[pgyanke]

Yes! Repeal the 17th!

[Talisker]

“Second, it would require a degree of understanding of the importance of constitutional structure that virtually none of the public or elected officials today could or would be willing to understand.”

Not second - first, by a long margin. Most people these days can't even work a shopping cart properly, and think "tripartite" is a kind of pizza.

[bkopto]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.
The passing of the 17th amendment was a huge mistake.

[Fiddlstix]

[Tyrconnell]

I did not know this. Thanks for sharing.

I’m inclined to favor return to first principles.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

>> the tide of democRATcy is very strong and hard to stop, much less roll back.

[Jean2]

I’m with him.

[Sasparilla]

Senate positions were originally created to represent the individual States.

[Lurker]

I’ve advocated this for years.

L

[Sasparilla]

And on another positive note, the Oklahoma Legislature just passed a Resolution directing their US Representatives to submit Articles of Impeachment against Obama and several other high ranking officials.

[Salvation]

**Ratified in 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution established direct election of U.S. senators by popular vote. Before the amendment’s ratification, senators were elected by state legislatures. **

Maybe some people don’t want the will of the people. I understand that it might need some refining.

[matthew fuller]

I have never been totally for or against repealing the 17th. I have not been convinced that State legislators are less dishonest than the local citizenry, but as it stands recently, the local citizenry is becoming more and more likely to vote for “free stuff”, so there might be a benefit to repealing the 17th NOW, as opposed to previously.

[Amendment10]

Thank you for referencing that article Tolerance Sucks Rocks. As usual, note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

"Utah lawmakers recently approved a resolution calling on Congress to ratify [??? emphasis added] an amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealing the Seventeenth Amendment."

The above statement is so badly worded that I wonder if Utah lawmakers are pulling an election year stunt.

More specifically, Congress has no constitutional authority to ratify proposed amendments to the Constitution. Congress has the authority only to propose amendments to the states for ratification which the states can choose not to ratify.

Also, the 17th Amendment (17A) is the basis for the tsunami of unconstitutional federal taxes which low-information taxpayers have been paying for decades imo, taxes which corrupt Congress cannot justify under its constitutional, Article I, Section 8-limited powers.

“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

Part of the reason that the Founding States had established the Senate was so that the Senate could kill unconstitutional House appropriations bills, bills that steal not only 10th Amendment-protected state powers, but also state revenues uniquely associated with those powers.

But thanks to the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, low-information voters now elect politicians on the basis of promises of establishing federal spending programs which voters don’t understand the feds have no constitutional authority to establish.

So the corrupt Washington cartel will probably fight tooth and nail to preserve 17A. But maybe Trump will see the problems with 17A and help us to get rid of it.

[V K Lee]

Prayers are being at least considered, if not fully answered. The fact the state is at least making an attempt to repeal this amendment tells me Someone is listening to prayers and perhaps working to bring them to fruition. He has already answered one and for that blessing I give thanks.

Thank you OP for posting this article. It gives hope that things might turn for the better.

[ganeemead]

Ever wonder how states like Florida whose legislatures are overwhelmingly Republican still vote for bad dem candidates for president, or how you get a dem senator in a place like Louisiana? What you're seeing is that manufacturing votes cannot buy a state house. In other words, dems can manufacture all the votes they want in places like Dade County or Philly, and the GOP will still win its own territories, it's only in a national or statewide race that vote manufacturing can decide a race for a public office.

That says that the very first thing we need to do is rescind the 17'th amendment and return the election of US senators to the state houses.

[Popman]

“Second, it would require a degree of understanding of the importance of constitutional structure that virtually none of the public or elected officials today could or would be willing to understand.”

That just may be the understatement of the century...

Interesting he included "elected officials" in his statement...!

We have basically become a type of oligarchy where elected officials are bought and sold like chess pieces by the power brokers...

Just imagine if elected officials took their constitutional duties seriously ...

Leavenworth would be filled up...

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Good!

[trebb]

Seems like the 17th was/is in direct conflict with the 10th. How do the Feds get off telling the States how to decide who the State reps in the Senate will be? If a State wants to hold a lottery for the positions, more power to them.

[central_va]

There is no way someone opposed to the repeal of the 17th amendment should be posting their opinions -ever- on a web site called “Free Republic”.

[jch10]

A step in the right direction.