The 17th amendment ruined the senate. We should return to the time when senators were elected by the state legislatures and not by popular vote. This gives more power to the state and local towns and prevents the manipulation by big donors. Your small communities will have much more say in the process.
The 17th amendment has pushed us further from federalism and towards the evils of democracy.
In its place we should codify the election of senators through the state legislature and remove the ability for senators to vote for or have a salary. The senate should return to being paid when in session. If we remove the greed and ability to make money then the office will return to being a burden on the person taking the office and force them to still have a career in the private sector. This keeps them grounded and part of the community they serve.
I would like to add there is another HUGE benefit to restoring the Senate to its original Constitutional method of election by the State legislatures. It will force people to pay a much higher level of attention to who they elect to their State legislatures. This pushes the political focus back towards the local elections in each State. Another HUGE benefit of repealing the 17th Amendment is that as it stands right now, Senators have no allegiance to their State governments. Consequently, they can freely vote on bills that take power away from the States with no repercussions. If they tried that before the 17th Amendment was ratified, they’d get called on the carpet by their home State’s legislature to answer for their actions and would likely not be given another term. This is a big check on power that has been taken away from the States by the 17th.
I disagree on taking away the salary for Senators, but I agree on the legislature electing Senators. It will force greater participation in local legislature elections, and get rid of expensive statewide political campaigns. The true local representation was always meant to be your district in the House of Representatives. We need to repeal the Reapportionment Act of 1929 to get the true local representation back in the House
Senators used to be paid only during session and it does remove greed from the office. What would your reasoning for keeping the salary? How many senators have we seen like joe biden get rich off politics and never produce anything in his entire life. I would agree that term limits may do the same, however i feel both are needed not just one
Keeping the salary would still give an incentive for people to have a desire to be in that position. Currently most want to stay out of politics for a variety of reasons, but a big one is better opportunity for money elsewhere. Getting rid of the salary would get rid of even more civilian participation in government because they want a job that gives them money for bills.
Senators only being paid for session also adds to my point. Session is almost all year long. You cannot reasonably expect people to give up time and spend months working for free to become a Senator. You want to get rid of bribes and greed? That’s not the way to do it
Well i would say that the fact that they are always in session is a huge sign that they are doing too much. And i didnt say for free, i said pay them when they work. The role of a public servant should be a burden. Only those who love it and want to help will participate.
I agree on the fact they’re always in session being a red flag, but we also need to use the full time of always being in session to get rid of lots of the laws if we ever get a real majority to do something for us
D.C. is, in the long and short of it, that thing called Congress, and it’s Congress that has gifted the District with the Votes in Congress that they never should have had, and at this point, D. C. or Congress, has the power to deploy it’s own Police all across the Continent and exterior States, that is why D.C. needs to be Restricted to its little corner and chained down to stay there…
It’s part of the whole "“Act of 1871"” discussion…
Congress gave up lots of power decades ago to unelected 3 letter agencies. That was only ruled unconstitutional this year. ATF, EPA, etc. were making rules that were never voted on by Congress and that was to much of the detriment of the country. Luckily that’s now been stopped by the Supreme Court.
Congress also refuses to vote for military authorizations or revoking military authorizations, and leave the decisions to the president. That’s not what the Constitution intended. We need to get back to the original intent of how things should work.
If I don’t oversimplify these things, I leave the Risk of someone Low IQ Person not understanding what it is I’m saying…
And that’s how we got into this tight spot in the first place, Congress telling people to never discuss Law, the Churchy Churches telling people to never discuss Religion, and the Politicians telling people to Never discuss Politics or Policies…
And we all got Dumber, and we all missed out on the Educations we were supposed to have, so now I’m left with super simplified talking points in hopes that someone just might understand what I’m saying…
Oddly, this IS how we get back to where we belong, by helping each other understand what went wrong and where, and how to fix it, and we use simple terms so nobody gets left out in the cold with a bag of questions and no answers…
Put The States back in control of the Senate. The Senators are supposed to represent the States, not campaigning for reelection. When Senator’s started to be bought by lobbyists and worried about elections, they stopped putting their States interests first. If they are not putting their State first, then they can be recalled by the State’s Legislature and replaced, instead of waiting for 6 years for another election. The 17th Amendment is the a peg in the loss of our Republic.
It hasnt actually been stopped
The supreme court ruling simply states that their regulations are unconstitutional
It is still up to the people to challenge charges, but the ruling does give is the power to do so
Anytime someone is charged a lower court will have no choice but to overturn the charges if it is argued correctly.
what if their salary was capped at the average salary or highest end of the average salary of their jurisdiction to give them incentive to get that number up. The people make more money than they will make more money.
Agreed - pay them for the time they are in session.
Term limit of 2 four year terms.
No pension
Social Security just like us.
No payments from lobbyists.
No buying of stocks, commodities, etc.
No exempting themselves, family, staff, etc. from any laws,/mandates they pass.
If we repeal the amendment, the salary should be de-federalized and that burden should them be on the State. By the State paying their salary, it would be more in line with what the residents of that state would consider fair and appropriate.
This is so critical. The popular election of senators completely undermined the intent of the framers. This would be a huge step forward to going back to the original design of our government.