Posted on 01/30/2006 6:23:10 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
When is the last time you read, or even glanced through, the U.S. Constitution and its 26 Amendments? Me neither. I’ve had so many other important things to do I haven’t taken time to even think about what happened to the most significant document in American history that made possible our land of freedom and independence.
What happened was that a bombshell, dropped on us in 1913, was more devastating to America than the market crash of ‘29. Why? Because, unlike the crash which lasted only through the 30’s, this bombshell will directly affect our lives, and the viability of the nation, for as long as we have a nation. The bombshell was the 17th Amendment we made to the U.S. Constitution.
Before 1913, the Congress of the United States was functioning in the way our Founders had intended it to function. That is, Senators were elected by their State legislatures, and were representatives of the states, which made up the republic.
Here’s how that arrangement was phrased in the Constitution: “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote.”
Oh, but wait a minute, yelled the liberal crowd of that day. They charged that the Senate was “undemocratic” (exactly what our Founders intended it to be) and the Senators should therefore be directly elected; that is, by the people. So, thanks to a demo-campaign of “re-education and misinformation” the 17th Amendment was passed.
Now it reads like this: “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote.”
With the simple changing of five words, the U.S. Senators no longer represented the interests of the State, but of their constituents, exactly like our Representatives do -- or are supposed to do.
And America immediately went from a Republic to a Democracy, just that quick.
Having the same constituency, with no substantive difference between the House and the Senate, both bodies began focusing on the short-range politics of confiscation and redistribution, and of preferential treatment of selected individuals and groups.
Moreover, under the 17th Amendment, the States are now treated as second-class citizens; literally inferior institutions subject to more and more Federal control.
What’s been the result? Political and social chaos; the one thing our Founders took such pains to help us avoid.
Moreover, this one simple change has put America on the road to socialism. If you think not, how else would you define giving more and more power to the government so it can confiscate and redistribute the nation’s wealth?
For that reason alone, tinkering with the original concept of the U.S. Constitution is not only dangerous but ultimately destructive.
The 17th Amendment should be repealed, and we should return this nation to the Republican vision of our Founding Fathers. Because if the “creators” of this nation didn’t know what was the best, fairest, and most effective form of government, who does? Apparently not us.
Our Founders considered the word "democracy" to be a negative. They intended that we have a Representative government and only a small minority of the population was allowed to vote. In the southern states this meant less than 5% of the people.>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am all for going back to this system, even including not allowing women to vote!
The 17th Amendment is on the short list of problems FR was created to address. The 14th Amendment would be problematical if reversed since among other things it is the basis of the creation of the modern corporation, which is a huge part of the economy.
While terribly un-PC, I think limiting the right of franchise has its merits.
The property ownership requirement made since at the time, but today it would probably make since to limit franchise to those who pay federal income taxes (this would disqualify about 45-50% of people IIRC). Guess which voting block that is?
Heck, Id even be happy with a literacy test.
I have no idea why I wrote 'since' when I meant 'sense' twice in my post! LOL maybe that literacy test isn't such a good idea ;)
From the angry rant No Filibuster, No Re-Election for Blue State Senators:
If a stab-us-in-the-back senator in a blue state failed to support the filibuster we MUST find strong, tough candidates to run against and BEAT them. We must raise money for candidates, even if they are not running in our states.
Do you really want these angry people from New York, Massachusetts, and California messing with the selection of Senators in Hawaii, West Virginia, the Dakotas, and Delaware?
-PJ
Yes there was and it should never have been done away with.
Wilson started the concentration of power in the Federal government that made FDRs and Johnson's misdeeds possible. We lost many more soldiers in WWI than in Johnson's war all for deja-vu in 24 yrs. Carter was just an incompetent fool. Clinton was indeed a criminal but a republican congress kept him at bay.
nah...
Wilson isn't even in the conversation.
Clinton is #1
Carter is #2
LBJ is #3
FDR is #4
Buchanan is #5...
Wilson is somewhere below that.
I provided facts, you're into opinions
If you want a dissertation on it, I will be glad to provide it, but give me some time.
Just listing Clinton's transgressions alone would take a couple hours.
Perhaps you can point to state authorities swearing in new citizens? It is always by federal authorities. I was not speaking of the rules under the Articles most of which were unworkable hence the Constitutional Convention.
The statement of requirements to hold office makes it clear that there was one type of citizenship, of the United States, the lack of any mention of state citizenship shows its non-existence as a relevent issue. One is not even required to be a "citizen" of a state to be a Senator or a Rep. merely an "inhabitant."
I said nothing about the 14th freeing anyone merely that it granted citizenship upon those freed by the 13th. If you have a problem with the 14th you need blame the source of the problem, the slavers who insisted upon depriving Freedmen of all rights political and human. Had they been properly removed from all political power the 14th would never have been needed.
Wilson, for all his faults, never sold our defense secrets to our ideological enemy.
But the real juice behind XVII in the first place was that the birdbrains in your and my state capitals were not doing a very good job of senator-choosing to begin with.
Do you think they would do any better now?
But once they have to bribe a bunch of local yokels to get the gig, the cost may actually go up.
You argue that people should cut their own throats too but likely won't find many ready to wield the knife.>>>>>>>>>>
If I understand you correctly, I wouldn't expect many women to vote to cut off their right to vote myself and I don't ever expect women to actually lose the vote again. On the other hand, in my youth I would have stoutly defended voting rights for women but as I grow older I become more convinced that the founding fathers had it right all along. Many years of experience have taught me that most women do not understand the difference between emotions and thoughts, they may do brilliant things but the majority still make decisions based more on emotion than thought. This is true of a lot of men too but not to the same extent. Guess who convinced me of this over the years! It was women themselves, many of them have told me that they would never vote for a woman as President for the sole reason that women cannot seperate emotion from facts. If I needed any more evidence it was supplied in ample quantity during the Clinton years.
Given the mentality of women I see little chance to defeat socialism and pacificism which will result from universal sufferage. Polygamy may be the only chance since married women tend conservative.
Ping to one of our favorite subjects...
I'm willing to take the chance.
State governments change but moronic voters go on forever and are so easily led to the polls by the jackass socialist DemocRATs.
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