Word: alberts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...phrases like "with all due respect." Jesse Jackson and Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, the orators of the group, seemed to believe that flights of rhetoric would be unseemly at such a high-tone forum. Two of the technocratic moderates in the race, Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Jr., were largely content to enhance their images of quiet competence. That void left Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, Illinois Senator Paul Simon and former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt in charge of providing charisma, a task akin to asking Comedian Jay Leno to dance Swan Lake...
...have managed to survive only until the next upheaval or military coup. Three-quarters of the world's constitutions have been completely rewritten since they were first adopted, making America's fidelity to a single charter highly unusual. Some experts contend that frequent constitutional changes can be healthy. Says Albert Blaustein, a Rutgers University law professor who has helped draft six foreign charters: "Jefferson concluded that every 20 years the new generation should have its own constitution to meet current needs. That might not be a good idea for the U.S., but it's really not a bad idea...
...rivalries and the constant threat of coups, have taken far greater pains to stay in power than to preserve democratic rights. Troublesome constitutions are usually ignored or tailored to suit. "If anyone speaks to you about a multiparty political system, catch him and hit him hard," declared Gabon President Albert-Bernard (Omar) Bongo in a widely quoted 1983 speech. At least 28 of the continent's 53 states have only one political party, and 27 African nations are under military rule. Countries ranging from Guinea in West Africa to Somalia in the east have gone so far as to declare...
Michael Dukakis, an intellectual prisoner of the Massachusetts statehouse, thinks of defense policy as "one if by land, two if by sea." Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt has such difficulty with decisions that he chose plaid when asked to select a color for his campaign. Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, struggling to become the old Confederacy's new champion for 1988, chose "Southern" as his foreign language when attending a posh Washington prep school...
...Constitution: economic rights, the right to a job, the right to shelter, the right to food. The first constitution to address such rights was the Mexican constitution of 1917. Since then, the idea has spread to many 20th century constitutions around the world. But as Rutgers Law Professor Albert Blaustein points out, "civil and political rights are rights of abstinence. They are rights against the state. When you start talking about social and cultural rights, you are asking for rights of action, affirmative rights...