Posted on 09/24/2018 1:26:29 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Our Framers corrected several shortcomings in the English approach to lawmaking. In England, the same people who write statutes also amend the English constitution. We can thank the Framers for their foresight in Article V. Unfortunately, in the name of a living and breathing Constitution, our government increasingly takes the easier British path to amendments, through the government itself.
Whether through a formal amending procedure or not, the corruption of both constitutions picked up steam after simultaneous Progressive victories in the early 20th century. Below, we’ll find that Progressive democracy won in 1911 and 1913 in the House of Lords and US Senate respectively.
To pick up from Part I, we’ll begin with the House of Lords in the 18th Century. The Lords, once a body of only about 50 members, were greatly enlarged by the liberality of George III and his successors in creating peerages. The individual influence of a Lord of Parliament was thus diminished. Recall from a number of Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton described the qualities of America’s middle-house. One of the Senate’s essential features was constitutional compactness. Limiting membership to two senators per state lent an air of exclusiveness not found in the House of Representatives.
Along with peer-packing the Lords, the second corruption of balanced government was the loss of the monarch’s practical veto of Parliamentary bills. While it exists in theory to this day, the Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights (1688/1689) diminished the Crown’s prerogative powers such that Queen Anne in 1707 was the last to exercise the monarch’s veto.
It was understood that kings risked their jobs and perhaps their necks if they vetoed spending and tax bills from the Commons. To exercise any influence at all over Parliament, the Crown resorted to packing the Lords and buying votes in the Commons
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
The U.S. Senate was disbanded with the 17th Amendment.
The States have no say.
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