Tea Party Principles: Dewhurst and Patrick want to do away with direct election of senators

http://www.mystatesman.com/weblogs/first-reading/2013/oct/10/tea-party-principles-dewhurst-and-patrick-want-do-/?icmp=mystatesman_internallink_megamenu_link

Category: Freedom

Level: National

This article concerns potential policies that affect individuals and families

This article discusses the desire of some Tea Party politicians to do away with the 17^th Amendment which provides for the direct election of United States senators by individual voters rather than state legislatures.

My views:

If the 17^th Amendment is repealed, those of us disagree with their state’s legislature MOST OF THE TIME would get very little say in who represents us in Congress. The Tea Party thinks that’s divine. All of us pesky liberally-minded Americans who live in states with conservative legislatures would be STFed once and for all.

The Tea Party argues that the nation’s founding fathers knew best when they structured the government the way that they did. They trust the founders’ decision to entrust state legislature with the election of national senators and they share their mistrust in the ability of the average American to decide for himself how his vote should be cast. And I say ‘himself’ because the founding fathers also believed that votes should be denied outright to women and slaves and that only those with a certain amount of property should be extended suffrage as well.

Sometimes I feel like the Tea Party is standing on top of Mount McKinley, proudly holding out their crazy desire to circumvent the democratic process in order to force their moral agenda on all Americans regardless of what most Americans want. They are clearly shouting at the top of their lungs, “We are absolutely single-minded in the desire to make ourselves richer and more powerful while taking away your freedom, your input on the government, and the opportunity for you to have any success pursuing happiness!” And almost half of Americans are like, “Hey, I also agree that killing babies is wrong. Perry 2016!” It’s frustrating, you know?