The State.com posted the Will: The Continuing Fall of Federalism article on Sunday February 22, 2009. The author of the article is George F. Will of the Washington Post. The article is on the 17th amendment and how some senators are making a huge fuss over it. Some of the senators are wanting to amend the 17th amendment and the other senators feel that it is "vandalism' against the document; and it should be left alone.
The 17th amendment deals with the states and now they select their legislature. The great divide in the senate is whether or not the state's should be allowed to select their own legislature. Others feel that it should be up to the people of that state to vote on the legislature. Some states feel that when a senate seat opens up due to things like retiring, controversy, or death the state should select the next senator. This is because some governors have not made the best choices at times for the seat. An example of these bad choices would refer to the Blagojevich and Burris trial. This is when President Obama's seat was up for sell in the senate. Also, some of the senate have been abusing their powers while in office.
The people should be allowed to vote for their own legislature. As a country that has some democracy picking the people to run the state should be left up to those who live in that state. Governors picking the legislature can sometimes be a bad thing, because if house has a favor to a party then that party would get picked. Then the same old policies would stay in place and the state would not benefit. Some people are for opposing the re amend of the 17th amendment because they do not want to give any more power to the state and local government. The federal government is afraid that if they give the power to the states then the government would not go the way they wanted to. The author wanted to let the general public know of the dilemma that goes through the senate. He wanted to show that no matter what our government will never agree, and that their will always be that divide between the parties, federal government, and state government.
