Download File - Ruben Hughes Senior Portfolio

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Ruben Hughes
Mr. Buescher
Gov., per. 6
January 22, 2013
Purpose of Government
The United States government was built off of the greatness of the Preamble
in the Constitution. The United States founding Fathers discovered the Preamble
and everything they wrote down still stands valid today. The Preamble shaped the
United States government into what it is today. The Preamble is what helped the
United States Constitution form. The Preamble states what the United States are as a
country and what we represent. Every American citizen from the time it was made,
to the present, and to the future benefits from the Preamble. The magnificent
Preamble states how the United States are based off such topics as promoting the
General Welfare, establishing Justice, and insuring domestic Tranquility.
The General Welfare is one of the “key” essentials to the United States
Constitution. The General Welfare basically states independence of powers in
government. What this does it limits the powers of each power of government.
This was used to avoid having an overall supreme power of a government such as a
dictatorship. For, example if the Executive branch had the most power over the
Judicial and Legislative branch it would be a form of dictatorship. This would upset
all the colonies at the time and they would have never signed the Constitution
because the reason why they declared their independence from Britain was in order
to escape a dictatorship. Another example, is how each governing branch all have
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separate powers, but are all equal. Each governing branch must work together and
one cannot exist without the other because they all go hand in hand. For example, if
the executive branch wants to make a law it must go through the legislative branch
then if the law is passed and someone breaks the law the judicial branch would
judge them.
The purpose of promoting General Welfare was to prevent any form of
dictatorship. One can agree that this has been a very efficient way to prevent
dictatorship in the United States. The United States never had any form of
dictatorship after the Constitution was made. The only “head” of the United States is
the President who can not do anything drastic unless clearing it with the Congress
first. So, overall promoting the General Welfare has been very efficient in the United
States.
Establishing Justice was one of the major factors in the United States
Constitution. By establishing Justice one can consider this the creation and
formation of the judicial branch of government. The judicial branch is broken up
into court systems with the Supreme Court being the highest ranking court dealing
with federal ordeals. Some examples of the duties the Judicial branch deals with is
when a law is broken a trial is made for the crime that was committed. The Judicial
system does not only deal with crimes, but law suits as well. The Supreme Court
typically attends to major federal affairs, so if a topic passes from a state court to a
supreme court then it is a very serious matter. For example, the huge debate about
gay marriage has finally reached the Supreme Court. The final decision of the
Supreme Court is a very serious matter because this does not only affect the group
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involved, but it becomes a federal law as well. This means that all states must obey
these new set of laws. This is how the law system today was established in the
United States Constitution.
The establishment of Justice was a great addition to the United States
Constitution, but is flawed. This is because although there is federal laws which
affects all states; each state has their own laws as well. For example, marijuana is
illegal according to federal laws, but was made legal in the states of Colorado and
Washington according to those states individual state laws. This is a contradiction in
laws. This is because if one is seen smoking marijuana in Colorado the police officer
of that state is not permitted to arrest someone breaking the federal law, but an FBI
agent who sees the same crime being done in that state is permitted to arrest the
person. On one hand one side is not doing their job, but on the other hand one side is
doing their job, but they are both right. This is a contradiction that one may consider
to be fixed. One can suggest that this is irrational and that the federal law should
stand over all states and those states should not be able to make a law that
contradicts with the federal law.
The Insurance of domestic Tranquility was put into the United States
Constitution in order to protect its citizens. What this does is that it protects all
United States citizens and its states from criminals among the land mainly from
financial issues. For example, this was supposed to protect United States citizens
from having their money stolen from banking. This also was to protect identity theft
if occurred. This was also supposed to protect all the banks that hold people’s
money. This was also supposed to control immigration. The congress and citizens
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both have duties to ensure this tranquility for the better of the United States. For
example, when one decides to be more smart with their financial issues and social
security they are helping not only themselves, but the United States as well. They
are helping the United States by showing what is promised to all citizens. Another
example would be when one’s identity or money is stolen they can work with the
police to get it back.
The Insurance of domestic Tranquility probably worked for the time it was
created. In today’s world however, things have changed a great deal. For example, in
today’s society people have internet. People get there identity, social security, and
money stolen everyday in the United States. The system is not a failure, but just
needs improvements. What the founding father’s never thought of was the
advancement in technology. However, no one can predict the advancement in
technology so one can not simply blame the founding fathers. The future leaders of
the United States should step up and help ensure the vision of this country that was
seen by the founding fathers. So, overall it was good for the time it
was created, but one can consider that it needs improvements in order to be
efficient in today’s world.
Overall, there are many more factors that went into the creation of the United
States Constitution. Promoting General Welfare, establishing Justice, and insuring
domestic tranquility is only a few parts of the creation of the Constitution. This was
part of the Preamble not only to state what the United States stands for, but for what
is promised to its citizens and states as well. Some of these “keys” of the Constitution
need to be adjusted to fit today’s society, but the Constitution still has a lot of strong
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meaning even today. The United States founding Father’s forgot to include the
advancement in technology when they made the Constitution, but did not forget
human behavior which never changes. The Constitution is not perfect, but it works
for the American society. It may have flaws in its laws, but the people who made the
Constitution are not perfect either. One must simply just realize that without the
United States Constitution the United States would have never formed and instead
of the fifty states we have today we would probably have multiple small countries.
This is why the Constitution is still valid and has the same strong meaning it has
today from when it was made.
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Bibliography:
Promote General Welfare:
http://www.lawandliberty.org/genwel.htm
Establishing Justice:
http://www.jstor.org/discover
Insuring Domestic Tranquility:
http://reagan2020.us/platform/ensuring_domestic_tranquility.asp