Nothing But Politics

[JimmyD]

I doubt if you can ever take money out of politics, but repealing the 17th Amendment would take a giant step towards making our government work better for the people.

The authors of the Constitution deliberately set up the congress to be two separate and distinct bodies. One representing the people (House of Representatives) and the other representing state government (Senate). It is part of the checks and balances written into the Constitution.

The 17th Amendment upset the balance of power moving it to Wasington DC. Here is what one of the constitutional authors had to say about why the Senate should represent the states.

"If the state government were excluded from all agency in the national one, and all power drawn from the people at large, (both chambers voted in by the people) the consequence would be that the national government would move in the same direction as the state governments do, and would run into one great current, pursuing the same course without any opposition whatever." (John Dickinson)

That is almost exactly what has happened.

Thomas Jefferson warned against a large central government:

"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."