Posted on 02/17/2013 10:14:16 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It is a matter of public record that the United States Senate is a terrible place where serious policy issues are ignored; routine votes are occasionally delayed over concerns about non-existent terrorist groups; and proverbial cans are proverbially kicked down the proverbial road of sadness, gridlock, and despair.
What's less clear is why the Senate is such a congress of louts. Is it the endless pressure to raise money? The never-ending campaign? The fact that Americans hold lots of substantive disagreements on important things and are themselves—it's been said—somewhat dysfunctional?
Actually, according to Georgia state Rep. Buzz Brockaway, the biggest problem with the Senate is that it's democratically elected. Brockaway, a Republican, has introduced a bill in the state legislature to repeal the 17th Amendment, which provides for the direct election of senators, and instead restore the responsibility of choosing members to state legislatures (as was the process until 1913).
The bill, HR 273, laments that "the Seventeenth Amendment has resulted in a large federal government with power and control that cannot be checked by the states," and suggests that "the original purpose of the United States Senate was to protect the sovereignty of the states from the federal government and to give each individual state government representation in the federal legislative branch of government."
If the bill passed, Georgia would be the first state to endorse repealing the 17th Amendment, but the idea has gained traction among conservatives over the last few decades. Texas Gov. Rick Perry supports it; so do GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona. (Republican Indiana Sen. candidate Richard Mourdock endorsed the idea during his campaign last year, before, in an ironic twist, losing the popular vote.) As Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald noted in 2012, conservatives blame the 17th Amendment for trampling over the rights of states by changing the constituency to which senators are accountable.
Of course, introducing a bill is the easy part. Getting voters to agree to give up their right to vote will probably be a tough sell.
Many of our state legislators have followed the path to D.C. or stayed a lifetime in the state legislating. Your point is valid. I know this has been cussed and discussed over and over again. What keeps these people in power? Is it simply our own laziness? I plead guilty, if this is the cause of career politicians we have not unelected or never remove. Another problem is each of us is only one.
Aside from the legislatures that are Democrat for perpetuity (see what I listed above), you make the assumption that the Republican ones would magically elect Conservatives. Under repeal of the 17th, a state like Texas would NOT be sending a statesman like Ted Cruz. Indeed, they would be sending two imbecilic big government RINOs like Karl Rove (as a thank you to Dubya) and David Dewhurst, who attempted to buy the Senate seat out from under Cruz. If Texas would be sending two buffoons like that, what exactly do you think a state like, say, Alaska, would send ? No Sarah Palins, but Pork Kings looking to get as much loot for their states as possible.
Then there is absolutely no way, barring a miracle sea change in political thought, to avoid complete centralization of our government. Without the link to the states, it will be inevitable.
Now gimme my Obama phone!
That’s why I said CLEAN OUT THE LEGISLATURES FIRST! I wouldn’t trust most legisl00ters to park a car in my driveway right now.
It's a damned good idea.
Georgia Legislators Propose Ending Direct Election of Senators—Why Not Just Get Rid of the Senate?
In it's present incarnation? A weaker-tea version of the House of Congress, no longer caring about States and thier rights?
You betchya.
This would return the importance of States rights to the governing equation. I'm proud of my State right now -- the fine and honorable State of Georgia.
What you typed may be correct it maybe is inevitable. Let us see if we can back our way out of this first before we each apply for the phone. If America cannot back here way out of this wreck, I'll go for a phone with you.
There’s not one single problem, it’s just something that has built over time. Yes, ultimately a lot of it lies with the people. How many times do we hear that they love their member of Congress, but all the rest are lousy ?
Even the issue of term limits, which sounds good, wouldn’t solve much of the problem, either. Look at California where it was implemented, and the state is worse than it has ever been and gets worse by the year. You’d then merely have a revolving door of puppet politicians whose strings are pulled by big government/big labor interests, while the real power would lay with the staffers and those rotating between said pols, the behind the scenes folks. They write up the laws, the talking points, push the agenda, and the pols are just a face/figurehead.
Unless you’re willing to implement term limits for EVERYONE related to government service (and btw, I am absolutely 100% in favor of getting rid of Civil Service and returning to strict patronage as it was in the 19th century — you come in with all your people and you leave office with all your people, no perpetual armies of lifetime leftist big government worker parasites), nothing is going to change.
