Freepmail to jump on or off the train.
With passage of the 17th it is hard to come up with any reason for the senate to exist.
They now interpret it as limits set on the people, meaning what is not expressly provided for in the Bill of Rights belong to the Feds, whose only limit is what is expressly written into the Constitution, everything else being allowed for them (through their "interpretation").
Good essay. Thanks.
How about a big steaming bowlful of pure democracy ... guaranteed to take your rights.
Empty DC - the most liberal place in America and end its influence on the minds of our elected representatives.
Having them at home means they're closer to their state than to internationalists, lobbyists and the professional political entourage.
And the national media has a multiplier effect upon the de-federalization of the Senate.
Senators run in the national media, unlike House candidates.
...Perhaps there’s a case that can be made to make the House less majoritarian- though that’s the opposite of the original plan it may return some balance.
The following list of our Founders' protections for liberty is copied with permission from an essay in a Bicentennial Volume honoring our Constitution (see footnote). It highlights your point about the wisdom of the Founders' method for the Senate:
Checks And Balances
Limited And Balanced
GovernmentThe Constitution was devised with an ingenious and intricate built-in system of checks and balances to guard the people's liberty against combinations of government power. It structured the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary separate and wholly independent as to function, but coordinated for proper operation, with safeguards to prevent usurpations of power. Only by balancing each against the other two could freedom be preserved, said John Adams.
Another writer of the day summarized clearly the reasons for such checks and balances:
"If the LEGISLATIVE and JUDICIAL powers are united, the MAKER of the law will also INTERPRET it (constitutionality).
Should the EXECUTIVE and LEGISLATIVE powers be united... the EXECUTIVE power would make itself absolu te, and the government end in tyranny.
Should the EXECUTIVE and JUDICIAL powers be united, the subject (citizen) would then have no permanent security of his person or property.
"INDEED, the dependence of any of these powers upon either of the others ... has so often been productive of such calamities... that the page of history seems to be one continued tale of human wretchedness." (Theophilus Parsons, ESSEX RESULTS)
What were some of these checks and balances believed so important to individual liberty? Several are listed below:
HOUSE (peoples representatives) is a check on SENATE - no statute becomes law without its approval.
SENATE is a check on HOUSE - no statute becomes law without its approval. (Prior to 17th Amendment, SENATE was appointed by State legislatures as a protection for states' rights - another check the Founders provided.)
EXECUTIVE (President) can restrain both HOUSE and SENATE by using Veto Power.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress - Senate & House) has a check on EXECUTIVE by being able to pass, with 2/3 majority, a bill over President's veto.
LEGISLATIVE has further check on EXECUTIVE through power of discrimination in appropriation of funds for operation of EXECUTIVE.
EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE in filling important posts in EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE before treaties with foreign nations can be effective.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress) can conduct investigations of EXECUTIVE to see if funds are properly expended and laws enforced.
EXECUTIVE has further check on members of LEGISLATIVE (Congress) in using discretionary powers in decisions regarding establishment of military bases, building & improvement of navigable rivers, dams, interstate highways, etc., in districts of those members.
JUDICIARY is check on LEGISLATIVE through its authority to review all laws and determine their constitutionality.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress) has restraining power over JUDICIARY, with constitutional authority to restrict extent of its jurisdiction.
LEGISLATIVE has power to impeach members of JUDICIARY guilty of treason, high crimes, or misdemeanors.
EXECUTIVE (President) is check on JUDICIARY by having power to nominate new judges.
LEGISLATIVE (Senate) is check on EXECUTIVE and JUDICIARY having power to approve/disapprove nominations of judges.
LEGISLATIVE is check on JUDICIARY - having control of appropriations for operation of federal court system.
LEGISLATIVE (Peoples Representatives) is check on both EXECUTIVE and J U DICIARY through power to initiate amendments to Constitution subject to approval by 3/4 of the States.
LEGISLATIVE (Senate) has power to impeach EXECUTIVE (President) with concurrence of 2/3, of members.
The PEOPLE, through their State representatives, may restrain the power of the federal LEGISLATURE if 3/4 of the States do not ratify proposed Constitutional Amendments.
LEGISLATIVE, by Joint Resolution, can terminate certain powers granted to EXECUTIVE (President) (such as war powers) without his consent.
It is the PEOPLE who have final check on both LEGISLATIVE and EXECUTIVE when they vote on their Representatives every 2 years, their Senators every 6 years, and their President every 4 years. Through those selections, they also influence the potential makeup of the JUDICIARY.
It is up to each generation to see that the integrity of the Constitutional structure for a free society is maintained by carefully preserving the system of checks and balances essential to limited and balanced government. "To preserve them (is) as necessary as to institute them," said George Washington.
Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
The 16th, 17th and 18th Amendments were all Woodrow Wilson incarnations. Wilson who as a Princeton academic thinking himself superior and refined to the previous Theodore Roosevelt rough riding brutes was able to ride a short wave of populism to bring American society up to the ‘standards’ of European monarchies. He also steered America into its first world war.
Wilson’s air and belief of superiority was not only false but self-deceiving. He was not aware of the human condition that the Founders were so keenly astute. In age of wireless radio, of telephones, automobiles, skyscrapers, motion pictures and other modern era miracles, Wilson thought then as many do today that human nature was fundamentally altered.
The 18th was repealed but the 16th and 17th slowly encroached on American freedoms and government institutions until we have a centralized state today with 50 subsidiary administrations. The latter in itself is doesn’t ‘sound or seem’ so bad but for the unintended consequences of an irrelevant 10th Amendment from which federal government encroachment is strengthened.
The combination of the 16th and the 17th Amendments gave our socialist power brokers the tools they needed to radically alter the American idea.
It wasn’t Roosevelt that started this prolonged transformation into a socialist state, it was Wilson. Roosevelt was merely a tactician whereas Wilson was the progenitor but in reality he was a dupe. a very unwise indeed stupid man who believed his own lies about himself.
Why the legislatures of the several States ever ratified this Amendment is beyond me. It is truly incomprehensible.
Thanks, Jacquerie, for the ping. Very good article.
You have a good point, but it's a tough sell.
As horrible as the 17th Amendment is, I think the 16th is worse. it is a tough call as to which sucks more.