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Well, I like the title because we need to get away from thinking politicians are our saviors. What guarantees our freedom isn’t slavishly hoping Joe Dokes or Suzie Q will be the right person. Our freedom is guaranteed and protected by the Constitution but it is up to the American People to ensure and demand the Constitution is “preserved, protected, and defended” and throw the bums out who do otherwise.

Beyond that, I’m still not clear on why the 17th Amendment screws us up. I guess on a state level, I’ve never thought that a theoretical representative vote of the state legislature would differ much from a direct vote of the people of the state. Any good examples that show a critical difference in results between these two voting options?

Central to understanding why the 17th Amendment must be repealed is recognition that the extensive powers granted to the new government were designed under the assumption that the states would forever participate in it, that no fewer than thirteen distinct republican legislatures would continually cast watchful eyes over every proceeding of congress, the president and courts, and be ready to stomp on any violation of state prerogatives.

It is why the states agreed to specifically relinquish additional powers far beyond those in the Articles of Confederation, in Article I Section 10, and submit to the constitution and its pursuant laws as supreme law of the land.

I’m still not clear on why the 17th Amendment screws us up.

It's a daisy chain of causes.

First, state legislatures are made up of fewer people who presumably are more well-versed on the issues. These are the people who would oversee the Senate, and likely pay closer attention. It's much easier to fool the people at large who are more focused on living paycheck to paycheck than paying attention to the politicians in Washington DC.

Second, the 17th amendment created new elections where there were none before. Today, that's 33 very expensive, and now mean and nasty, elections every 2 years. Senators now have to worry about campaign financing, when they didn’t have to before. The distraction of raising money takes them away from focusing on representing their states.

And third, the need to raise money causes special interest blocs to form. Candidates align around parties that represent agendas that interest groups are willing to fund. The parties themselves will centralize the interest group donations and disperse them to those candidates whom the party feels will be most effective in advancing the party's, and by extension the donor groups', interests. The candidates for office, and ultimately the incumbent Senators themselves, become beholden to the party's interests over the interests of the state that sent them, if they want that money to continue.

That's why it's important to repeal the 17th amendment and return control of the Senate to the states, because it breaks the money and party cycle by eliminating the elections altogether.

-PJ