A great New Year's resolution ~ By Henry Lamb

The subject of this column by Henry Lamb may not be easily understood by the average American citizen. For the most part, none of us were around before the 17th Amendment was ratified. And I doubt that the importance of the 17th Amendment was discussed in your high school civics or history classes. We have only known that U.S. Senators are elected by popular vote. But it wasn't always that way:

The idea of people-powered government control of society offered by Marx ran head-on into the unregulated activities of laissez-faire capitalism. This produced a new system of political thought dubbed "Progressivism" by Theodore Roosevelt and others, in the late 19th century. This new hybrid political system pursued government policies that regulated economic and social activity without the government actually owning the sources of production – as Marx advocated.

Woodrow Wilson, a champion of Progressivism, ushered in the Federal Reserve, the income tax and the 17th Amendment – which destroyed the carefully balanced, unique structure of the American government. The 17th Amendment removed the states from the federal government altogether by allowing senators to be elected directly by the people rather than by the state legislatures.

Henry goes on to explain, "Since the Progressives sent Wilson to the White House, the states have had no voice in the approval of federal law to which states must conform."

In all honesty, I can't say that I was aware of the critical significance of what the 17th Amendment did until recently, and I'm still learning about it, with the help of the following two videos:

Restore the Republic - Part 1 ~ 26:04
Restore the Republic - Part 2 ~ 17:06

If you could spare the 43 minutes to watch the two videos above, along with reading Henry's entire column, you will probably understand much more about why the Constitution was written as it was, and why the 17th Amendment is leading the United States of America away from being a Republic as it was founded, and is being transformed into a Democracy, a "tyranny of the majority."

A great New Year's resolution

HENRY LAMB

By Henry Lamb

January 01, 2011 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2011

In hopes of returning to a previous, "better" condition, millions of Americans will resolve to: quit smoking, lose weight, or engage in some other activity to make their life better in some way. Suppose there were an activity in which Americans could engage that would make the entire world better, especially that portion of the world we call the United States of America. There is!

We can resolve to restore the original, unique republic created by our founders.

George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison and the handful of other great Americans who assembled in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 used nearly half of the Convention time debating the single issue of representation in the new government. Shall the new government be a government of the states, or a government of the people?

The Articles of Confederation created a government of the states, and any amendment to the Articles required unanimous approval. This arrangement was inadequate; no state could be compelled to comply with any directive from the government. James Madison's Virginia Plan proposed a new government of the people; Andrew Hamilton wanted a strong central government, with the president to be elected for life.

Small states argued that the Virginia Plan would essentially erase the small states because the large states would always have more delegates to the new government and could always outvote the small states. Delaware delegate John Dickenson nearly ended the Constitutional Convention by declaring that Madison's plan would exchange the tyranny of the king for the tyranny of the large states – tyranny to which small states would never submit.

Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, of whom Thomas Jefferson once said: "… here is a man who never said a foolish thing in his life," suggested a compromise. His compromise would make the lower legislative chamber consist of representatives elected by the people based on population; the upper chamber, the Senate, would consist of two representatives from each state, chosen by the state legislature.

Madison compared such a government to a centaur – half man and half horse. Sherman's compromise government would be empowered half by the people and half by the states. This new form of government – unique in the world – would allow competition between the two sources of power, which would serve as a check and balance on each other to ensure that neither became domineering or tyrannical.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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