Diminished States' Rights

A few weeks ago I read an opinion piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I cannot recall who the author was, but his premise was that ever since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states' rights has been on a fast track to decline.

What is the Seventeenth Amendment? It allows for the popular election of U.S. senators. Previously senators were elected by state legislatures.

How is this a bad thing? The Framers' intentionally designed a bicameral Congress so that each house balanced the other and represented two vital interests in our union- state autonomy and the need for federal authority as demonstrated by the total failure of the Articles of Confederation which lacked hardly any centralized or federal powers.

Under the new Constitution the lower house was to be elected directly by the people every two years. Direct election allowed for the people's voice to be heard at the federal level. Election of representatives every two years allowed for rapid turnover and the introduction of current viewpoints into the policy making process.

To balance vox populi, James Madison and the other Framers designed an upper house, the Senate. The Senate was to be elected every six years by the various state legislatures to represent the power of the states. As such, senators played an extremely important role in ensuring that federal power did not usurp state authority and through longer terms, that their votes were not swayed by today's headlines.

Remember, the U.S. Constitution spells out specific powers assigned to the federal government and reserves for the people and the states all other powers. The role of the House and Senate is to guard against an all-powerful federal government from encroaching upon the rights of the people and the rights of states.

Once senators became answerable unto the people, states' rights began to decline faster than had already been the case (thanks to men like Presidents Jackson (D) and Lincoln (R)).

Our form of government was designed to balance conflicting interests. Executive vs. Legistlative vs. Judicial. People vs. Government. Federal vs. States. The Seventeenth Amendment has tipped that balance of power too much to the favor of the federal government.

Perhaps we need to consider whether this amendment born of the Progressive Era has caused more harm than good in terms of our nation's long term health and survival. Maybe it is the right thing to do, but then again maybe it destroys the foundations of our system of checks and balances.

Either way, we need to return to principles of liberty and freedom or we will surely suffer the same fate as Europe's failed socialist and communist systems (Greece, USSR, East Germany...) which placed it faith in the hands of an all-knowing, all-powerful federal government.