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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 .
PrometheusBound said:
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their own government, the Constitutionalists' eternally binding obstructive document was merely a start-up plan to be superseded by legislation based on real-life consequences of this original but temporary legislation.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.
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So, you think the Constitution is outdated and irrelevant? Really?

Does that include the balance of powers, the Bill of Rights, the whole nine yards, just toss it all out?
 
PrometheusBound said:
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their own government, the Constitutionalists' eternally binding obstructive document was merely a start-up plan to be superseded by legislation based on real-life consequences of this original but temporary legislation.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.
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I don't know where you went to school but I went here in the USA and even a 9th grader will tell you you're wrong. Certainly any judge or lawyer will. You seem to be one of those people (I may be wrong) that the government was founded by God or something. This is equally absurd. First Jesus said render onto Caeser that which is Caesers. Which means "Governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". Do you recognise this at all?

Second if the Bible is the basis of our government or laws, please provide me with any document, statute, case law, ruling, etc that DIRECTLY cites the Bible (chapter and verse please) as its source for existence or its basis for existence. You will not be able to because it does not exist.

Fortunately people like you are in the minorty by about 98% and we need not concern ourselves with your delusions.
 
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?
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Obama correctly answered the "what." Romney correctly answered the "how." But the question was "what," not "how."
 
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?
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I say other. I'm still waiting for someone to remove the Patriot Act. None of us have rights while that is still in effect.
 
I personally believe that the proper function of government is to protect individual liberty.

Really simplistic, but that is pretty much my opinion.
 
The purpose of government is to recognize, uphold, and defend the god-given, inalienable individual rights of all citizens, as expounded in the constitution and the bill of rights. This is the whole justification for the governments existence, and sadly to say it has done nothing but trample these rights in the past few decades.

The federal government is only authorized to act insofar as it is granted authority to do so by the constitution; powers that are not delegated to the federal government by the constitution are reserved to the states and the people, as stated clearly in the tenth amendment. I would say that a great majority of what the federal government does is unconstitutional and, hence, illegal. The best government is one that governs the least, and defends individuals against force and fraud. When government tries to step outside of this boundary the result is tyranny.

Michael Badnaric put it very well (im paraphrasing). Government is like fire; it can cook your food, heat your house, or burn you to death. When fire is in its proper place, the fireplace, it serves us and is to our great benefit. When it escapes from the fire place, the house burns down and we all die. Same with the government.

The government ought to be strictly confined to the constitution, and if it is it will serve us to our benefit as free people. If it steps outside of and disregards the constitution, as it has and continues to do, it will manifest itself as a tyrannical force and will threaten the very fundamental liberties it was instituted to protect.

Its sad to wake up in America and fine this basic value system disregarded as extremist and impossible. Americans need to wake up and tell the federal government who's boss before we have no freedom of speech left and no arms to defend our own rights.
 
wolfman24 said:
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.
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NOt even close. t
 
I believe the primary purpose of the government is to uphold proper moral order-- to encourage the people to act for their own benefit and for the benefit of their countrymen, and to cultivate those moral virtues that lead to health and prosperity.
 
To provide for the common defense and the general welfare of the People.
 
To encourage a healthy level of Chaos in society.
 
To ensure members of our National Government are safe, comfortable and set for life.
 
Intricate said:
The purpose of government is to recognize, uphold, and defend the god-given, inalienable individual rights of all citizens, as expounded in the constitution and the bill of rights. This is the whole justification for the governments existence, and sadly to say it has done nothing but trample these rights in the past few decades.

The federal government is only authorized to act insofar as it is granted authority to do so by the constitution; powers that are not delegated to the federal government by the constitution are reserved to the states and the people, as stated clearly in the tenth amendment. I would say that a great majority of what the federal government does is unconstitutional and, hence, illegal. The best government is one that governs the least, and defends individuals against force and fraud. When government tries to step outside of this boundary the result is tyranny.

Michael Badnaric put it very well (im paraphrasing). Government is like fire; it can cook your food, heat your house, or burn you to death. When fire is in its proper place, the fireplace, it serves us and is to our great benefit. When it escapes from the fire place, the house burns down and we all die. Same with the government.

The government ought to be strictly confined to the constitution, and if it is it will serve us to our benefit as free people. If it steps outside of and disregards the constitution, as it has and continues to do, it will manifest itself as a tyrannical force and will threaten the very fundamental liberties it was instituted to protect.

Its sad to wake up in America and fine this basic value system disregarded as extremist and impossible. Americans need to wake up and tell the federal government who's boss before we have no freedom of speech left and no arms to defend our own rights.
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It is not the Constitution that protects your right to own a gun, your gun itself protects that right. It is the same way all down the line; we the people can govern ourselves and don't need some political viewpoints from the 18th Century restricting us. The best government is one that governs best. Only the best bad government is the one that governs least, in the distinction between authoritarian and totalitarian governments. If given a real say on how we govern ourselves, we will not vote down our fundamental rights, which will be defined by us and not by the pre-owned and sheltered oligarchy that was empowered by your Constitution.
 
PrometheusBound said:
It is not the Constitution that protects your right to own a gun, your gun itself protects that right. It is the same way all down the line; we the people can govern ourselves and don't need some political viewpoints from the 18th Century restricting us. The best government is one that governs best. Only the best bad government is the one that governs least, in the distinction between authoritarian and totalitarian governments. If given a real say on how we govern ourselves, we will not vote down our fundamental rights, which will be defined by us and not by the pre-owned and sheltered oligarchy that was empowered by your Constitution.
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I'm not so sure about that. People seem more than willing to trade liberty for security nowadays.
 
To keep our democratic society intact, both of those answers are correct however.
 
Purpose of government is to protect freedom. That covers national defense, domestic defense, protecting minority and majority rights which are the same, protecting the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, protecting freedom of the innocent and children with such things as child work laws, protect freedom of consumers with smart regulation to insure rule of law and transparency in market, protection of economic freedom from too high of tax rates, etc, etc.
 
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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?
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If we are talking about the federal government then its proper role is to perform the following functions delegated to it by the states when they established their compact between themselves:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
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