Posted on 01/17/2012 8:25:10 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Two Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis want to spur a debate about the influence of money in politics and send a rebuke to tea party leaders by having the General Assembly ratify the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which required that U.S. senators be elected directly by voters instead of by state legislatures.
The amendment became the law of the land in 1913 after three-quarters of the states approved it. Maryland was not one of them.
Attacking the amendment has become a cause among some conservatives who believe it transferred too much influence from the states to Washington.
It is the only constitutional amendment that Maryland has not approved — though the Old Line State immediately made use of it. In a special election held in 1913, Maryland voters were the first to pick their U.S. senator.
"It's time for all friends of the 17th Amendment to stand up and be counted," said state Sen. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law professor who plans to introduce legislation this week to ratify the amendment.
Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat, says the amendment is his "favorite" because it was passed as a way of curbing corporate influence in politics. He says it is "under attack" today by conservatives, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican seeking his party's nomination for president.
Raskin sees parallels between the fight mounted 100 years ago by progressives who pushed the amendment as a way of preventing big businesses from buying senators through their state legislators and today's debate about the influence of corporate money in political campaigns.
"We are dealing with a lot of the same issues that come out of mixing money and politics," Raskin said. "We should reaffirm the work of our forebears who prevailed over corporations."
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.baltimoresun.com ...
The communists are becoming more and more hysterical with each passing day. Barry has put them in between a rock and a hard place. It’s fun watching them sweat as they try to come up with new ways to steal elections.
Yes, you SHOULD reaffirm the work of The Forebears - those who WISELY created the ORIGINAL Constitution, exactly as it was.
Constitutional lawyer, my $@!#$.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Including that whole 3/5-person thingy? #reductoadabsurdum
Precisely.
I wish they would stand up so I can see whom the present-day fools are. I would stand up for a move to repeal the 17th and would be pleased to explain why after hearing from the 17th amendment supporters why they support it.
The bottom line is that the 1913 ratification of 17th Amendment stands and Maryland socialist can do nothing to help or hinder it. However, the beauty of their action serves to bring the 17th Amendments to the surface for meaningful discussions.
I am not sure what point you are trying to make but the 3/5 clause demonstrates the beauty of compromise. The 3/5 compromise caused Fredrick Douglas to declare that the Constitution was an anti-slavery document.
3/5 applied to non-free persons. We have no non-free persons (unless you count jailbirds, which apparently we don’t).
Yes; the less-slave small states didn’t think it fair that non-free people should be counted for heavy-slave states’ benefit if they weren’t included in the process. Ideally, for low-slave states there would’ve been no counting slaves; for heavy-slave, full accounting. 3/5 was a compromise for both.
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