Posted on 03/04/2015 7:54:42 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Instead of watching helplessly as our republic devolves into crown government, let’s distract ourselves with a counterfactual. What if senators were appointed by state legislatures for indefinite terms?
The Senate was designed to preserve the federal nature of our system. Members of the House represent the people, but the Senators were to represent the states — really, state governments.
Had this worked, the people would have benefited. (Sometimes, you win by grabbing all the power, but sometimes you win by ceding power to critical allies. The states were the people’s only allies in the War Against the Feds.) Unfortunately, senators came to be viewed as redundant representatives of the people, and this was reinforced by the 17th Amendment’s requiring the direct election of senators.
The design flaw that doomed the whole experiment was simple: fixed six-year terms for senators. They resemble other elected officials. The senate lacks a proper feedback loop. Senators become creatures of Washington. They go native.
We should treat them as state ambassadors. They should serve at the pleasure of the state legislators. If one gets out of line, recall him. Replace him instantly.
Sadly, the founders lacked the benefit of this wisdom. We’re doomed.
PING!
So we’ll propose an amendment to repeal the 17th and do it as described above.
Article V it
i have long said that the 17th Amendment was one of the worst of the bad 20th Century amendments to the Constitution and we need to go back to the Senators being appointed by the various state legislatures.
But what I had not thought of was the indefinite terms. In my opinion, that is a wondermuss idea
I would like to see it pushed at the Convention of States. If we ever get a Convention of States.
I disagree.
It’s not about the design of our Constitution.
It’s about the execution of it.
A perfect constitution cannot protect an ignorant public.
Sorry, I will never quite understand the fixation of many conservatives on the wonderfulness of state legislatures.
Have any of those with such notions had any experience actually dealing with them?
Well, I have, in several states, and they are for the most part at least as corrupt as Congress.
I agree that state legislatures should play the role of protecting the people against an overweening federal government. But they simply aren’t going to do it. Most of them haven’t the slightest interest in doing so.
No design flaw, just the 17th Amendment.
I would add to that- make Attorney General a Constitutional office selected by a majority of state legislators, with 2/3 requirement for removal. Then, a criminal president can’t pick his top cop.
So the AG is selected by the states, possibly with a 2 year offset from presidential elections.
If the 17th Amendment hadn’t been enacted, your senators would be appointed and on call by your state legislature...would that result in better or worse senators in your state? Here in Wisconsin, at least half of our senators would not be there.
At least with the states, you have the self-interests of the other 49 states to balance the corruption of a runaway state.
-PJ
So, John McCain forever?
Can’t argue with that...and the ignorance was a hard fought victory which required the take-over of both the schools and the media.
The question should be how likely would they be to align with national party blocs and abandon their states once they got to Washington?
The problem today is ideology and party first, state and national interests last.
-PJ
Partly it’s simply that people in general no longer are zealous for their liberties. You can’t cheat a honest electorate.
But partly is fed deficit spending. A state without the feds must pay the full cost of its projects by raising the full cost. The feds not only have a printing press (and its electronic equivalent), but can borrow existing money that effectively never has to be repaid. Everything from the feds is at a discount compared to getting it from one’s state.
Which is why the states are largely in the pocket of the feds.
Appears an awakening to the power of Article V is taking root.
Repeating here an illustrative example of how the power of Article V can be unlocked by the States to restore federalism:
************************************************
AMENDMENT XXVIII
To redress the balance of powers between the federal government and the States and to restore effective suffrage of State Legislatures to Congress, the following amendment is proposed:
************************************************
Section 1.
A Senator in Congress shall be subject to recall by their respective state legislature or by voter referendum in their respective state.
Section 2.
Term limits for Senators in Congress shall be set by vote in their respective state legislatures but in no case shall be set less than twelve years nor more than eighteen years.
Section 3.
Upon a majority vote in three-fifths of state legislatures, federal statutes and federal court decisions shall be overridden.
************************************************
If Section 1 above can be replaced with a repeal of the 17th, then that’s even better but it may be a hard sale. Section 1 above gets the job done by making US Senators pay attention to their State Legislators and at the same time requiring both to interact with the state voters.
I would strongly recommend the following must-see video be watched, consumed and studied:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdZuV8JnvvA
And I would strongly recommend all to urge respective state senators and state representatives, and the people that work for them, to view it.
If the state legislature of Arizona is happy with him, who are we in other states to complain.
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