National Senate Was Essential in the Conquest of State Sovereignty

HT: Mike P from Repeal the 17^th Amendment Discussion Board

The 17th Amendment and the Nationalized Senate; Republicae-Seditionist; Patrick J Buchanan Weblog Forum; May 20, 2008.

On the forum page of the “Patrick J Buchanan Weblog” there is an excellent overview of James Madison’s thoughts that contributed to design of the two distinct houses in Congress, which lasted until 1913. Additionally the author provides a concise of the consequences of the 17^th Amendment.

By Republicae-Seditionist:

With the passage of the 17th Amendment, that is exactly what happened. The Senate was taken out of the hands of the State Legislatures, in a way it was transformed not only into a democratized unit, but it was also nationalized making it little more then a de facto branch within the centralized government. By placing the Senate on the open market of direct elections, the Senate no longer was an institution that could and did counter-balance the House of Representatives, but it was no longer a check on the general federal governments ability define its own sovereignty over the State Republics and thus the People themselves.

More importantly, the more damaging effect was that the Senate was no longer answerable to the State Legislatures. This one act of nationalization of the Senate allowed for the neutralization of all claims, and thus powers, by the States to their former Sovereignty and their ability to uphold that key component of the delegation from the States of a portion of their Sovereignty to the federal government. Since a Senator was now only answerable to the People in direct election, he or she could not easily be chastised, recalled or impeached by the State Legislature. This was an essential power of the individual State legislatures and indeed of the People themselves. As it is, the States have no real representation within Congress itself, because like the House of Representatives, the Senate is now only answerable to the People by the electoral process and are, in a very real sense, on the open market of influences.

Under such a system, there is particularly one type of influence upon the Senate that exceeds all others and that influence is of the federal government. The Senate has, in essence, become nothing more than an arm of the federal government and is far more likely to be in agreement with the desires of the general government instead of the People or the States.

As it is, the Senate is an isolated power that does little but assist in the concentrate the power of the federal government, centralizing its authority and expanding its ability to usurp any power it deems fit and necessary in order to advance its own will without the Consent of the People even though it was the People themselves that elected the Senate.

At present, the States must compete along with other Lobbyist and Special Interests for the ear of the Senate. The Repeal of the 17th Amendment would be an effective measure to decentralize the power of the federal government and would, in a very powerful measure, establish a direct line between the Sovereign State Republics and the general federal government. The States currently must direct their request and concerns to numerous agencies, stepping through a labyrinth of bureaucracies in order to attain an audience. The State Republics have little of the Constitutional Authority or Power as provided and enumerated within the Constitution. In a very real sense, the States have been relegated to sub-components of the general government and thereby answerable to the entire power-structure of the general federal government.

Read the whole posting here.

Comment: The author replies to a comment on the forum and says, “Take the Senate away from the popular vote and restore it to the State Legislatures and we will see a very different function evolve in Congress,” I’d say we would certainly see the deficit reduced straight away.

Even though better than half the US is fed up with Congress few actually understand how the framers formed the government originally, and most believe the propaganda about the “progressive movement” that someway removed the corruption in the US Senate, which is found in almost government education history book through out the country. But considering the enthusiastic Ron Paul is receiving from the 20-30 something age group, with any luck there will be a better understanding of not only our history, but the US Constitution.