIS response, which is where I was coming from in starting this thread....

Look, I am only questioning Obama's philosophy here, NOT his integrity. I believe the man really does care - I just don't care for his POLICIES....
 
Tucker Case said:
The role of government is to combine a bunch of separate entities into one unified group.
Click to expand...

My mother always told me I should go out and make new friends. I don't know why she's so upset I decided to make them out of parts of the old ones.
 
I see government as being the vehicle for balancing the needs of the group against the needs of the individual.
 
Nightrider said:
It was asked in the debate last night: What is the chief role of government?

Obama said government's main role is to keep America safe...

Romney said government's #1 responsibility is to uphold the constitution.

I agree with Romney - Obama's answer (if you read between the lines) is based on giving the federal government more power and control.... The constitution is about giving more power and control to the people. After all, this is our country, not the politicians'... Obama failed the test, imo.

Anyway, what do you think?
Click to expand...

You seem to be asking two different questions here.

Are you asking what is the chief role of any government? Or are you asking what is the chief role of the United States' government.

Those are two very different questions after all.

Besides, it's entirely possible to use the government to keep America safe under the tenets of the U.S. Constitution. Those are not necessarily two mutually exclusive goals.
 
Viktyr Gehrig said:
My mother always told me I should go out and make new friends. I don't know why she's so upset I decided to make them out of parts of the old ones.
Click to expand...

Good morning Dr Leckter how are you feeling??
 
Gardener said:
I see government as being the vehicle for balancing the needs of the group against the needs of the individual.
Click to expand...

collectivist for the good of all people. "Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country". the theme of the Constititution.
 
wolfman24 said:
How is the Constitution NOT a governing document. It is THE governing document of this country. Everything else is based on it. Any 9th grader can tell you that. It is a Constitution and therefore by definition a governing document because a CONSTITUTION explains how and by what powers the government operates.

Or are you one of the ill informed minority that thing the Federal Papers rule this country? Or maybe the Bible?

So sad
Click to expand...
You are treating the Constitution exactly how Fundamentalists treat the Bible. No matter what the political bullies try to force us to accept as a substitute for an active and effective check by the people on their own government, the Constitutionalists' eternally binding obstructive document was merely a start-up plan to be superseded by legislation based on real-life consequences of this original but temporary legislation. It's as if whoever first built computers had been tied and bound by a start-up plan saying that they would only be used for secretarial work and had to submit any new applications to a Supreme Court tribunal or a long drawn out amendment process. Those who credit everything we the people have done by ourselves to this obsolete and unnecessary sacred text are leading us to a national collapse, because this 18th Century blueprint for oligarchy has always been a drag on our political maturity. Supreme things belong in heaven, not under the control of those who want to make themselves gods on earth.
 
Jredbaron96 said:
To promote stability, unity, and cupcakes.
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More like a cup of Let Them Eat Cake. The Founding Fathers, whom Constitutionalists treat like the Twelve Apostles, were really wannabe aristocrats who resented being ruled over by British aristocrats but loved aristocracy itself.
 
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