Friday, August 15, 2008

Christian Forum: Should 17th Amendment Be Repealed?

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

On the discussion board “Christian Forum,” member “jameswright3” started a discussion centering on the repeal of the 17th Amendment.

The 17th Amendment allowing Senators to be directly elected passed in 1913.The Founding Fathers set up the Senate to be a house that was a check/balance on Federal powers and each Senator was supposed to be in close communication with the state legislature to make sure the states' interests were being properly advocated for and States' rights remained intact.

The Senate also acted as a buffer against interest group politics and public pressure because Senators did not have to campaign to be elected and therefore didn't need to take money from special interests. The system also allowed for Senators to make the tough decision i.e. what is right for the country instead of what is right to be re-elected. Now since Senators are also elected, political interest groups can exercise their power on two fronts instead of just being relegated to the House. In addition, repealing the 17th Amendment would also decrease the lobbying on the House side since special interests would not be guaranteed votes on the Senate side to pass legislation no matter how much they lobbied the House..

I think the 17th Amendment has led to many of the problems we are facing today in terms of Congress i.e. out of control spending and pork barrel projects. I think in order to bring sanity back to the government, we need to go back to the system the Founding Father's designed.

Comment: The writer is spot on and it’s great to see this issue is getting discussed on forums that aren’t necessarily political.

Also check out some of the comments; while some are lacking or just plain uninformed, it opens a window into the general popular understanding of our government and Constitution, which is useful when discussing the issue with these folks.

No comments: