Thursday, January 28, 2010

Musings on 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.


Prior to this amendment , the States Senators were chosen by the individual states legislatures, this amendment , changed that so that the people voted for the representation. and at first glance that would seem to be a good idea where as this Republic is of the people by the people and for the people, but if you compare what we have now , to what the founders had in place , you can see that someone lost some influence with this amendment.
In my view , as originally intended in the US Constitution , the people were suppose to be represented in the House of Representatives thus they have always had the vote there for their representation ,that's also the shortest term in government , 2 yrs , my view is the reasoning was , peoples opinions change sometimes quickly so they needed a way to have current representation, those members of the Senate , were intended to be representation for the States , to insure , that individual States rights were protected, Remember , then the Senators were chosen by the States legislature , whom in turn was also elected by the people so the people never really gained anything in being able to vote for state Senators since supposedly , they already had a say (vote) through their state representatives to the legislature.
What this amendment means to me , is that the responsibility for choosing any Senator was put back onto the people directly , instead of being answerable to a few legislators in State Government , it made the Senator answerable to everyone in the state. and from what i see it also made it more difficult to recall any representative that was going against the will of the people.
Now I will admit , as far as is this amendment good or bad , do I want to keep it or have it repealed , I'm on the fence with those questions. that's something I'm wondering about, since my entire life has been lived under it i have seen no other way it works so I honestly don't know, Now if the Founders , intended the Senate to be the protector of States rights in Congress , there must have been compelling reasons the People wanted to change the process, and that's something , i think needs to be looked at. whats your thoughts?

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