When is the last time you read, or even glanced through, the U.S. Constitution and its 26 Amendments?
Me neither. I’ve had so many other important things to do I haven’t taken time to even think about what happened to the most significant document in American history that made possible our land of freedom and independence.
What happened was that a bombshell, dropped on us in 1913, was more devastating to America than the market crash of ’29. Because, unlike the crash which lasted through the 30’s, this bombshell would directly affect our lives, and the viability of the nation, for as long as we have a nation. The bombshell was the 17th Amendment.
Before 1913, the Congress of the United States was functioning in the way our Founders had intended. Senators were elected by their State legislatures, and were representatives of the states, which made up the republic. Here’s how that is phrased in the Constitution:
“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.”
Oh, but wait a minute, yelled the liberal crowd of that day. They charged that the Senate was “undemocratic” (exactly what our Founders intended it to be) and the Senators should therefore be directly elected. So, thanks to a demo-campaign of “re-education and misinformation” the 17th Amendment was passed.
Now it reads like this:
“The Senate of the United States shall be composed of Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote.”
With the simple changing of five words, the U.S. Senators no longer represented the interests of the State, but of their constituents, like the Representatives.
And America went from a Republic to a Democracy, just that quick. Having the same constituency, with no substantive difference between the House and the Senate, both bodies began focusing on the short-range politics of confiscation and redistribution, and of preferential treatment of selected groups.
Moreover, under the 17th Amendment, the States are now treated as second-class citizens; literally inferior institutions subject to more and more Federal control.
What’s been the result? Political and social chaos; the one thing our Founders took such pains to help us avoid.
This one simple change has put America on the road to socialism. If you think not, how else would you define giving more and more power to the government so it can confiscate and redistribute the nation’s wealth?
For that reason alone, tinkering with the concept of the Constitution is not only dangerous but ultimately destructive.
The 17th Amendment should be repealed, and we should return this nation to the Republican vision of our Founding Fathers.