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this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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I would say the Swedish constitution is substantially better, yet I never see anybody cite it as a supreme authority of morality. We have also changed it regularly since its total revision in 1974. I am not saying that the American one is necessarily bad, but I am saying it is just a law and should not be worshipped.
Edit: if you want to give it a read, the official translation can be accessed here (pdf)
Treating the constitution as if it cant be changed because it is "perfect" is wildly different than not wanting the government to boundary test how it can skirt the constitution to get what it wants. When the US government doesnt follow the rules that it was supposed to be bound to via the constitution, it is almost never a good thing.
The constitution set rules for how to change it legitimately. It was designed to be changed over time not flagrently ignored.
That's the problem, it cannot be changed anymore, the base problems with the system itself prevents it from doing so.
Sounds like you have an issue with these "base problems", not the Constitution itself
Who are you and why does it benefit you to support this narrative worshipping of the constitution? Because every response you've made in this thread is either trying to support the constitution as infallible or mock anyone making arguments against it.
None of you idiots understand how the US government actually works and it annoys me.
Haven't seen you make any attempt to prove you know otherwise. You just seem like an idiot debasing other people's arguments rather than making any arguments of your own.
Hell the very post I was responding to you didn't even make an argument, just tried to argue the person wasn't talking about the constitution, when it would obviously be part of the base as a foundation of the country.
If it annoys you and you can't actually provide anything, you should just leave. If you can provide something, then don't waste people's time.
I've said multiple times
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land
The Constitution can be changed, and we have done so multiple times
These are the core things that it annoys me people don't understand.
100%. The only people that are gungho to overhaul the constitution at this point in time mean to do it irreparable harm. It's a tough thing to navigate when you don't believe the politicians involved have anything but the public's unquestioning obedience in mind.
The constitution was designed to be vaguely descriptive, so that in the case that society does change, then statements can be interpreted in a way that supports the new view of the modern country.
For instance, while not in the constitution, the government set up no offical state language or religion, in the case that society had changed making what they said redundant.
The constitution provides for its own improvement by allowing itself to be amended
Constitutions form the foundation on which everything else--laws, the economy, public services, politics, culture, national security--is built.
It's one thing to look at how a new constitution might solve our current social ills, or to demonstrate how the old one is imperfect, it's another thing to really consider the side effects of a change in constitution. What things we would lose that we take for granted, and to do so honestly, and critically?
Would America still be an imperialistic hegemony with a swedish constitution? If no, are Americans really truly ready to give up the benefits they enjoy that come with being a global hegemony?
We won't really find answers to these questions in a tweet.
Who is the head of state of Sweden? How are they selected? What is their term of service in the role?
On paper it is the hereditary monarch, but they have no real power, so de facto it is the prime minister. Their role is to lead and to appoint ministers in the government, which is considered Sweden's leading body.
The prime minister is selected by the parliament, the representation of the Swedish public, which is also responsible for deciding on laws and holding them and the government in check overall.
The prime minister has no term limit but they tend to lose support from the parliament (which gets elected every four years) sooner or later. For instance, the last prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, stayed less than a year.
Edit: fixed typo
So why maintain the hereditary monarchy, even in a limited capacity? What role does it serve?
Good question. Since 1974, the monarch's role has been reduced to a purely ceremonial one because of common sense, but then and still today a lot of people think they're valuable for our shared identity as a people. However, an ever-growing amount of Swedes such as me whole-heartedly disagree and advocate republicanism.
One fine day, when the monarchy has been relegated to the annals of history, where will Swedes turn to find their national identity, assuming a national identity is worthwhile?
Another good question. We do have a shared language and culture, but overall, our identity as a nation is slowly eroding -- because everyone speaks English anyway, English is used whenever there is anything international involved. Because our standards of living are so high and because we are just cogs in a giant economic machine, we no longer have to resort to traditions or religion for comfort and stability. Also, the realisation that we are ultimately all humans and that countries are quite arbitrary is quite inevitable.
I can say that I, because a perfect society is quite literally impossible and because ultimatly the only thing that humans want is the fulfillment of their desires, believe that the rationality that will eventually be forced upon us by thinking machines will ultimately lead to a historical end station of artificially created pleasure. My main logic is that everything we do is driven by some desire, which means that a perfect state in whch all desires are fulfilled also has no actions, which are required by societies, and that ever-accellerating technological development will show a way around this by artificially modifying the brain to be in this state.
However, in the turbulence of modern society, I fail to see what the way there is going to look like -- what is going to happen to nations, language, culture and the like when rationality renders them obsolete -- there are just too many factors at play. I don't think it is going to be pretty.
The West Wing S06 E14 - The Wake Up Call is a pretty good episode about the US constitution as a model.
We're aware there are better constitutions, especially more modern ones. But if the US were to rewrite our constitution today, we'd be the United States of Bank of America. We have to appreciate what we do have or it'll be gone.
The reverence for our constitution is important because it helps to enforce it. The piece of paper doesn't do much on its own.