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Fuck Original Intent
Jul. 4th, 2022 04:31 pmThought this was appropriate for the day.
Whenever someone tries to tell me we need to stick to the "Original Intent of the Founders" I like to point out that in 1804 the United States ratified the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
What is the 12th Amendment? It just ripped Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 out of the document and replaced how we elect the President and Vice-President. Because the Original Intent (imagine a mighty echo on those words) was that the candidate who came in second in the Electoral College voting would serve as Vice President.
It quickly became evident that when Adams and Jefferson served, two men who loathed each other and fought for government control, followed by the election of 1800 when the two dominant parties entered two-man tickets for the first time, the Constitution had failed, hard.
So they fixed it.
Because the Constitution is not perfect, and even Thomas Jefferson said it needed to change with the times:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Original Intent can get fucked.
Whenever someone tries to tell me we need to stick to the "Original Intent of the Founders" I like to point out that in 1804 the United States ratified the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
What is the 12th Amendment? It just ripped Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 out of the document and replaced how we elect the President and Vice-President. Because the Original Intent (imagine a mighty echo on those words) was that the candidate who came in second in the Electoral College voting would serve as Vice President.
It quickly became evident that when Adams and Jefferson served, two men who loathed each other and fought for government control, followed by the election of 1800 when the two dominant parties entered two-man tickets for the first time, the Constitution had failed, hard.
So they fixed it.
Because the Constitution is not perfect, and even Thomas Jefferson said it needed to change with the times:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Original Intent can get fucked.
