re: Bring Us Your Memes Thread

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Riddle me this who demanded the Bill of Rights before THEY voted on the Constitution? Government exists by the consent of the Governed.

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No need to get defensive. James Madison and several others were adamant that the Bill of Rights be included in order to clarify and affirm that the government being established was strictly limited. The rights enumerated were already held by the people and, as you have pointed out, our government exists by the consent of the governed. They wanted to make it exceptionally clear that these rights were not being ceded to the government and would most certainly not allow those rights to be usurped.

Still, the Bill of Rights didn't give those enumerated rights to the People. Those people already HAD and HELD those rights. That's why I stand by the idea and belief that the Constitution does not grant any rights to the People. It only grants rights to the Federal government that the People have deemed appropriate for the government to have. This is also why I fully believe that our current Federal government is wildly out of control and has acted in an extra-Constitutional manner for well over a century with absurd authority and power being wielded most particularly in the last fifty years or so.

As long as we look to the Constitution as a document that grants us certain rights and privileges as the people then we are susceptible to the belief that power is derived from government rather than government being derived from the will and consent of the people. That's a very dangerous thing for a nation whose government is to be held accountable to its citizens, and that's why we're in the spot we find ourselves today.

You are very correct. I offer my most humble and sincere apologies.

Carry on.

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Still, the Bill of Rights didn't give those enumerated rights to the People. Those people already HAD and HELD those rights.

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This is objectively false. Off the top of my head, under British colonial rule and under the Articles of Confederation upwards of five states had no protections against unreasonable, warrantless searches (or general warrants). Upon the ratification of the 4th Amendment, protections against unreasonable searches and seizures were extended to all citizens of all colonies.