[Sherman Logan]

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.

[Political Junkie Too]

The point is that they are corrupt for their own state interests. It's easier to manage 50 corruptions localized to their individual states, instead of the collusion of corruption at the federal level that is nationalized.

At least with the states, you have the self-interests of the other 49 states to balance the corruption of a runaway state.

-PJ

[jjotto]

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.

[ModelBreaker]

“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.”

Agreed. The state legislatures would have to see their interests as different than the interests of the feds. With the pig trough of federal money that flows to the states, much of the state legislator’s time is occupied with getting money from the feds or extracting campaign contributions from lobbyists.

[Jacquerie]

<>Sorry, I will never quite understand the fixation of many conservatives on the wonderfulness of state legislatures.<>

I’ll never quite understand why so many freepers don’t educate themselves on why several dozen brilliant men in 1787 designed a bicameral congress derived from two distinct sources.

[houeto]

I will never quite understand the fixation of many conservatives on the wonderfulness of state legislatures.

It has nothing to do with "the wonderfulness of state legislatures." It has much to do with the makeup of the Senate. Currently 2/3 of the state legislatures are Republican. The Senate, not hardly.