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Posted on 06/05/2014 7:41:43 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
At the behest of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Cale Keable, D-Burrillville, the Rhode Island House has finally voted to ratify the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reqired direct election of U.S. Senators.
Before the amendment took effect in 1913, senators were elected by state legislators. That system was widely criticized for breeding corruption as senate aspirants bribed lawmakers to secure the votes needed to win senate seats.
The ceremonial resolution approved by the House doesn’t change anything, Keable acknowledged, but he said it does send a message ``that Rhode Island values democracy.’’
Rhode Island never ratified the 17th Amendment, but the state’s inaction was moot because the necessary three fourths of states approved it. Rhode Island in that era was controlled by Protestant Republicans but immigration from Roman Catholic countries of Europe brought many to the state who became Democrats.
A 1905 state census showed that Rhode Island was the first state to have a Roman Catholic majority. Republicans did not want citizens to vote because they were much more likely to elect Democrats to the Senate than was the GOP-controlled General Assembly. Since direction election of senators and particularly since the Great Depression if the 1930s, Rhode Island voters have sent more Democrats to the senate than Republicans. Since World War II, the only two Republicans elected to the senate from Rhode Island were John Chafee and his son, Lincoln Chafee, the state's current governor.
Rhode Island's current two senators, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, are both Democrats.
Most historians cite the Progressive Era and the government changes it ushered in with leading the drive for direct election of senators. In recent some in the Tea Party and fringe conservatives in the Republican Party nationally, but not in Rhode Island, have lobbied for repeal of the 17th Amendment.
Some conservatives believe that having voters elect senators has diluted states rights. Among those upset with the 17 Amendment are Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah and such tea party favorites as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Todd Akin, the unsuccessful Missouri 2012 Republican senate candidate.
``The right to choose one’s own elected representatives is held very dear by Americans,’’ said Keable in a statement. ``This a chance to rectify our inaction on this matter a century ago.’’
That’s one amendment I’d like to take back.
Freudian Slip. Fully support repeal the 16th, 17th, 18th, AND 19th.
And I ain't as keen on the 15th as I used to be neither.
Senators are mostly elected by the RAT cities....Hence, RINO Senators.
It was a subtle change but in reality a very big one.
The Senator’s powerbase is now Washington DC. That’s where they live and party. They only really come home to campaign.
The several sovereign states created the confederated union to serve certain specified functions or purposes as set forth in a written constitution. Said states, as political entities in and of themselves, provided for their representation as sovereign entities in the federal government. The conceptual framework of federalism was fatally diluted by the 17th amendment. Now senators have to spend their time soliciting election funds.
Ugh.
But at least this won’t actually make repealing it any harder.
Now the Senators bribe the people to vote for them, and extort contributions from “special interests” by threatening them with crippling legislation.
They haven’t repealed the 19th, but they should. If women couldn’t vote, there wouldn’t have been a single Democrat president in the past century.
I know a lot of women who would gladly give up voting, if it meant that all women could be prevented from voting.
The dopes do not own Providence, the Mafia owns Providence.
I would GLADLY give up the right to vote, if it meant all women could NOT vote!!! I live in CA. which is probably not a great place to judge the
female voters, but I will tell you I am DISGUSTED with the utter stupidity
of the female voters I work with!!!!!!!
“The dopes do not own Providence, the Mafia owns Providence.”
No the illegal aliens own Providence now. I lived in Providence when Petreaca ran the Mafia. It was a much better place to live then than it is now.
Well, I'm glad we fixed corruption in the US Senate so that a dirty, slimy, dingy politician like Harry Reid would never get elected to the Senate.
Whoops, the corrupt Reid has been not only elected to the Senate, he was voted by his peers to be their Leader. Yup, glad that's fixed.
truedat.
The muslims would love to take away the women’s vote, so be careful what your wish for.
Besides, Kalifornia is lousy with Democrat voters, so it’s not just the women who are dooming you.
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