Somewhere, we as a society have made some dreadful mistakes. Foremost among them is letting our modern politicians think they are smarter than the founding fathers of out constitutional republic.
This country was constructed as the United States of America. It was a union of sovereign states of sovereign people. These were people who were tired of being slaves to a ruling class foreign from their presence; and they crafted a constitution that carefully kept the power balanced, and kept at the lowest level, closest to the people.
In the early twentieth century, expedient and power-hungry politicians slipped some changes into the system in the name of the public good that started a change to all this.
The original United States Constitution did not call for the direct election of the Senate. The State could choose them any way it wanted under its own constitution. They could be chosen by the Legislature of the State or they could be appointed by the governor, or, even elected by the people of that State. They represented the State. And the House of Representatives represented the people of the state.
In the second decade of the twentieth century, these men who thought they were smarter than Jefferson, Madison, Adams and the rest, toyed with the system stripping the State out of the equation. They required the direct election of the United States Senate. So now the Senate is a second body of the changing whim of the populace rather than the specific interests of the various States.
So, are we still the United States? Or are we merely the People's Republic of America?
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