-
-
States' Liberty Party Online Store
-
\
|
Let Freedom Ring |
Why Federalism is Smarter than Hillary ClintonAt the close of the year 2000 presidential election, senator elect Hillary Clinton called for the national delegate selection system to be replaced by direct majority vote. She is advocating a furtherance of a ninety year long drift toward centralized representative democracy. If Hillary has fully thought the idea through, her next endeavor will be the elimination of her own job by dissolution of the Senate, because it is not a fair representative body. The Senate serves and answers to the people, but does not equally represent them. A citizen from a small state has up to sixty-eight times more representation than a citizen of a large state. The founding fathers didn't intend this, it is a product of the Seventeenth Amendment, which overnight, stripped the states' of their authority in Washington and generously handed it to the people, awarding them both houses of Congress, one equal, and the other, not. The Congress created by the founding fathers was very different. Citizens had proportionate representation in the House of Representatives, and the States were equal to one another in the Senate, representing the various separate legislatures that had elected and sent them to Washington. The difference may seem trivial, but it is not. The house of the States was exactly that; a body dedicated to them, not the people. It did not duplicate or usurp the states' internal governing, it was for matters between the states, to compliment efforts of the various legislatures who's task is the governing of their state. Two houses of the peoples will ignore the state legislatures, and govern as a central authority, because the representatives of both houses must answer to, and will be reelected by the people, not the states. The Senate has been made a fluke by the Seventeenth Amendment, not really a peoples' house, but neither a States' house, and it commonly does no more than introduce bills that are similar to those of their still legitimate brother, for both houses to then grapple with before determining which of the two copycat bills will pass. This occurs because both houses answer to the same constituent with no differing purpose, excepting that the people of the smaller states will have a considerably greater voice. To illustrate this, consider the difference between a national gun bill passed by today's Senate, contrasted to a Senate listening to the commands of the state governments. The latter will look at gun issues that affect the sale or transfer of guns between states, or out of state residents, to ensure that their state's gun bill restrictions will not be compromised by other neighboring states. In these matters, equality of the states, not their populations, is paramount. Hillary's complaint is with a system that draws unequal presidential elector representation from her new job in the Senate, giving an edge to the candidate with more statesThe delegate selection process is a leftover from pre-1913 Seventeenth Amendment days, drawing it's authority from the two houses of Congress, so that a candidate winning more states will have a greater strength, reflecting the make-up of the Senate. If this seems unfair to the wife of the nation's former #1 philanderer, then many times more should be her severely reduced representation for her beloved New Yorkers, when compared to Wyomingites. Hillary's hated delegate system will not allow the election of a presidential nominee who is less than first choice in a majority of the states by population, disallowing the election of regional and special interest candidates, and guaranteeing that the winner will have widespread support, even when he has won less than 50% of the national vote, without need for a runoff election. In a very close race, such as the year 2000 election, only a few states will be in dispute, and no time-consuming and error prone national recount will be necessary. The delegate selection system truly reflects the union of States created by the founding fathers for recognizing each of the states, not the national government, as the supreme authority in selecting a president. Hillary should not try to eliminate her job, she should seek to eliminate her self, by urging a repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment, so that the New York legislature may send a senator to Washington representing the state's interests. --States' Liberty Party, July 28, 2002, modified July 29, 2002 |
Send mail to
webmaster@liberty-ca.org with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
