feministhistorian:

starshiprangerlauren:

feministhistorian:

Pennsylvania rushed to the Constitution ratified within months of it being complete because the Federalist knew the people of Pennsylvania would not like it. That document stripped people of their rights. The Bill of Rights, you know that document Conservatives LOVE, was not in the original Constitution. “The people” had to fight to get that put into the Constitution. The Constitution was written by the elite for the elite. The Constitution was drafted in part to make sure American businessmen could invest with European investors. European investors wanted nothing to do with American investors/businessmen because of how shitty our credit was and the fact we were broke from the war we only won because the French hated the British. Terry Bouton inTaming Democracy: “The People,” the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution, states:

Initially, the Revolution had been an attempt to free America from economic colonialism. But now, at the moment of freedom, America’s elite founders dedicated themselves to remaking the new nation according to the demands of their former masters. In effect, they were trying to reestablish economic dependency by adopting rules of law that, during the 176os and 1770s, they themselves had portrayed as Old World domination and oppression.

Can Conservatives stop worshiping the Constitution like it gave them these great freedoms they have today? It is sickening how little people know about the Constitution and the creation of it. While I am at it, you do realize the Constitution was only written for white men? African Americans were seen as only 3/5 human, and women and Native Americans weren’t actually mentioned in it. I do realize Conservatives only think white men are people…

my rant was brought on by this joke of an article on the Constitution in Conservative Teens.

Let’s not forget that technically the Constitution is an illegal document. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were elected by the states to fix the Articles of Confederation, not completely scrap it. In fact the whole convention was held in secret. A fast number of Anti-Federalists (I hate to use that term because it makes them sound bad) refused to attend. Patrick Henry of “give me liberty or give me death” fame famously said that he would rather “cut off his right hand” than give any semblance of support to the convention by attending. Thomas Jefferson also was not in attendance, being abroad in Europe at the time. It makes me wonder how different the document would have turned out if some more opponents were present. 

But back to its technical illegality. The Articles of Confederation stated that any changes or overhauls had to be unanimous. The ratification of the Constitution was not unanimous. The proponents only had 9 states supporting it, and that was why they chose that number to be the threshold.

This is why strict Constitutional originalists (like Justice Scalia) make me laugh because they get most of their “Well the Founders thought [X]” from the Federalist Papers. That leaves out the ideals and motives of a significant portion of the Founders. Such an interpretation is grossly irresponsible.

Very true. I was more focusing on what the Constitution said but this also proves how the Constitution was not for “the people.”

(Source: historicalslut)