“I am strongly rooted in the constitution prior to progessives (Wilson) changing it.”
Woodrow Wilson took the oath of office on March 4, 1913. The 17th Amendment was ratified on April 8, 1913.
Wilson must have had some pretty strong magic to have changed the Constitution in one month and four days.
If I recall correctly an Amendment becomes effective on the date that 3/4 of the States ratify it. Meaning that Wilson had nothing at all to with the 17th Amendment becoming law, nor the 16th for that matter.
I simply use Wilson as a date marker. It was the entire progressive movement at the time, which Wilson was a big part. I could go back to include T Roosevelt, but I rather demonize Wilson as it occurred during his presidency.
Your observation is correct. The 17th Amendment is the result of poisonous progressivism, but not Wilson. Wilson was not the protege of Harry Potter.
The 17th Amendment is due to the big government agitation of Theodore Roosevelt, who sent out his personal henchman Taft to get the whole ball rolling.(In a highly influential speech in June 1909) Roosevelt agitated for senatorial reform for “the direct election of senators” for years.
It’s in the Progressive Party Platform of 1912.
All of the blame for the Income Tax goes to the guy on Mount Rushmore. All of it.