• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No I’m not. That’s what you appear to be arguing. Either the founding documents are what we derive American values from, in which case we have to accept the bad things as well as the good things, or they are not, in which case we need a different way to define our values and what makes them American.

      • Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Then go back and reread my comment three up in this thread where I said that the DoI was a statement of values, and the Constitution is an attempt to make a goverment based on those values

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Then, again, what makes a document written before America existed where we get American values from? They would not be American values if they were written before there was an America.

          • Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            In Congress, July 4, 1776

            The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, …

            America didn’t begin with the signing of the Constitution.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It absolutely did. Those states still operated as independent entities. They were united on the issue of declaring independence. Until the Constitution was signed, the states were not united as a nation.

              • Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Do you think Rome didn’t exist before Caesar Augustus took power?

                Did England spring from William of Normandy’s forehead fully formed, clad in a wool coat and singing Rule Brittania?