Repeal the 17th Amendment Is what
Restoring Our American Republic Inc.
Is Going To Do
ROAR is a non-partisan, non-political non-profit corporation. We neither support nor endorse any political party, candidate or legislation. Instead, we represent all Americans who value individual liberty and small government.
We believe the federal government has grown too big, too expensive, too intrusive, too nosy, too abusive and.. . .well, just about everything it was not supposed to be, and it's time to institute corrective action.
What are we talking about when we say that? It is neither the Congress nor the Presidents directly, but between the two, they have created and fostered an Imperial Bureaucracy, a virtually independent, ever growing government that is answerable to no one, staffed by unelected bureaucrats who write rules and regulations that have the force of law and lord it over us as if they were our Imperial Masters.
Essentially, we suffer from trickle-down bureaucracy. Congress enacts broad legislation to "solve" a problem - War on Drugs, Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species, etc. As a part of the legislation, it empowers the bureaucrats to write regulations and directs the States to enforce them. Thus, we have the federal bureaucracy with mirror copies at the State, County and, often, Municipal levels. Each level of the State bureaucracies are required to adopt and enforce the rules and regulations of the federal and are free to add some of their own so as to reflect local needs. And if the States refuse to do this, they lose a substantial chunk of federal funds transferred to them as "Revenue Sharing."
This is smart "politics" on the part of Congress. First, they get credit for "solving" a problem. Since enforcement is passed off to the States, the dent in the federal budget is negligible. Then, with primary enforcement being done by the States rather than the federal bureaucracy, the citizens who run afoul of the regulations written by the federal blame the State Government for their misfortune. It's a win/win situation for the feds and a lose/lose for the States who not only have to pay for it, but have to take the brunt of citizen anger.
Slick.
Real Slick.
How big is the bureaucracy? Not counting Congress, the White House, the State Department, the CIA or the Military in uniform, there is 1 fulltime civilian federal employee for every 123 Americans.
Surprised?
Is that too big?
Congress has been on a Legislative binge for more than 60 years. To enforce those laws, the bureaucrats write regulations. At the end of 2006, there were 144,040 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations. In that almost undecipherable mass there has to be one, two or a dozen that can jump up and bite any one of us at any moment. When it happens, they have the full force of government behind them while all we can do is go broke paying attorneys.
For instance: The BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) is systematically, one by one, revoking gun dealers' licenses on paperwork technicalities. Someone overlooked and therefore did not fill in one space in a form. BOOM! "Your license has been revoked." Very effective unauthorized gun control by eliminating the small dealers who can't afford thousands of dollars in attorney fees to fight it. Eliminate the dealers and no one can buy a gun. And, of course, the number of gun dealers "not complying with regulations" is used by BATF to justify an increase in its budget.
How much are these regulations costing us? According to a recent study released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2004, the nation's business community spent $1.1 trillion complying with Federal Regulations. Who pays that? We do. It's a cost of doing business and is a part of the price of everything we purchase. How much is $1.1 trillion? Assuming a population of 300 million, it's $3,667 for every man woman and child in the nation. And that's just the compliance cost for the business community.
All Congress has to do to change all this is snatch the bureaucrats up by the knap of the neck, let them know the Rules Committee has arrived and rewrite the enabling legislation in specific terms, precisely narrowing and defining the scope of their authority and how they will conduct themselves. But Congress is too busy playing a vicious, high stakes game of political "Gotcha" while enacting even more legislation that directs the bureaucrats to write even more regulations. And virtually every new regulation takes a bite out of someone's liberty.
A list of abuses could go on to near infinity, but the real question is, "How did it get this way?" The Founding Fathers put together a government meticulously designed to prevent what we have. What happened?
What happened was the standard ingredient of politics, greed amplified by widespread corruption. Late in the 19th Century, the Power Brokers and Robber Barons saw the federal government as a cow that could be milked for power, prestige and cash, but the Senators, who took their marching orders from their respective Legislatures kept blocking them. After a number of years of manipulation, apparent bribery and really dirty politics, we got the 17th Amendment which took the power of appointment away from the State Legislatures and moved it over to general election.
The result of the 17th Amendment was predictable and inevitable. When the Senators were dependent on the Legislatures for reelection, the individual legislators and the Legislature as a whole, had enormous clout. When your reelection depends on only 80, 90, 100 people, you pay very close attention to what they want. When it was shifted over to the entire population of the State, the electing units were so large no one at home had any clout. This is exactly what the manipulators wanted, because the Senator's attention and loyalties switched to those who could help assure reelection, the Power Brokers. And that's where they still are today.
