This amendment here isn't all that exciting on paper, however, I do suppose it is important to clarify how elections should be held. Again with the red tape!
Video:
I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I don't like Fox News. I do, however, like opportunites to bash them. I think Fox News is a sham and a half. The seventeenth amendment isn't unconstitutional, it simply gives the power back to the people to elect their senators. These crazy spins they throw on things actually try to convince people that they're not capable of voting for their senators. The sad thing is they succeed at doing this sometimes. It's a sad day when people renounce their freedoms because they watch the "news."
Article:
Republican Candidates Call for Repeal of Seventeenth Amendment
Published November 01, 2010
| The Wall Street Journal
One of the clearest measures of anti-Washington feeling this election year is the attack on a little-remembered, century-old amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Republican candidates in more than a half-dozen states have called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment, which was ratified in 1913 and which provides for the direct election of U.S. senators. Prior to the amendment, senators were designated by state legislatures.
"People would be better off if senators, when they deliver their messages to Washington, remember the sovereignty of the states," Mike Lee, who supports repeal, told reporters recently. Mr. Lee is a Republican running for the U.S. Senate from Utah.
Proponents of repeal say the amendment wrecked the founding fathers' balance between national and state governments, removing one of the last checks to unbridled power in Washington. Opponents counter that direct election of senators, long a goal of the Progressive movement of that era, expanded democracy.
The idea of repealing the 17th Amendment has bounced around conservative and libertarian circles for years, but is enjoying a resurgence this year thanks to the rise of tea-party candidates, who often embrace a strict view of the Constitution. It coincides with a broader attack on Progressive-era changes, notably the 16th Amendment, which created the income tax, and taps into the belief that big government began in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.
The Idaho Republican Party has adopted the cause. Tea party-backed Senate candidates in Alaska and Utah advocate repeal, as do many candidates running for the House, as well as some sitting politicians.
In Florida, Democratic campaigns have attacked Republican rivals for considering the idea. In Colorado, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee paid for ads criticizing Ken Buck, the Republican Senate candidate, over the issue. Mr. Buck later reversed his support for repeal. Christine O'Donnell, the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware, supports a strict reading of the Constitution, but says she doesn't support repeal of the 17th Amendment.
Reaction:
And again with the repealing stuff. I'm not sure why, but lately the republicans have been making a big deal out of putting more power back into the federal/state governments. This is odd, considering the fact that one of the "ideals" of the conservative party is smaller government. And yet, I'm sure somehow fox news could tell me that the patriot act made government influence smaller. Fox News, you're the best (<----sarcasm).
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