Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Feingold Pushing Pure Democracy

Feingold Pushing Pure Democracy; Ann Schibler; JBS; 9 February 2009.


Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) is proposing a constitutional amendment that would change the way vacant Senate seats are filled.

Presently, whenever there is a vacant senate seat, the executive authority of the particular state that is missing representation — the governor — appoints someone to fill the seat. Feingold claims the current system invites corruption and cites the recent questionable appointment of Roland Burris in Illinois by Gov. Blagojevich, problems with Sen. Judd Gregg’s open seat in New Hampshire, and with Hillary Clinton’s New York seat.

Feingold calls the present system a “constitutional anachronism.” “It is time to pass a constitutional amendment to end appointments by governors and the political gamesmanship they encourage," he said.

Read the whole article here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to be semantical, but that's not democracy. Making the Senate more democratic is not the same thing as making the government more democratic. Of course, then we have to get into the discussion of the definition of democracy, and that, I'm sure, would be quite a discussion. Wasn't it Hilaire Belloc who observed that elections are not necessarily the hallmark of democracy?

Brian said...

I can’t offer an opinion concerning Belloc, while I sincerely wish I could as I know of his great wisdom, but I would agree with the statement nonetheless.

Feingold and McCain’s goal is to remove any check and balance from the system of government our founders produced, which I might add was no “experiment” but was a deliberate act made by rational men. Without any safeguards our country is open to bedlam, which is what happens in unfettered democracy, and then they, the oligarchs, can step in and take control of our country and impose their will upon the citizenry. It’s all about checks and balances; this is why the 17th must be repealed.