By: Richard A. Correa Sr. SGT RIARNG, Retired
I want the XVIIth Amendment to the US Constitution repealed. This is the amendment that makes the ‘popular’ election of US Senators possible.
But wait a minute; shouldn’t the people be able to elect their senators? Isn’t it the right of the people to elect their legislators? Don’t we live in a democracy? Why, this would be undemocratic!
Yes, it would be undemocratic. But the United States of America isn’t supposed to be a democracy. It’s supposed to be a constitutional republic that uses a democratic process to select its’ leadership.
Some of you might say ‘If we can’t elect or senators wouldn’t that violate what you just said the United States does to select its’ leaders?’ No, it wouldn’t.
Our grandfathers and grandmothers would have understood this but, because of the stranglehold the progressives have on our public education system, we don’t. We’ve never been taught the truth about the founding of this nation and the convention that brought into existence the magnificent document that is the supreme law of this land. And few are alive today that remember when US Senators were ‘appointed’ by the state legislatures. And few of us know why we have a House of Representatives and a Senate when most of the other ‘democracies’ in the world only have a single legislative body
Always keep in mind the United States of America is the great experiment in Liberty. Also remember that each ‘state’ in this union is an independent nation state, with its’ own government, that has chosen to band together with other like minded nation states to create an ‘agent’ to represent them with the other nations of the world and to arbitrate disputes that may arise among them. If you do this you will see our federal government in its’ proper perspective and gain a better understanding of how our federalist system is supposed to work.
One of the most difficult issues to work out at the Constitutional Convention was the issue of representation. The large states like New York and Virginia (remember that at this time West Virginia was still a part of Virginia) wanted representation based on population. This would give the large states an advantage in the new federal legislature. The smaller states, like Rhode Island and Connecticut, wanted each state to have an equal number of representatives, thus gaining an advantage over the larger states. Neither side would give ground on this.
Out of this dispute came one of the many compromises that made the constitution possible, the bicameral legislature. A bicameral legislature is:
a governmental body with two houses or chambers, such as the US Congress or British Parliament.
Once the convention got to this point it was pretty easy to determine how the House of Representatives would be selected, one representative per ‘X’ number of people (a topic for another discussion). Each state would have a number of congressional districts equal to the population of the state divided by ‘X’ and the people living in those districts would vote for the representative from that district.
But how would senators be elected?
Shouldn’t the people elect their senators too? Well, the will of the people (supposedly) was already represented in the House of Representatives, does it make sense for the people to also DIRECTLY (again, supposedly) express their will in the senate?
Also, our founders were among the best educated men of their time in the world. They had studied the ancient democracies of Greece and Rome in depth (a classical education that the progressives and liberals scorn) and had learned that the people are fallible. They often make decisions based on the emotion of the moment and not based on reason. They choose actions that seem to give ‘immediate gratification’ and not on what is best for the nation in the long run. They also learned that the will of the majority of the people can be an oppressive and wicked tyrant to the minority of the people as any king or emperor. And it was these passions that were as responsible for the destruction of these classical civilizations as any of the other factors that were involved.
So how do we elect senators, and, more importantly, how do we imbue the Senate with a reason to be a check on the passions of the people as expressed by the House of Representatives?
The solution was that the senators would be appointed (in other words elected) by the state legislatures and they were to represent the state governments in the legislature, not the people. So the founders wrote in Article I, Section 3:
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
Many people will argue that the people of a state elect the state legislature so why have them elect the senators instead of the people doing it directly. My easiest answer to that is the Medicaid program. If the office of US Senator was tied to the state legislators being happy with the job you’re doing do you really think the US Senate would have passed a program run by the federal government that required the states to DIRECTLY pay up to 50% of its’ cost? Does anyone out there believe that any senator that voted for the federal government to place an ‘unfunded mandate’ upon the state governments, causing those state legislators to have to increase taxes in their state, thus jeopardizing their chances of staying in office, would be kept in office by his/her state legislature? Does anyone believe there would be any unfunded federal mandates upon the states if US Senators were appointed by the state legislatures instead of being elected by popular vote?
What the XVIIth Amendment to the US Constitution has done is removed all representation of the state governments in Washington thus destroying one of the most important checks and balances of the federalist system designed by the founders of this country. It has done exactly what it was designed to do and is a key ‘nail’ in the coffin of the US Constitution.
So what do the founders say on the subject. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 59:
“So far as that construction may expose the Union to the possibility of injury from the State legislatures, it is an evil; but it is an evil which could not have been avoided without excluding the States, in their political capacities, wholly from a place in the organization of the national government. If this had been done, it would doubtless have been interpreted into an entire dereliction of the federal principle; and would certainly have deprived the State governments of that absolute safeguard which they will enjoy under this provision.”
James Madison said in Federalist 62:
“If indeed it be right, that among a people thoroughly incorporated into one nation, every district ought to have a proportional share in the government, and that among independent and sovereign States, bound together by a simple league, the parties, however unequal in size, ought to have an equal share in the common councils, it does not appear to be without some reason that in a compound republic, partaking both of the national and federal character, the government ought to be founded on a mixture of the principles of proportional and equal representation.”
In the same document he also said:
“In this spirit it may be remarked, that the equal vote allowed to each State is at once a constitutional recognition of the portion of sovereignty remaining in the individual States, and an instrument for preserving that residuary sovereignty. So far the equality ought to be no less acceptable to the large than to the small States; since they are not less solicitous to guard, by every possible expedient, against an improper consolidation of the States into one simple republic.”
He further stated in Federalist 62:
“Another advantage accruing from this ingredient in the constitution of the Senate is, the additional impediment it must prove against improper acts of legislation. No law or resolution can now be passed without the concurrence, first, of a majority of the people, and then, of a majority of the States.”
And:
“It is a misfortune incident to republican government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust. In this point of view, a senate, as a second branch of the legislative assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must be in all cases a salutary check on the government.
And though Federalist 62 contains a lot more this will be my final quote from that document:
“The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions. Examples on this subject might be cited without number; and from proceedings within the United States, as well as from the history of other nations.”
So, if we are truly asking for the restoration of constitutional rule in these United State then repeal of the XVIIth amendment must happen.