Repeal the 17th Amendment

A buddy of mine that I often talk politics with asked me recently why I’m opposed to the direct election of Senators.  I walked through all the reasons I don’t like it, but wasn’t able to wrap it up neatly for him.

This morning, I emailed him a link to Tam’s post on the 17th Amendment, because she quite eloquently summarizes everything that I don’t like about the 17th, and why it was such a blow to the system of government that the Founding Fathers had designed.   It’s a great post, and she does manage to tie it up with that bow that I was looking for a few weeks ago.

Ultimately though, I agree with Sebastian who says:

The real problem is that our culture worships at the altar of democratic governance.  Power to the people, and all that.  Not enough stop and think that maybe the people, when they act collectively through voting, are actually pretty collectively stupid.

Reminds of the line from Men in Black: “A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky, and stupid”; or something along those lines.

3 Comments

  1. Yeah but the alternative is some sort of ruling class/intelligencia that does our thinking for us. We probably wouldn’t like that too much either.

  2. The last thing I want are more representatives having that sense of job security. Incumbents already have what, a 95%+ rate of reelection?

    Thank God there’s no chance of repealing it. The idea is too Burkean for me, what ever happened to classical liberalism?

  3. fwiw from MiB:

    Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.

    I used to think term limits were a good idea, but the more I think about it and the longer this election cycle takes and the more scandals that make the press (even the MSM) the more I conclude, No more incumbents, ever.

    dc

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