Texas Consitution? Hit the Road.

Texas should adopt a new constitution. Continuing to use the current one is like driving your Chevrolet Silverado with a doughnut spare. Sure, you might get where you're going on the short term, but unless you update to a full size replacement, you'll soon be stuck with a flat. The Texas constitution is outdated, especially as it was written with a reactionary state of mind, attempting to go against many of the values set forth by previous constitution. It would make much more sense to have a constitution based on real values and needs of a vibrant and moving community, rather than biased opinions of the day that it was written.

The Texas constitution has been amended 467 times, making it evermore complicated and lengthy. Although these amendment are made with the intent to fix wrongs within the existing constitution, it is more like adding patches to the afore mentioned doughnut spare. In reality, these patches just end up making the constitution weaker. Texas needs a constitution that addresses broad issues that affect it today, and will continue to affect it in the future, like education, taxes, social welfare etc. Without a strong base of four full size tires, the classic Texas truck is going no place fast.

Now, the hard question.

The article "Now, the hard question," from the blog "Big Jolly Politics, was written in August of this year, and discusses the current state of our country and states that we have lost sight of the main principles and beliefs that have gotten the United States this far. The author, Ed Hubbard, discusses the original desires of our founding fathers and the original citizens of our country. He mentions that what was wanted originally was the freedom and liberty to create our own communities and infrastructures with the protection and backing of government. He says that now however, we have allowed government to over step its boundaries and have allowed it to create the infrastructure rather than simply supporting it. Hubbard strongly believes that the key to solving many of our countries main issues, including the growing divide between the rich and poor and huge budget deficits is to go back to our roots. He believes that we need to be involved members of our communities, and that it should be the role of the individual and community to help lift up those less fortunate, rather allowing the government to do so.

This article is written in hopes to inspire change within our community. It was written in hopes of influencing a reader from the general public to want to change the way our current government is heading. It explains the past values that our country held and how they have changed today. This is a very strong and valuable comparison because of the high levels of prosperity that existed in the past, and the current low and dismal levels. The correlation is sure to stand out to any member of our society. Another reinforcing argument that the author uses is to reference the work of Alexis de Tocqueville. The writings of de Tocqueville provide a basis for Hubbard’s ideas. De Tocqueville strongly emphasized the need of government to remain uninvolved in the equality of our society, that as long as the members of society remained united in purpose, there would be no need for government to intervene on such a high level. Hubbard concludes that the best way to get our country out of our current slump is for us to return to the original values that we held dear.

I think that idealogically, Hubbard has good idea. However I think that it would be impossible to involve everyone in the country on such a broad scale. We can’t seem to even agree on a budget, much less and entire idealogical set of values.