We were supposed to have a Senate made up of Statesmen who would be immune to popular causes, vigilant guardians of our individual rights and liberty. Instead, we have a Senate composed of 100 free agents, free to follow their own agenda, which they do with impunity and immunity; answerable only to their political party, special interests, the mainstream media and their campaign contributors; responding with legislation to every popular cause that comes along, often inventing one just to get face time on TV; perfectly willing to eradicate everyone's rights simply because a few might or have abused them and have turned the United States Senate into an arena for an ongoing, seemingly never ending political food fight. It's disgusting and we deserve better.
The answer, the solution, is to repeal the 17th amendment so we have at-home control over what they do or do not do. We can get that done if we put our mind and resources to putting the appointment of Senators back where it belongs, with the Legislatures, and that's exactly what we're going to do..
"What," you object, "you want to take away my right to vote for Senators." If putting it back where it belongs, with the State Legislatures, means taking it away from you, Yes, we do. We're taking away ours too, so you haven't been singled out. But be realistic. Your vote is only symbolic. It is meaningless, simply because the only time a person has power in the ballot box is when he can exercise some control over the actions of his "servants." The only way to have control is to be able to talk to them directly, not just to their staff. Can you call your Senator and get him on the Phone? The Party Bosses can. Milton Megabucks can. The media can. The lobbyists can. But you can't. Once the 17th is Repealed, none of the above will have any voice with your Senators. Face it. Until then, we're just a mass of nameless faces in the crowd they have to shmooze every six years just enough to persuade us to keep them in office.
We are neither proposing nor advocating eradication of all regulations. Quite the contrary. We can't think of a regulated area that doesn't need to be. Instead, we seek to convert the government from its current punitive, adversarial approach to enforcement into a partnership with the people to accomplish the objectives without trampling all over individual rights and liberty.
Once the 17th Amendment is repealed, the State Legislatures, who have been both the target and the fall guy for the federal bureaucracy, will use their restored clout with the Senate and increased communication with the House of Representatives to accomplish that goal. It won't be instant. It's not a magic cure. It will take time to get everything straightened out. But it's the only option we have to get things under control. Unless the 17th Amendment is repealed it's only going to get worse. That we can count on,
So, the choice is yours. You can hang on to your symbolic vote, or you can take positive steps to help push it towards the day when government will be a partner rather than an adversary. Millions of men have put themselves in harm's way to preserve our freedom with their blood staining the world's battlefields. We have not served them well by allowing this to happen. It's time to make amends and giving up your symbolic vote is a small price to pay compared to what they sacrificed.
We have a solid, three step plan to get it done. People who have been trying for years to find a way to do it have hailed the plan as "Brilliant," "Outstanding, " and "That will work," while agreeing it has an 80% to 90% probability of success. In today's political spectrum, those are pretty good odds.
This is the only plan that has ever been devised that can work. (See link below.)
Constitutional Historians have lamented the 17th Amendment as one of the worst mistakes we ever made. Repeal will be hailed by future historians as the most significant step taken to restoration of Constitutional government.
Hotlining - A deliberative Senate committed to guarding our rights and liberty? Think again! If you have high tolerance for betrayal of trust, see what actually happens in the Senate. This is a descriptive article authenticated by excerpts from the Web Pages of Senators Sessions and Coburn.
Bureaucratic Abuses - If these don't arouse your anger, nothing will.
The Plan - The complete plan as it will be presented to the State Legislatures for action. Check it out and you will see why it is given such high marks.
F.A.Q. - Feel free to ask. If your question is reasonable, we'll add it.
Contact Us Questions and comments welcome.
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Other Reasons why the 17th should be repealed.C. H. Hoebeke - This is long (6,100 words plus 31 footnotes). Of all the essays and articles written it is the most comprehensive work on the manipulation leading to the 17th Amendment and why it was a terrible mistake. We definitely recommend reading this article, but, for your convenience we have excerpted critical passages pertinent to why the Founding Fathers meticulously avoided popular election of Senators. You will find those here.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo - Good background
Senator Zell Miller - Comments on Senate floor while proposing repeal of the 17th Amendment.
Todd Huston - 17th amendment produced contemporary partisan politics.
John MacMullan - Worked with Montana Legislature to request repeal.
Senator Jerry O'Neal - Montana Senator who proposed repeal.
Lake Havasu City, AZ
