Is our political system obselete? And if so, what's the alternative?

[Gideon]

Keep in mind that the government follows the economic system.

The founders wrote the Constitution the way they did because they lived in an agrarian society. They couldn't have imagined most of what our government does today.
The industrial revolution spawned the progressive movement, and massive top down government evolved to match wits with massive top down economic entities.
Things aren't that way anymore, and the massive bureaucracies don't work with diffused and empowered societies. The internet has allowed us to become tribal people again, and to form communities that the industrial age eliminated.
This is the 4th Age of Man, we aren't hunter-gatherers, we aren't peasant farmers, and we aren't child laborers shoveling coal for robber barons. I have the entirety of human knowledge in my pocket and your government can't keep up. The younger generations of today will be the first to live in a post-government society. There isn't anything you can do about it.

 

[Grindstone]

Should have stuck with the Articles! Also, things would probably be better in the CSA if our ancestors had fought a little harder for independence, or resisted the occupation more.

Sure they were, if you weren't black.

 

[Lurker66]

Sure they were, if you weren't black.

Or red....or a woman....or jewish.....or chinese.....italian......irish......polish.....Okies woulda made the list im sure.

 

[SoonerP226]

Or red....

Stand Watie would tend to disagree with you. He was Cherokee, and the last Confederate General to surrender.

Don't believe everything the carpetbaggers put down in the history books.

 

[Lurker66]

Stand Watie.....nope dont want ol Stand representing me either.

 

[Grindstone]

Stand Watie would tend to disagree with you. He was Cherokee, and the last Confederate General to surrender.

Don't believe everything the carpetbaggers put down in the history books.

And there were blacks in the CSA Army.

But you can't seriously deny that things would not have been well at all for the majority of non-whites in an undefeated CSA. Hell, things weren't well at all for the majority of non-whites in a defeated CSA for over a 100 years after, anyway.

 

[SoonerP226]

But you can't seriously deny that things would not have been well at all for the majority of non-whites in an undefeated CSA. Hell, things weren't well at all for the majority of non-whites in a defeated CSA for over a 100 years after, anyway.

The defeat of the Confederacy was so complete and Reconstruction so oppressive that there's really no way to guess what it would've been like if the CSA had won (though my pet theory has long been that a Confederate victory would only have delayed the inevitable reunion of the states). How much hatred might've been avoided if the South hadn't gone through Reconstruction--or even if Lincoln's moderation had carried the day, and the carpetbaggers hadn't run roughshod over everyone in sight?

And you might recall that the Indian nations didn't exactly get anything even resembling a fair shake from Uncle Sam; who can say if their lots really would have been worse as citizens of the Confederate States of America? Also, white Texicans intermarried with Hispanics before the war; can you really say with certainty that Hispanics would've been worse off if there hadn't been the post-war flood of people into Texas, some fleeing from the carpetbaggers?

I'm not arguing that minorities would've been better off if the South had won, only that you always need to remember that the victors write the history books, and that sometimes what you know ain't necessarily so...

 

[Grindstone]

The defeat of the Confederacy was so complete and Reconstruction so oppressive that there's really no way to guess what it would've been like if the CSA had won (though my pet theory has long been that a Confederate victory would only have delayed the inevitable reunion of the states). How much hatred might've been avoided if the South hadn't gone through Reconstruction--or even if Lincoln's moderation had carried the day, and the carpetbaggers hadn't run roughshod over everyone in sight?

And you might recall that the Indian nations didn't exactly get anything even resembling a fair shake from Uncle Sam; who can say if their lots really would have been worse as citizens of the Confederate States of America? Also, white Texicans intermarried with Hispanics before the war; can you really say with certainty that Hispanics would've been worse off if there hadn't been the post-war flood of people into Texas, some fleeing from the carpetbaggers?

I'm not arguing that minorities would've been better off if the South had won, only that you always need to remember that the victors write the history books, and that sometimes what you know ain't necessarily so...

You left out a tiny little detail: slavery.

 

[cjjtulsa]

We were not a democracy, but we have "devolved" into a democracy, mob rule sometimes superseded by the SCOTUS.
Briarcreekguy touched on it - state power vs fed power. We lost that war, and the spiral began.

FWIW, I think Lurker is probably right about the fractioning of our country leaving us vulnerable, and creating border disputes, but I'd sure be willing to give it a try.

I've been on board with this for some time; we haven't been "united" in decades.

 

[SoonerP226]

You left out a tiny little detail: slavery.

IMHO, that problem would've been corrected regardless of who won; it was no longer a sustainable macroeconomic proposition, even by then.