This country was founded on principles that required the Federal government to be weak and the states to be strong. Remember, the states formed the Federal government, and allowed it to have some small part of their power. The idea was to have a central government that would support our currency, act as the People’s designate in relationships with foreign governments, and provide for the common defense. So the Federal government was limited, by design, to dollars, diplomacy, and defense.
How did we get to where we are today, and more importantly, what must be done to get back to a Federal government interested in only dollars, diplomacy, and defense?
The first, vital, step is to repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. This one piece of legislation has been the cause of most of the progressive program’s success and the increasing involvement of the Federal government in areas forbidden by the Constitution.
The 17th Amendment provides for the poplar election of senators, changing the Founders’ design wherein the House of Representatives (the People’s house) was elected by popular vote and the Senate was appointed by state government.
The House of Representatives was supposed to be exactly what it is; a rowdy, partisan organ of government roughly equivalent to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom; the place where the People’s voice is loud and strong.
The Senate, on the other hand, was supposed to represent the states. Senators were to go to Washington to represent the needs of their states and the people living there. Because state governments chose their senators, the states’ interests were represented. A senator who voted against the wishes of his or her state government (and thereby the voters of their home state) was sure of a short career. This was the perfect support system for dollars, diplomacy, and defense.
You can never go home, and repealing the 17th Amendment will not restore the U.S.A. to the way we were in 1917. It will be a start on the road to restoring the primacy of the states and diminishing the overbearing, unconstitutional power of the Federal government.
We the People should accept no less.
[...] been bastardized to the point where almost all federal power is justified through it. There are other articles here and here and here that explain this in detail, so I’ll not spend the time here to do [...]