August 08, 2023
Repeal the 17th!
Lew Ricker
Repeal the 17th Amendment: Direct Election of Senators - UncoverDC
Tim adds:
I've always wanted that. The direct election of Senators changed the Senate into a purely political body. It used to be a part of our Federalism; the Senators truly represented their states because they had to represent the state legislatures. Hence the states mattered a great deal. Now with them elected directly they are nothing but a partisan body and outside the control of the state governments. That was not what the Founders intended. They are mor aligned with their parties than with their states. I also think the state legislatures should be able to remove them any time they please.
Oh, and if one remembers that Plato warned democracy inevitably degenerates into tyranny, the 17th should disturb us; it was a way of making the Senate into a democratic institution, as opposed to a republican one. The Founders did not believe in democracy. They wanted SOME democracy, notable in the House (as the author points out) but they wanted indirect representation because they understood the possibility of demogoguerie, especially by those who controlled the press and had the money to buy votes. So a House, with multiple short-term representatives - could be democratic but the longer serving Senate needed to be under a more judicious control.
The 17th was put in place to reduce corruption; there were guys just buying Senate seats. So we put in direct election of Senators and now we have guys still buying Senate seats but with a lot more money. All it did was metastasize the corruption.
Repeal the 17th Amendment: Direct Election of Senators - UncoverDC
Tim adds:
I've always wanted that. The direct election of Senators changed the Senate into a purely political body. It used to be a part of our Federalism; the Senators truly represented their states because they had to represent the state legislatures. Hence the states mattered a great deal. Now with them elected directly they are nothing but a partisan body and outside the control of the state governments. That was not what the Founders intended. They are mor aligned with their parties than with their states. I also think the state legislatures should be able to remove them any time they please.
Oh, and if one remembers that Plato warned democracy inevitably degenerates into tyranny, the 17th should disturb us; it was a way of making the Senate into a democratic institution, as opposed to a republican one. The Founders did not believe in democracy. They wanted SOME democracy, notable in the House (as the author points out) but they wanted indirect representation because they understood the possibility of demogoguerie, especially by those who controlled the press and had the money to buy votes. So a House, with multiple short-term representatives - could be democratic but the longer serving Senate needed to be under a more judicious control.
The 17th was put in place to reduce corruption; there were guys just buying Senate seats. So we put in direct election of Senators and now we have guys still buying Senate seats but with a lot more money. All it did was metastasize the corruption.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:56 AM
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1
Hear, Hear! By all means, let's do it. Granted, it won't guarantee things will get better, in the near future or the far future, but it may make some difference. Might we dare hope it would help get ride of such legislative composte as Chuckie Schumer, or Dianne Feinstein? And more to the point, make it impossible to elect Adam Schiff-Head to the Senate?
Posted by: Dana Mathewson at August 08, 2023 10:32 PM (U7481)
2
Yeah Dana; we can hope. The Senate used to be a body with sober, thoughtful gentlemen and women. Now it's full of such trash as that. That's because it's an elected body now in spite of the Founder's plan.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at August 09, 2023 07:10 AM (3D1oi)
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