My response to @gul's last sentence? I'll let Mr. Jefferson handle that. IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated: Column 1 Georgia: Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton Column 2 North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Column 3 Massachusetts: John Hancock Maryland: Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton Column 4 Pennsylvania: Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean Column 5 New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark Column 6 New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton
Of course he deliberately started the war in Iraq. A quarter of million American troops didn't just happen to wonder across the Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. EVERY American war has been deliberate since the War of 1812 (when you can make a strong argument about timing and miscommunication).
It's kind of hard to pick out an overall worst President. I mean, a lot of conservative libertarians talk up Reagan like he was a god among men due to the speeches he gave about how horrible big government was, yet he used the "war on drugs" to greatly expand the government on a federal level, eroded civil liberties even worse than the man who started the "war on drugs," Nixon, and further blurred the line between military and police. Then there are liberals who talk down about G. W. Bush and his administration over the "war on terror" and the action in Iraq, but they only seemed concerned about the erosion of civil liberties when it was Bush doing it, and basically shut up about it now that Obama has been doing a lot of the same stuff in the name of the "war on terror," along with ignoring their own contribution to legislation like the Patriot Act. Anymore the contest for "worst President evar" seems to be decided mainly by whoever is currently occupying the office.
FF doesn't seem bright enough to understand that the constitution came AFTER the declaration of independence.
I've not that familiar with the holders of the office from the 19th century so I'm open to be convinced about those, but from the ones that I am familiar with, I can't see past George W. Bush. Monumentally incompetent and destructive.
Which one is the supreme law of the land? Learn that and you will figure out why endorsements of religion are unconstitutional.
You didn't answer the question and I said nothing of religion. You clearly are too stupid to understand my point. I guess I'll have to spell it out for you. Gul said that according to my standards, my standards being that war should fought for defense only, this country shouldn't exist. I pointed to the DOI. to show that there are some circumstances that wars should be fought for reasons other than defense. An oppressive government would be one. So no, my standards still allow for this country to exist. Where you got the religion thing is beyond me. I guess you are just retarded. Do try and keep up.
I spoke about religion and then you quoted the DoI thinking it some how countered the constitution. It does not.
Did you make sure it's the right thread? This one is Worst President Ever and has nothing to do with religion and the constitution.
Daniel Greenfeld: Obama does not have a strategy for defeating ISIS. He has a strategy for defeating America.
Were you under the impression that I am unfamiliar with that text, or that it does anything to address the point?
This is not incompatible with the idea that Mexico started it by invading Texas. Again, though, you miss the larger point, which is that the entire existence of the US is invalidated by your position.
You really are a fucking idiot, so I guess I'll need to help you out. How were the 13 states that rightly declared independence established? What was the basis for their claim on the territory they occupied?
I don't agree although arguments can be made that Teddy Roosevelt and Jefferson didn't live up to their hype. Likewise I've seen many blame Lincoln for the Civil War or at least making it so bloody. But what is wrong with Washington? Almost everything Washington did as president worked out well for the U.S. His handling of the Whiskey Rebellion is a study in total brilliance.
The states were established by a fighting a war that they won, which I made an exception for because they were being oppressed by their government. That territory became states because they were former colonies. By winning the war, they have the right to establish those states. Again, I made an exception for this war because of the justification spelled out in the DOI. The US.'s existence is justified despite it not being a war for defense. Unless you consider it a war for the defense of liberty, which you could.
Blame Lincoln for the civil war? What type of drooling idiot would do that? The south was already having a hysterical hissy fit and leaving before he even took office.
You can make a pretty good argument that Woodrow Wilson was the worst President so far. His philosophy was pretty much the birthplace of the modern "liberal" movement and the explosive growth of government over-reach.
Wilson was the most racist president of the 20th century (he was raised in post Civil War Virginia). But I hold most against him the concept of "self determination" which as a practical matter means that every distinct geopolitical or ethnic group that wants one has a right to its own nation or homeland As someone observing the effects of it, it means there is never enough land and resources to buy off the territorial ambitions of everyone.
You're absolutely correct and I'm totally serious. Were he not black he never would have been elected. Hence, Carter would still have the mantle.
