How has the United States Constitution influenced
American values?
VoiceCast Authored and Read by
Mayasonette Lambkiss
12/26/2023
as a public content of the Institute of Universal Human Rights - Hawaii
"The American Revolution ushered in an age of democratic revolutions. Some of those revolutions resulted in functioning democracies, but as noted, not all such revolutions were peaceful. Some ended in extensive violence and dictatorship. America’s revolutionary war and its Declaration of Independence did not lead to chaos, rather it culminated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the peaceful transfer of political power between parties in 1801."
(AMERICAN VISION AND VALUES, Bellevue University Nebraska.)
It matters a great deal how we classify or define the structure of our government, because those words either resonate with the heart of people or will thwart their thinking. Democracy resonates with the heart of every American citizen, but it is such an ideal that would cause the collapse of this country to eliminate any form of empowered structure to manage that democracy, as if such democracy were the enemy of itself. It is important for the governed to understand how the government is set up, how and why the government is empowered to govern the people, in order to preserve the power of the governed people. It is the design that is genius. How to fill it with the correct officers is a whole other question.
But why is citizenship education important for the governed as much as for the government? The answer can be as simple as the answer Andrew Oldenquist's reasoning published in Educational Leadership, 1980, titled The Nature of Citizenship: "Citizenship education should foster group loyalty and values", even if he also flavored it with critical specifics such as 'white middle-class values in black and white poor neighborhoods'. Today we are just hoping all citizens will learn about the academic interpretation of the government systems.
The United States is not an autocracy, because it is not governed by a supreme monarch. The United States is Governed by democratically elected representatives; therefore, it is a democracy, meaning the will of the people is heard first, and made effective by the appointment of the representation. The assembly or House of Representatives than is entitled again, as the result of a secondary democratic election to conduct any national decision making, even the creation of an electoral college to appoint a President. The United States is currently a confederation of 50 self-governed states. To manage the bureaucratic duties of such vast territory effectively, legally, and transparently, additional structures are necessary to implement. The 50 self-governed states empower one or two representatives via democratic elections to conduct state interests on a federal level. It is highly commendable that they hear out the Mass of People's opinion on the matter first by a general Presidential election before voting themselves. It is not only power preserved for the people, but respect given to the people by those in whose hands the decision ultimately stands. Why elect representatives, if you are only going to strip them from power by debating their office to be unconstitutional or as a violation of the rights of the people. You either elect representatives and give them due respect and power, or you don't and end up with a chaotic, unmanageable democratic bureaucracy. But you can't elect representatives to just sit and be your puppets. Have respect for the office that is there to represent you, and the excellent process to get the right people into those offices.
Therefore, the United States operates and realizes the vision of its constitution by inventing a...
