U.S. Constitution
Article I.
Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
AMENDMENT XVII.
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
In 1913 the 17th Amendment changed five words in the Constitution ignoring the wisdom of our founding fathers. We went from being a government Of the People, By the People, For the People, to one Of the Money, By the Money, For the Money.
Being popularly elected created the need for campaign contributions which opened the way for Big Money to influence the course of legislation and created the Lobbying Industrial Complex which desired to pull the strings of independent Senators.
Recent figures suggest that annual spending on lobbying the U.S. federal government, including the Senate, consistently exceeds four billion dollars. There is no doubt that the people behind the lobbying want something for their money.
Am I against lobbying, no. I am against the 17th amendment which took the necessity of lobbying the people directly and the State Legislatures and concentrated their efforts and money on independent individual Senators.
Repealing the 17th Amendment would take the money out of the Senate. Senators would be chosen by the State Legislators who are directly elected by the people. This also would have the added effect of eliminating candidates that deceive the people by saying one thing and doing another as they would be well known to the State Legislators: Rinos for example.
We can have no sense of permanence in legislation as long as Senators are agents of the highest bidder and not the States.
Views: 2
