Ari Fleischer Quotes
The very document that protects our liberties more than anything else, the Constitution, was, of course, drafted in total secrecy.
George W. Bush. See {618119} for the rejoinder to the defense.
Ari Fleischer, Campaign Communications Director White House Press Secretary, Defense of Vice President Cheney’s secret meetings with energy businessman to make government energy policy
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Conason was refuting the argument of Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer {618120} who had used the secrecy of the Constitutional Convention in 1789 to justify the Vice President’s secret meetings with energy businessman to make government energy policy.
It was commonly asked of Blacks applying to register. There are few people who could give a cogent response to this. What made it terrible was that the white racist registrars had the unilateral authority to determine whether or not the oral response was adequate. Recording of responses were prohibited so that no Black who was disenfranchised could ever appeal when he/she was rejected. This is one of the thousands of techniques that were used throughout the South to prevent Negro voting. They were so egregious that Lyndon Johnson was abe to force through Southern filibusters The Voting Rights Act which has eliminated the worst of the racist restrictions on Black voting. As the worst of the racist white generation has died off, Southern discrimination in voting has lessened and the situation is better each year. By 2012 there were some who claimed that the law was no longer necessary do to changes in attitude and practice, but others worried that if there were no longer any forms of discrimination in voting, why some wanted to repeal the Voting Rights Act.
In the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the delegates agreed that the there would be no official transcript and that the debates were to be kept secret:
This hypocrisy and insincerity was seen for what it was by the Radical Republicans, Abolitionists and the newly freed slaves themselves. See {617728} and {617339}. However, this approach soon was adopted as the “party line” by intellectual Southerners of the time, and has continued to this day. The rebellion that caused the deaths of more Americans than all the rest of our wars, was not as they stated it caused by any conflict over slavery, no economic causes, no differences in labor philosophies and trade, no contention over control of new territories, but was simply an attempt to vigorously support and defend the Constitution. However, one advantage to using this story as an explanation of the bloody rebellion, was that the defeated Southerners could see their acts as somewhat nobly motivated.
There are many Americans who resent the fact that states and localities publish official documents in Spanish and other foreign languages as well as English. They often argue that the Founders wanted English to be the only language of the American government. It comes as a shock and surprise that the Constitution was published in English AND German to reach the many German immigrants who were a part of early America.
The political battles over the ratification of the Constitution were vicious and brutal even by modern standards.
The 10th Amendment was created to take care of this objection which Jefferson and many others had.
- Born: October 13, 1960
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Public Servant
Lawrence Ari Fleischer is an American media consultant and political aide who served as the twenty-first White House Press Secretary, for President George W. Bush, from January 2001 to July 2003.
