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Interesting article about the quiet movement among some conservatives to push for repealing the 17th Amendment, which implemented the direct election of US Senators:
I was always happy with the 17th Amendment until Obamacare changed my mind - now I understand why that part of the Constitution was written the way it was. A Senate chosen by state legislatures would never have imposed Obamacare and mandatory Medicaid expansion on the states.
Right! And let's repeal the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments as well since they are all "corruptions" of the Constitution.
Get a clue. The amendment process was specifically included in the US Constitution in order to "corrupt" it by adapting to changing situations and attitudes.
Oh, please!
You're obviously a believer in the "living Constitution" myth.
Interesting article about the quiet movement among some conservatives to push for repealing the 17th Amendment, which implemented the direct election of US Senators:
I say abolish the Senate altogether, or at least greatly reduce its power.
In the U.K., the House of Commons (Lower House) has most of the power and the House of Lords (Upper House) barely has any. Actually, most democracies around the world follow this model.
Our Senate is a fairly ridiculous, and, by design, undemocratic chamber.
I say that`s a good idea. As it is, a handful of cowboy states with small numbers of voters carry too much clout. Prairie dogs and rattlesnakes don`t need this much representation.
try again. the 17th amendment IS a corruption of the constitution, try reading sometime. the founders set up the house as the representatives of the people, and the senate as the representatives of the state. and they had good reason to do that. it prevents what has happened over the decades since the 17th amendment was passed and ratified, and that is the power of the states has been severely reduced and given over to the federal government.
we need to reverse that and take power away from the feds and give it back to the states.
I have read it. Nowhere in the US Constitution is the structure of the federal government as originally outlined in the US Constitution exempted from amendment.
Go ahead ... you and your states-rights ideologues find some dumbarsed Pubbie with a political death wish to introduce your proposed amendment in Congress. See how far it gets.
The 17th dealt a big blow to the concept of what a Federal Republic was intended to do. Divide the power among the federal government and the individual state governments. It was the compromise necessary to move from a disunited and weaker confederation style of government to a stronger Federal Republic. Without representation for the states, we have moved toward a more pure form of democracy. Democracies can never be healthy long term and always devolve toward mobocratic rule.
The pitch to get the 17th passed was corruption, corruption, corruption and gridlock.
See how we stamped those out with the 17th?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea
I'm all for it.
The US is federal republic with an equilateral power-sharing system between the States, the People, and the federal government.
The 17th Amendment diminishes the power of the States.
The States should be free to amend their constitutions to select federal Senators any way they want.
Indeed.
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