WE THE PEOPLE AND SPECIAL INTERESTS

[Gordon Becker]

The Founding Fathers tried to establish a political system that would not be dominated by the special interests of labor unions or corporations; organizations that did not even exist in colonial times. Lawyers probably constitute the most powerful faction today, making the rules and laws of every business, educational entity, government body, and even social clubs. The even are and choose all the judges in our courts. The values of lawyers dominate and the rights of "we the people" have been lost. The Constitutional Convention offers "we the people" ann opportunity to regain lost rights. For example we could place more weight on selecting judges who are more concerned with justice than playing the courtroom lawyer game. What are your ideas?

[Peter Kay]

Gordon,

Thanks for that post. Why don't you join the Government Reform group and start leading a collection of discussions there? What specific changes would you propose to the constitution? I'd love to see it.

[Dan L.]

In many states, judges are elected. This, unfortunately, has its own set of problems. A judge should be able to rule without fear of adverse public reaction, making decisions which are just and fair, not just just popular. But when their judicial careers depend on a public vote, it’s not uncommon for a judge to “play to the gallery” by making decisions which are in line with public prejudice rather than justice.

Federal judges are appointed for life, unless they are impeached (which almost never happens.) That removes the need to pander to whims of popular opinion, but also removes any checks and balances on a judge’s behavior except the very worst.

Maybe our system is the best way after all.

I’m not sure what you mean by “playing the courtroom game.” The rules of courtroom procedure are designed to keep the proceedings fair for everyone. Sometimes this means that a person the public thinks should be thrown in jail, goes free. At other times, it means that somebody is allowed to do something -- like open a business -- which the neighbors don’t like. But judges who don’t follow the correct rules for court procedures, and instead cater to public prejudice, do no good for anyone, including the public. So what is “playing the courtroom game”?

[Rick M.]

That's right. The old constitution still had the old, Hawaiian mentality. There are enough forward-thinking Americans in Hawaii that we can get rid of that kind of old-style thinking and open up this state to the prosperity that comes from getting rid of all the "environmental" type whining we see from the tree-huggers.

[Rick M.]

Right on. The labor unions have got to go. This is a great chance to make Hawaii a Right to Work state and break the unions once and for all.

During the last Concon the majority of voters were Hawaii-born and in the mindset of the old ways. But with the infusion of new blood, the more forward-looking American view will prevail this time.

Finally we can get our rights back. And first is property rights! There is this unAmerican attitude now that keeps me from maximizing my profit from my property and puts all these "environmental" roadblocks in my way. We have the numbers. Let's weed out all this stuff from the constitution!

[Gordon Becker]

Lawyers (and especially those who are judges) interpret the rules (and other cases) without any regard for "fairness" or "justice" and they distort the rules and cases to favor their side knowing that it is unlikely that anyone will detect the distortion or consider the distortion unjustified. The judge decides that the attorney citing the most favorable cases and rules wins. That is the "game" and the judge is the umpire. "Justice" and "fairness" are not considered jn this strictly "lawyer game",
Lawyers (and especially judges) are very good at distorting the rules and cases to support their position (and decision) and their distortion is not obvious until one looks at the facts they left out.

[Gordon Becker]

WOW. This unAmerican attitude really scares me. It is a far cry from the "We the people" attitude that I consider the bedrock of this nation. Labor unions are necessary to limit the greed and power of owners, but the power of labor unions must be limited to protect the public.

[Gordon Becker]

In colonial days, judges were respected members of the community and more often ministers and rarely lawyers. We need judges who will decide cases to favor justice and not be bound by the law. The bar association and lawyers now completely control the judicial system (and most other systems as well) The values of lawyers are very different from those of the average citizen. We need more represention of the people in the nominating process.
A shorter term for judges would not be any more harmful than the shorter terms are for all other government offices, and might be better. I don't think it could be any worse than it is right now

[Gordon Becker]

Playing to the galley is really giving power to the people and is not always bad... but it resulted in burning witches, and the majority oppressing minorities. We need a benevolent dictator. but power corrupts even the best of us.

[Kaunaloa]

" Labor unions are necessary to limit the greed and power of owners"

the vast breadth of labor law [safety, training, compensation, vacations, etc. etc.] over the past 1/2 century has supplanted the original purpose of unions, and hence they really are no longer a "necessity" in a already overregulated marketplace ...

/jmo ...

[Kaunaloa]

re: judges, i tend to defer to the founders' idea of long-term [tho not necessarily lifetime] appointments and hence am ok with this state's absence of an elected judiciary; i do think qualifications, vetting, and the appointment process should be subject to fairly rigorous oversight of both of the other branches ...

[Dan L.]

It’s fascinating, Rick, that you view environmentalism and public rights as “un-American.” Who do you think invented national parks? Where did the environmental movement start? And what nation began the idea of protecting ordinary people from the power which unbridled wealth gives a few? In every case, the answer is, “the U. S.”

And do you truly believe that the majority of people would like to see all our scenic and wild wonders sold off to the millionaires to build McMansions? What a concept! I can see Donald Trump building a 50,000 square foot house atop Mauna Loa, and the Alaka‘i on Kaua‘i drained and turned into an exclusive private golf club. What a great triumph that would be!

As to unions, every single thing which makes a working person’s life bearable comes from union pressure, and has been instituted over the kicking and screaming objections of the business community. And it is no coincidence that the fading of the union movement nationwide coincided with the decline of wages (measured in constant dollars) which has been a feature of the American economy since the 1980s.

[Dan L.]

Every law have protecting workers comes from the unions. In their absence, it would take very little for the greedy powerful business owners to reverse 100 years of progress. In fact, we see it already, as businesses have reduced health care coverage and gutted pension plans. The decline of the unions in the past 30 years or so is what made these reverses possible, and also contributed to the loss of purchasing power which working people have suffered since the ‘80s.

Unions as they were in the 1950s are a thing of the past. But workers still need numbers to counter the power of the corporate elite, and that’s a union no matter how it is structured or what it is called.