U.S politics

POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES

America 's Founding Fathers had some fundamental values upon which the

country 's new Constitution was written . As of late , these values have been under attack in

President Bush 's administration . Whether for better or for worse , the direction which

America has been headed has been in stark contrast to previous administrations . Some

including George Soros , believe that the Bush Administration has caused the destruction

of America 's foreign policy objectives (Ilmberger :2007

In Alexis de Tocqueville 's seminal work , Democracy in America , he

br observes

that the thirteen American colonies , prior to the execution of the Constitution , had the

same religion , language , customs , and commonality of many laws Additionally , the

colonies had a common enemy , the British , were a foundation for the values contained in

the Constitution . However , the colonies each had a separate existence and had a great

deal of independence in governing their respective colony . This led to weakness of the

federal republic . Accordingly , it was probably inevitable that the Constitution was written

by taking sometimes conflicting values into consideration (Ilmberger

Clearly , many of the technological advances of the 20th and 21st Centuries were

not contemplated by the original founders of America . However , the framers were not

oblivious that technology would somehow change in the future . But the framers did

envision the Constitution as a flexible document capable of survival through time . One of

these visions was that of a three-branch government executive legislative , and judicial

Each possessing equal powers , the founders believed that checks and balances would

help make the country a democracy worthy of almost eternal existence (Ilmberger

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Critics charge that the Bush Administration have , through conduct such as

enactment of the USA Patriot Act , used terrorism as a basis for expanding presidential

powers beyond what the framers of the Constitution envisioned Nevertheless , the United

States Constitution has endured for over 200 years , and as the political pendulum shifts

will , despite the criticisms of people such as Walt Whitman , likely prove itself as worthy

of being deemed one of the most important documents of our time (Ilmberger

CITATION

Ilmberger , Williams . BA Language Skills and Culture : Lecture 7 Preparatory

Reading (27 March 2007

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