Slowly, the power of the States as an equal partner in the Federal system has been eroded. The 16th A. gave the Feds the power to directly tax the people, and so gave them unlimited funding. The 17th A. converted the Senate into another House, stripping the States of direct representation. The 14th A. has been employed to make the 10th A. essentially meaningless. The Wickard v. Fillmore decision made the interstate commerce clause meaningless and gave the Feds jurisdiction over all trade.
The last remnant of power equalizing the States is the Electoral College, and it is under assault. States have basically become local administrative districts of the Federal government, with barely any local sovereignty left.
This is horrible. I had no idea.
Few do.
Thanks for the mini class.
What a mess.
The 14th amendment was written to protect freed slaves. One of the ways it has been abused is the creation of new “classes” of people the amendment supposedly protects—as opposed to the only class named in the amendment: “persons.”
Since they are now all deceased, the amendment should be repealed. (It should have contained a clause repealing itself upon the death of the last freed slave.)
Repeal would vaporize all the wretched jurisprudence that depends on contorting the 14 amendment.
Before the Civil War, the term was “the United States are...”. After the war, it became “ the United States is...”.
The 17th Ammendment was Woodrow Wilson’s tool to destroy the Representative Republic and replace is with a Mobocracy.
Yup - and I when I try to explain this to people, they just roll their eyes.