This is the 17th amendment:

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. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

I guess in 1913 it seemed like a good idea.  But, this was not the intent of our founding fathers.  I believe the founders had a better idea.  They contended that senators should be elected by the states’ legislatures.

Think about this for a moment.  This amendment  totally changed politics and government.  It brought lobbying to a whole new level.   It made the states’ legislatures less important.  It opened up Capitol Hill to demagogues in unprecedented ways.
You can talk of term limits and campaign finance reform but this is where true reform  reformation could really happen.  See, the constitution did not originally contain any term limits.  The framers would have seen campaign finance reform as the worst sort of oppression of ideas.  But they decided to have U.S. senators elected by the states’ legislatures.  The states would be free to limit terms if they so desired.

Making politics more local is good thing.

Thing to make the country better #1:  repeal the 17th amendment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Things to Make the Country Better. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.