To Our Readers: If you have been reading TruthPursuit for very long, you will have read many posts on Constitutional issues and Supreme Court cases. (You can find them all under “Const/Courts” here.
We are always pleased when we find that someone else has written an article on a Constitutional topic that we have on our list but haven’t written yet. Therefore, from time to time we have recommended other Substack articles on these Constitutional issues. The imprudent 17th Amendment is one of those topics and we are recommending an article to you, with just a little explanation to frame the topic in our unique way. Though we will say that if you just go to the link below, that’s really all you need to understand the 17th Amendment
There is a brilliant article entitled “federalism fixes this” posted on February 20 by el Gato Malo on his Bad Cattitude Substack. He starts with a simple explanation of how free markets work and then goes on to show how monopolies (think cable companies before Netflix) don’t/can’t respond to market forces. And civil government is even less responsive, especially since it is coercive and inescapable. You can read this post at federalism fixes this.
His title is a reference to the fact that the US Constitution establishes a Federalist system, with various mechanisms to establish a balance between the limited Federal and powerful State government and between limited civil government and the empowered people. It did that by setting up three different kinds of elections for Federal positions, one of which, the appointment of US Senators by State legislatures, was changed by the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1913.
I would add that the 16th Amendment, adding a Federal income tax that had been explicitly disallowed in Article I, section 9 of the Constitution, was also ratified in 1913. Inauspiciously, the Federal Reserve Act, creating the Federal Reserve, was also adopted in 1913. (What were they smoking in 1913?)
In the Constitution as written and adopted, the House of Representatives is directly elected by the citizens in each House district, with all Representatives elected every two years (Article I, Section 2). The Senate was composed of two Senators from each State, who served in staggered six year terms, with the Senators being appointed by the State legislatures (Article I, Section 3). Finally, the President of the United States is elected by electors from each State, with each State having a number of Electors equal to the sum of their Representatives and Senators (Article II, Section 1).
This is an inspired system set up by the Founders that provided direct election by the people for the House (who are elected based on the current sentiments of the people), appointment by State legislatures of Senators (who then represent the State, not the people) and the election of the President that involves the people’s votes State by State in an electoral college process that factors in the population of the State and gives each State “two electors.” This combination of electoral processes ensured that the individual States and the People retained most of the power.
Unfortunately, the delicate balance of the Constitutional system was upset by the direct election of US Senators, which robbed the States of important power against the Federal Government.
But enough for our preamble. Go to federalism fixes this And don’t worry about us having stolen Bad Cattitude’s thunder. There is a lot in this article that will lead you to that “Ah, ha” moment of greater understanding of Federalism and how important it is to our freedom.
PS - You will enjoy the Cattitude and the memes, whether or not you think you like cats.
Repeal the 17th Amendment!!!