Wednesday, May 11, 2022

It's Time to Repeal the 17th Amendment!

Sundance (CTH), "
When Donald Trump won the 2016 election, even before he took office, CTH warned about the permanent bureaucratic class in Washington DC and what it meant for an outside to enter this system. With a consistent question being raised, it is well worth the reminder – because the answer has nothing to do with Donald Trump.
First the question:

The short answer is, it’s not that complicated. There is one permanent bureaucratic class in/around DC (two wings, same bird). The pool of appointees comes from this UniParty system. Donald Trump as an outsider faced animosity from the system itself. There are no MAGA bureaucrats.

That said, the more fulsome answer is the real issue. Because it doesn’t matter who the ‘outsider’ is, they are going to suffer the same fate until a structural change takes place.

If you take a small potential pool of America-First administrators, and then overlay the DC filtration system in the Senate, ‘advise and consent’, what you realize is that any appointment has to be approved by the same system that is opposed to the agenda the nominee would represent.

In essence, the DC system is designed to protect itself.

It doesn’t matter who the next presidential candidate is. If that President wants to advance a policy agenda in favor of the American people, they will face the same problem. So let me give one perspective on how to tackle the issue.

To give one example as a baseline, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not block President Trump’s ability to have recess appointments because the republican controlled Senate supported Donald Trump.

Senator McConnell blocked President Trump because the DC system was opposed to President Trump.

Machiavelli said, “It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.” A prescient and oft repeated quote that is pertinent to the situation.

When our founders created the system of government for our constitutional republic, they built in layers of protection from federal control over the lives of people in the states. Over time those protections have been eroded as the federal bureaucracy has seized power. One of the biggest changes that led to the creation of the permanent political class was the 17th amendment.

Our founders created a system where Senators were appointed by the state legislatures. In this original system the senate was bound by obligation to look out for the best interests of their specific states. Under the ‘advise and consent‘ rules of Senate confirmation for executive branch appointments, the intent was to ensure the presidential appointee -who would now carry out regulatory activity- would not undermine the independent position of the states.

When the 17th amendment (direct voting for Senators) took the place of state appointments, the perspective of ‘advise and consent’ changed. The senate was now in the position of ensuring the presidential appointee did not undermine the power of the permanent bureaucracy, which is the root of power for the upper-chamber.

Senate committees, Homeland Security, Judiciary, Intelligence, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, etc. now consists of members who carry an imbalanced level of power within government. The senate now controls who will be in charge of executive branch agencies like the DOJ, DHS, FBI, CIA, ODNI, DoD, State Dept and NSA, from the position of their own power and control in Washington DC.

In essence, the 17th amendment flipped the intent of the constitution from protecting the individual states to protecting the federal government.

Almost every source of federal issue: ex. spending, intervention and foreign assistance, conflict with the states, burdensome regulation, surveillance and spying on American citizens, the two-tiered justice system and the erosion of liberty & individual rights (see COVID examples), can be sourced back to the problem created by the 17th amendment.
As long as the United States senate is more concerned with retaining their own power, no executive branch office holder can break through that system.

In the balance of power dynamic, the Senate has an inordinate amount of unilateral power within the congressional branch. This power dynamic is a direct outcome of the 17th amendment. Indeed, many have argued – myself included, that no single modification to the constitution was as structurally damaging to the framework of government, specifically the balance of power within it, as the 17th amendment.

The House of Representatives was created to be the voice of the people, ie, “The Peoples’ House.” However, the U.S. Senate was structurally created to be the place where state government had representation in the federal government decision-making. The 17th amendment completely removed state representation, and we have been in an escalating battle over state’s rights ever since.

It doesn’t matter who the President is, they do not choose their cabinet. Ultimately the senate does. That’s the core problem.

Overlay that DC structural issue with the fact that almost all of the bureaucracy created by this skewed DC system is now in place to defend itself from any outside effort to change it, and you get this problem that Donald Trump exposed.

Repeal the 17th amendment and you will see the most significant restoration of freedom, liberty and social balance in our lifetime.

