“...How would Senate look if we repealed 17th Amendment today?...”
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I’m all ears.
I think it will have to be an insurgency campaign. Several “Tea Party” senate candidates support the repeal. Zell Miller, a former Marine and perhaps the last conservative Democrat, supported it. We citizens must drive this forward.
Repeal the 17th AND ratify ARTICLE THE FIRST! Instant return to common sense and a powerful America at home and abroad.
It was solely due to the difficulty of 18th Century travel that Congressional, popular terms settled on two years rather than one. There was no way those evil dead white slave owners would have condoned six year elected terms for members of a small, exclusive enclave.
The first State constitutions leaned heavily on the “democratic” side, most with strong legislatures derived entirely from the people, and purposely weak governors. These popular State governments were unstable and abusive of property rights.
Our Framers knew the source of the troubles, the people, and corrected the problem at the national level with a Senate NOT derived from the people. That lesson was forgotten or ignored with the 17th Amendment.
Our “Senators,” of six year terms present a great threat to our liberties, one that our Framers understood. They are just as subject to the whims of the popular mob, and react in the same fashion as Congressmen.
We'll never know of course, but IMO the great social justice reform nonsense of the last seventy years would not have occurred absent the 17th.
For starters, Democrats have a solid majority in the Kentucky State House. They would convene and swiftly move to replace Senator Rand Paul with a liberal Democrat. Tea Party Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas don't play ball with their state party GOP leaders, so they'd be replaced with GOP establishment hacks who are likely pro-amnesty for illegal aliens. RINO Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois would be replaced with Democrat Lisa Madigan, daughter of Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan...
I've always liked your moniker. I'm surprised there isn't a FReeper with the moniker, "Repeal The 16th."
5.56mm