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A Rubber Stamp Senate no More

Posted on 08/03/2013 4:16:25 PM PDT by Jacquerie

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To possibly restore the American republic, the 17th Amendment must go.
1 posted on 08/03/2013 4:16:25 PM PDT by Jacquerie
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To: 1010RD; Repeal The 17th; Bratch; 5thGenTexan; Greysard; lone star annie; boxlunch; ...

17th Ping!


2 posted on 08/03/2013 4:18:18 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: Jacquerie

I think they are working on it. But not in a helping manner.


3 posted on 08/03/2013 4:18:47 PM PDT by bigheadfred (INFIDEL)
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To: Jacquerie

“...As head of his party, the president has enormous influence over
the disbursement of senatorial campaign funds to party members...”
-
That does not explain the motivation of the opposition party.


4 posted on 08/03/2013 4:24:18 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: Jacquerie
 photo WAF_zpsd6346cbb.gif

5 posted on 08/03/2013 4:24:44 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: Jacquerie

Why is this in “chat” where no one will see it?


6 posted on 08/03/2013 4:26:02 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

>>That does not explain the motivation of the opposition party.

Two sentences later:

GOP senators also work in fear. They must gauge the effect a frenzy of hyped up media opposition could have on their reelection. In short, the senators of the party of the president are his tools, while the senators of the opposing party fear crossing the popular culture.


7 posted on 08/03/2013 4:38:58 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: Repeal The 17th
Where do you recommend it be posted?
8 posted on 08/03/2013 4:39:56 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: All
An over-abundance of democracy is strangling what remains of our republic. It is time to step back and look objectively at what ails us. The source of our sickness, the open and self-inflicted wound that welcomed the bacteria of democratic majoritarianism to grow in a once healthy body politic is the 17th Amendment. If we are to possibly return to republican freedoms, senators must once again be immune from popular emotions and demagogic presidents. The 17th must go.

WHAT AMERICANS USE TO KNOW ABT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The first several generations of Americans understood that the Declaration of Independence was the ultimate states’ rights document. The citizens of the states would delegate certain powers to a central government in their Constitution, and these powers (mostly for national defense and foreign policy purposes) would hopefully be exercised for the benefit of the citizens of the "free and independent" states, as they are called in the Declaration.

The understanding was that if American citizens were in fact to be the masters rather than the servants of government, they themselves would have to police the national government that was created by them for their mutual benefit. If the day ever came that the national government became the sole arbiter of the limits of its own powers, then Americans would live under a tyranny as bad or worse than the one the colonists fought a revolution against.

As the above quotation denotes, the ultimate natural law principle behind this thinking was Jefferson’s famous dictum in the Declaration of Independence that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever that consent is withdrawn the people of the free and independent states, as sovereigns, have a duty to abolish that government and replace it with a new one if they wish.

This was the fundamental understanding of the meaning of the Declaration of Independence – that it was a Declaration of Secession from the British empire – of the first several generations of Americans. As the 1, 107-page book, Northern Editorials on Secession shows, this view was held just as widely in the Northern states as in the Southern states in 1860- 1861. Among the lone dissenters was Abe Lincoln, a corporate lawyer/lobbyist/politician with less than a year of formal education who probably never even read The Federalist Papers.

==================================================

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE PREAMBLE “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...”

What came after the Declaration of Independence was the "bill of particulars" against the colonial ruler--King George III ---that justified the declaration and subsequent colonial rebellion.

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance,” reads one of Jefferson’s indictments against the king.

(Amply describes the Obama juggernaut against Americans.)

9 posted on 08/03/2013 4:42:22 PM PDT by Liz
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To: Jacquerie

Hear here! These so called senators are nothing more than peoples’ representatives on steroids with a snotty attitude locked in for six year terms. Let’s get back to The Constitution!


10 posted on 08/03/2013 4:43:13 PM PDT by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us about 0bama's America)
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To: All

Checks And Balances—The Constitutional Structure For Limited And Balanced Government-—to guard the people’s liberty against government power. The 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 absolute, 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 JUDICIARY 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

http://www.nccs.net/articles/ril31.html


11 posted on 08/03/2013 4:48:31 PM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz
The structure on which our freedoms depend is not a Bill of Rights as many believe; it was and remains the separation of powers.

That separation began with a division of power between the States and Federal government, not with the division of legislative, judicial and executive departments within the Federal government.

Because of the 17th, which destroyed vertical separation of powers, the three federal branches were allowed to consolidate into one, . . . just as the framing generation feared.

12 posted on 08/03/2013 5:07:37 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: Jacquerie
Picture in your mind’s eye a day when GOP senators ignore the only slightly veiled public threats of Obama, and the rants of a corrupt media.

 photo soylent2.jpg

Ahhhhh, someday I will...

13 posted on 08/03/2013 5:33:24 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: Jacquerie

Excellent article


14 posted on 08/03/2013 5:33:45 PM PDT by boxlunch (Psalm 94)
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To: Jacquerie; Repeal The 17th
I think we need a new forum division for serious discussion of ideas, trends, events and organizations regarding restoring our constitutional republic. This goes beyond "chat", which could encompass just about anything, but articles would be more 'idea ' oriented rather than news oriented( not breaking or front page news oriented categories)

---------

Where do you recommend it be posted?

15 posted on 08/03/2013 5:44:19 PM PDT by boxlunch (Psalm 94)
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To: boxlunch

Agree. I thought JimRob had started a FreeperEditorial forum for idea oriented vanities.

I am obviously wrong.


16 posted on 08/03/2013 5:49:16 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: Jacquerie

Unfortunately, the biggest problem is the 16th Amendment.

As long as the federal government controls 25% of the GDP, special interest groups will pore massive amounts of money into Senate campaigns. No matter how they’re elected (with a few exceptions), Senators are bought and paid for by the monied elite.


17 posted on 08/03/2013 5:56:05 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: Bratch
The 16th is certainly an evil sibling, and should go as well.
18 posted on 08/03/2013 6:08:18 PM PDT by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
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To: Repeal The 17th
Why is this in “chat” where no one will see it?

I misread chat as chart… and immediately thought of this picture:


19 posted on 08/03/2013 6:19:25 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Jacquerie

IMHO, getting rid of the 16th and 17th would be a great start.

After that, I’d think the 14th needs some modifications, so not every mother who comes here while in labor, gives birth to a US citizen.


20 posted on 08/03/2013 6:22:51 PM PDT by qaz123
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