Making America Great Again, requires repealing the 17th amendment…..

25 comments:

  1. "If that President wants to advance a policy agenda in favor of the American people"...

    donald tRump never wanted to do that. He never tried to do that.

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  2. (((Thought Criminal)))May 11, 2022 at 10:22 AM

    While I do support the repeal of the 17th Amendment, that stance has nothing to do with trying to imbecile-proof the Presidency should America decide to elect another far-left dipshit like Trump.

    "Conservative Tree House" should be thanking its deities that patriots stood in the breach to counterfeit orders from Moscow to keep Trump in the barnyard. The Deep State might be tasked with handling a less incompetent President next time.

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  3. Fans of minority rule support repealing the 17th amendment.

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  4. (((Thought Criminal)))May 11, 2022 at 4:25 PM

    Nah. Make politics local again. If state legislatures appointed Senators, people would participate more in the makeup of their state legislatures. Your Senator would represent your state instead of his / her party.

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  5. Nope. Due to gerrymandering, more people vote for Democrats, but republicans end up in control of state legislatures. Which means the republican-controlled state legislature appoints a republican. Even when the voters statewide would have elected a Democrat. Repealing the 17th amendment is about minority rule.

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    1. (((Thought Criminal)))May 12, 2022 at 2:52 PM

      Due to gerrymandering, more people vote for Democrats, but republicans end up in control of state legislatures.

      This doesn't even make walking around sense. It's worse than Trump delusions of uncounted votes. You're claiming Democrat politicians lose because people that vote for them don't live in their district.

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    2. It only doesn't make sense if you don't understand the purpose of gerrymandering. You should Google it.

      Delete
  6. Oh, look, the Left just invented a new boogeyman...ALEC. How SCARY! lol!

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  7. Just? They've been around awhile... giving republican politicians their marching orders. Via "model legislation" that benefits "the American people". LOL!

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  8. Wow, 15 government employees went to one of their meetings... I'm soooo skeered!

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  9. ALEC does not propose policies in favor of the American people. WHY dotard administration people attended the meetings. dotard donald never wanted to advance a policy agenda in favor of the American people. Like I said.

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    1. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway ... "delivered a message from President Trump praising [ALEC's] work in leading the nation".

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  10. ALEC proposes policies to favor the Russians? Better call Mueller, you've discovered his investigations "missing link"!

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  11. btw - How does repealing the 17th Amendment benefit the Russians, anyways?

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  12. (((Thought Criminal)))May 12, 2022 at 3:00 PM

    That presumes Russians are capable of and motivated by acting to their own benefit. The rules of rationality don't apply. It's very likely Russians would support the repeal of the 17th Amendment if Alexandr Dugin thought it would make corn grow in tundra.

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  13. ALEC proposes policies that favor a subset of the American people. The rich ones. As opposed to ALL the American people. I don't know why you're talking about Russians. tRump colluded with Putin to steal the 2016 election, but neither cares about the Russian people, only their own power. ALEC certainly doesn't give a shit about either the Russian or American people.

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  14. lol! Gerrymandering a little piece of Baltimore City into every adjacent Maryland Congressional District to dilute the suburbs and prevent Republicans from getting elected is what it's ALL about. Right, Dervy?

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  15. (((Thought Criminal)))May 13, 2022 at 10:02 AM

    If I bothered to Google to see what "ALEC" would I care three minutes later?

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  16. (((Thought Criminal)))May 13, 2022 at 10:06 AM

    The American Legislative Exchange Council is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States

    Nerp. Don't care.

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  17. (((Thought Criminal)))May 13, 2022 at 1:16 PM

    "many minds make short work of a problem."

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  18. If ALEC wrote "model legislation" that advanced a policy agenda in favor of the American people... Then you'd care. But they don't.

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  19. (((Thought Criminal)))May 14, 2022 at 3:05 PM

    As if ALEC were novel and alone in the field of lobbyists of every political stripe imaginable, who also write "model legislation." You're pretty much just boo-hooing that Delmonico steaks taste better than pork rinds

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