Replies

> “An amendment that “takes away the right to vote” will never pass.”

Voters will still have the right to vote, but for recall, not election. They will have the right to fire, not hire.

Voters know they don’t know who they are hiring, but once the US Senator is hired by the state legislature after repealing the 17th, the voters can fire the US Senator through recall if that US Senator sells out and is not first fired by the state legislature. A US Senator would then have two camps to be accountable to, the state legislature and the state’s voters.

It is quite feasible to persuade voters to trade their right to hire for a right to fire. It will take work but when they see the benefits of doing so, they will get onboard with it. The argument is already advancing and the movement is gaining steam. It just takes a little time for the lightbulbs to turn on. No rights are taken away that are not replaced by more powerful rights and benefits.

> “I would devolve the choice of recall method to the State Legislatures.”

State legislatures are historically just as susceptible to following a path of corruption as are Members of Congress. Human nature is the same in both settings but state legislators are closer to the voters and find it near impossible to run and hide whereas the humanoids in Congress are well-insulated by distance.

Some state legislators in pre-1913 America found it profitable to sell their vote to appoint a US Senator to wealthy interests and then step down and retire. Numerous accounts exist in the periodical archives of state legislators appearing at show-vote rallies, promising voters to appoint their choice for US Senator and then later doing the opposite.

A recall power (of US Senators) at the state legislature level and a separate independent recall power (of US Senators) among the state’s voters provides a check on corruption in the statehouse just as a recall power for the statehouse allows for it to demonstrate leadership and relevance. A recall of a US Senator by voters indicates the statehouse has failed the voters, but the voters nonetheless have the ultimate means to hold US Senators accountable.

Again, the basis for repealing the 17th, for providing for term limits, for providing for recall powers is to reverse the deterioration in American culture brought about by the decades advance of federal encroachment on every aspect of living in America. It takes a while to see this evolution from 1913, but once people get it, they don’t forget it.