S P R I N G 2012
In Federalist 28, they wrote: Power being almost always the rival of power, the General Government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments; and those will have the same disposition towards the General Government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other, as the instrument of redress… It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority. The states were supposed to help control Washington, D.C. through a powerful tool: the United States Senate. According to the original Article I, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution, state legislatures were to elect Senators to represent the state’s interests in Washington. For a century they did so, and states remained the preeminent poli‐ ties in America. Even after the Civil War and the great centralization effected by the 14th Amendment, states remained considerably more powerful than they are today. That ended in 1913. Well‐meaning Progressives believed the Senate was an undemocratic institution (a description the Founders would have taken as a compliment), and successfully fought to overthrow it. The 17th Amendment to the Constitution establishes the direct elec‐ tion of Senators by the people of each state, cutting out the state legis‐ latures. The states lost their check on the federal government. This is no arcane bit of procedural minutiae. The Founders set up the checks because they knew “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” Federal officeholders and bureaucrats in Washington are ambitious. They have legitimate powers and responsibilities. But unless some‐ one else’s ambition is made to counter their own, they will go beyond their legitimate powers. This is as certain as a law of nature. History bears out the verdict. The history of federal policy since 1913 includes the New Deal, the Great Society, the departments of labor, education, health and human services, housing and urban de‐ velopment, energy, transportation, and homeland security, the FDA, SEC, EPA, FCC, NEA, NEH, NIH, TVA, AID, DEA, ATF, NASA, So‐ cial Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, and scores of other agencies, boards, commissions, and corporations—all of which date after the 17th Amendment. Virtually 33