I bitterly oppose the repeal of the 17th. That would prevent the election of Republicans in states with heavy and reliable Democrat legislative majorities for perpetuity, and those that would elect Republicans would likely be establishment type RINOs.
It’s a lousy idea, but it won’t pass. On the whole, Liljenquist is a great candidate, this unfortunate error aside.
I take it you’ll support Mr. Hatch then?
(I currently oppose repealing the 17th Amendment until we get rid of the disease known as fleebagging Democrats. I do support Mr. Liljenquist, however.)
That is far less of a problem, as long as those Democrats represent the Democrat legislature in their individual states.
The disaster that was the 17th Amendment did two terrible things. First it made senators responsible to no one, if they could just fool the public or buy the election once each six years. Since it was passed, senators just utterly ignore their home states and think of themselves as independent agents, or much worse, “federal” representatives, or even today “international” representatives. They act like Robin Williams in his role as King of the Moon.
The other terrible thing was a side effect of this. By not having to answer to their states, the states were eliminated as the gateway to direct federal involvement in the lives of individual citizens. If a bureaucrat wants to involve himself in your life today, he can, and your state cannot prevent him from doing so, or even act as a buffer.
As such, the 17th Amendment was the enabling act of the 16th Amendment, The Income Tax, *and* the 18th Amendment, Prohibition, and all the federal prohibition-style laws created ever since.
Were Republican state legislatures responsible for appointing Republican senators, a LOT of RINOs would get the boot, because RINOs have not just made it a habit of sticking it to conservatives, but to their own states as well.
Amenm GeronL! I get tired of freepers telling us the "conservative" position is to repeat talking points used by pro-slavery Democrats from the 1860s. The RATs and mainstream media must love that stuff, they can keep pretending our side is the one that promoted slavery and use it to turn voters away from the GOP in states with horrible state governments in both parties. I don't want "states" to have more power, I want individuals to have more power.
>> Wake up. Every function that has been devolved to the states (e.g., gun legislation) has resulted in more freedom for the people. <<
Really? News to those of us in Illinois and many other states. Every power the federal government has granted my state government has resulted in more tyranny over the lives of Illinois citizes and corruption for state bureucrats. If you can think of any time they've given me "more freedom" when my state government had exclusive jurisdiction over an issue, please let me know. The freedom to keep and bear arms is BECAUSE its guranteed by federal law, not because states are given the "right" to do whatever they want with gun legislation (if states were given that "right", at least a dozen or so liberal states would pass laws to immediately ban private ownership of guns. Deep down, you "states rights" Conservatives know this, that's why you'd never want the 2nd amendment repealed and"send it back to the states")
>> I bitterly oppose the repeal of the 17th. That would prevent the election of Republicans in states with heavy and reliable Democrat legislative majorities for perpetuity, and those that would elect Republicans would likely be establishment type RINOs. It’s a lousy idea, but it won’t pass. On the whole, Liljenquist is a great candidate, this unfortunate error aside. <<
I agree it will never pass, but the fact is a bunch of self-described "conservatives" keep trying to elect candidates who will insist on pushing this stuff. It's going to embarrass our side when they do, and that is a legitimate reason to give pause about Liljenquist.
After reading the FR aritlce about his views, I can say of his world outlook is quite different from mine. As Impy noted, many of these "you hate the Constitution if you don't agree with me" types overlap, so the people screaming about how the citizens electing Senators is evil are the also ones telling us that democracy is bad (that any "consevative" is offended by the idea that we the people are the ultimate source of the federal goverment's authority is distrurbing to me), amendments banning abortion are terrible, gay marriage enacted at the state level by activist judges is "just fine", anyone that doesn't have two natural born U.S. citizen parents is ineligible for federal office (and you love Obama if you disagree with their premise, etc.), etc., etc.
My experience is alot of these "conservatives" have gravitated to quacks like Ron Paul and Donald Trump. The recent thread on Justin Amash having a RINOish record was a good example too, he was touted by some tea-party groups as some wonderful "constitutional" conservative when he ran. Walter Jones Jr. is another fine example. These kinds of conservatives will cross over to help the RATs accomplish their goals on numerous issues, claiming they're doing it for some noble constitutional reason that the rest of us ignorant masses just don't "get" because we're not enlightened like them. You know, same kind of condescending attitude we get from the liberal elite.
I'm NOT saying Hatch is better, he's been there for decades too long and has grown squishy. If the choice was Hatch or Liljenquist, I'd hold my nose for Liljenquist just because Hatch needs to go. All I'm saying is I'm getting a bad vibe from this guy and his supporters, so I'd keep a close eye on him before jumping to applaud Liljenquist as a rising conservative star. Remember next time, I warned freepers...
Idiotic position by Liljenquist given that the Utah legislature would be certain to REELECT HATCH OVER HIM. Doy!
And no one aside from a few rocket scientists on the internet cares about this “issue”. Kooky ideas cost you more votes than you gain.