Too much power resides in Washington and too little with the States. The farther away power gets from the people, the more dangerous it is to the common good, the more intrusive it is to our freedom and independence, and the more costly it is, now to our great grandchildren!
The Constitution as originally established understandably reflected the founders fear of highly centralized national power. It created a federal republic. Recall Benjamin Franklin’s famous response, “We’ve given you a Republic, if you can keep it.” That republic was a marvelous structure of checks and balances on power, on centralized power.
Who was beholden to whom for the office held was wonderfully allocated to various constituencies. The executive was elected by an electoral college and had a four year term. The legislature of the people, the House, was elected directly by the people and based upon population. The analogy here was the House of Commons. And the people would express their control and sentiments most frequently, every two years. The Senators, only two from each state, were elected by the state legislatures and had terms of six years. The analogy here was the House of Lords. Finally the judiciary, then the Supreme Court, was appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate and served for life.
This worked as structured, as a federal government, with local and state responsibility and control for years. The principle of “subsidiarity,” that needs would be best served at the lowest level of society, was in full force and flourished. Under this principle, the family, the social organization, the church, the local authority, etc. could all do things more effectively than the federal government miles away. States, counties, municipalities all had real responsibility and provided for the local needs much better than could be done by some distant government.
This worked in fact until the so-called progressives said that it didn’t work. The 17th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1913. It provided for the direct election of Senators, rather than the election by state legislatures as set out in Article 1, Section 3.
Since that time we have witnessed ever increasing federal power and ever declining local power. We have seen control of local responsibility for important programs like education eroded. We have seen unfunded mandates levied upon the states and localities, like Medicaid. We have seen concentrated national unions influence the election of Senators. And we have now seen an out of control federal budget with unsustainable levels of debt that will subject our grandchildren to servitude.
There is an embryonic movement afoot to repeal the 17th Amendment. It is very much worth serious consideration. Todd Zywicki has an excellent post on NRO today, Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. It’s well reasoned and persuasive.
From my perspective, we need to promote more individual and local responsibility and power and less in Washington DC. A repeal of the 17th Amendment would go a long way to doing so. It would likewise go a long way to starving the beast.