Get rid of all the perks and benefits, too, no massive pensions, no public sector unions, and those that work for the government (save those in military or public safety) should not even be permitted to vote, since they vote for their own employment at the expense of taxpayers (a big reason why the Founders didn’t want DC residents voting). DC itself never suffers recessions because they’re perpetually growing themselves, completely insulated from the rest of America.
Same goes for so many state capitals, which I’ve noticed many have alarmingly moved leftwards in their voting habits since the 1980s. Even in Republican states, the government centers lurch left. Of the 24 states that the GOP carried for President, half of those capital/counties voted for Zero. In 1984, of those same 24, just 1 capital/county, yup, 1, that being Atlanta/Fulton County, voted Democrat. Federal and state big government and their supporters is an epidemic that threatens all of us.
You’d think cleaning them out would be a relatively simple task, but it isn’t. Even term limits didn’t do squat. In Colorado, it had the reverse effect. It removed a stable center-right Republican legislature in place for many years and replaced it with a rabid leftist moonbat Democrat one. They just merely rotate their moonbats. Ditto California, which flirted with a GOP Assembly for 5 minutes in early 1996 before a string of ever-worsening Stalinist Dem abominations since (and now it has a 2/3rds majority, meaning the GOP doesn’t even have to bother showing up for work).
Add in states with perpetual Democrat majorities without term limits and they just keep bequeathing seats and lock in power via gerrymandering (not that I oppose gerrymandering, so long as it locks the moonbats out). And you already have federal interference in numerous states in how the lines are drawn to assure “fairness” (meaning guarantee Democrat seats to non-Whites) via the Voting Rights Act. I have the distinct honor and pleasure of being in one of those VRA districts. I have never seen nor heard from my state Senator during the duration of her unopposed tenure. Entrust moonbats like her to vote on my U.S. Senator ? Yeah, right.
Would you be so kind as to provide more depth and exploration to this comment?
Thank You. Will be taking notes everyone. We the People have been failures. We’re failing but is there one single problem we can agree on and solve. We are still Americans, aren’t we, or do we want to fail? Maybe I am too old, but maybe I’m not. Maybe all of us can win one more. Shall we try? Brainstorm time?
They’ve been selling us out for far longer than Reagan’s exit. He was only the brief lull. The last administration to leave us with a bonafide smaller government was Calvin Coolidge in 1929. If we had stuck to his method, the Great Depression would’ve been simply a regular economic downturn (or a “Panic”). We were in a double-digit unemployment situation at the end of Woodrow Wilson’s execrable regime, yet Warren Harding (who was almost as good as Coolidge, but always badmouthed by liberal moonbat historians) turned that around swiftly by cutting taxes and government. Such simple, common-sense solutions. Leftists and their insane notions of governance take bad situations and make them infinitely worse.
I do not disagree. My typing and my thoughts evade or elude me all the time. My apology.
I covered a lot of that in this thread, Laz...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2986688/posts
Short version: the bossism, bribery, puppetry, special interests, corruption and arrogance did in the Senate under the legislatively-elected era. Most of your Senate giants that some around here think would magically reappear with repeal ended before the Civil War occurred.
One of the key elements of “recalling” Senators (which wasn’t an actual feature, since that would mean impeachment, and only the U.S. Senate could do that — it was a gentleman’s agreement to step down if asked) that wouldn’t obey the instructions of a given legislature all but stopped before the 1850s. Once elected to a six-year term, they would cling to their seats even if the legislature hated their guts.
In Georgia, as with my Texas example further up in the thread, you wouldn’t be electing Ted Cruz types, but more replicas of Saxby Chambliss and Isakson. No Conservatives need apply. Even up here in TN, Lamar! and Corker would be perpetually safe. It’s the primary process that needs changing.
There has been some conversation regarding the primary process since our last set of losses. I have not researched who is proposing, what is being proposed, nor how that is supposed to help us elect Conservatives. I do not have any links either. Dang, am no help but am willing to type what I know, have heard or read, and will sit down and shut the heck up till I may add something productive. May not see me for a long long while (maybe six months) but I'll be here.
Bear with me. I need to ‘condition’ myself. A soldier is only good when they are in ‘fighting trim’.
Am here to thank you for the link at your post. Am reading and learning. This has been and is being brainstormed in a most excellent manner on your posted link. Thank You.
What you talking about there Laz? I don't do bears.
I might add am not getting Bare either.
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