Why "We the People" elect Senators

I do not believe Senators should be elected by the people. Why, you might ask me do I support an idea that seems so contrary to democratic principles - ideas which I supposedly support on WeakleyReport.com?

Because the U.S. Senate was not designed to be a branch of Congress that was directly responsible to the public. The people are prone to be emotional and the Congressmen are prone to do anything not to upset their electorate. Take for example the Immigration issue currently tearing this nation apart. Lets say a bill is proposed in the House of Representatives that says we must grant citizenship to all illegal aliens currently in the country, and the registration process is due to begin 6 months after the signing of the bill, and continue on for a total 4 months.

Now, I have issue with this, and I hope everyone else does too, because you can see that every illegal is going to do his best to get to America sometime in the next 10 months. It will be chaos at the border! Well, in our scenario the House of Representatives is swamped with letters and emails and public demonstrations by those who support it. While they are not responsible to these people, because many of them do not vote, the Congress still fears the mob surrounding the capitol building. So the House votes it in. Now, if we had a Senate which was elected by the state legislatures as it was originally designed, we could rest assured that this group of 100 men and women will deliberate their very best on a course of action.

Now let me tell you why I think we would have a different class of people serving in the Senate if they were appointed by the legislatures and not popularly elected. We are somewhat familiar with the judicial appointments Bush made, and how much of a hot button issue the nominations were. Well, I can tell you with absolute certainly that the nomination and appointment process of Senators would come nothing close to being that controversial. And that means we would have, on average, qualified and intelligent people serving in the Senate.

Local legislators do not run their elections on who they plan to vote for to be a Senator. Also, the appointment of only two people to a body of 100 is of no major significance. While Presidential elections never really revolve around Supreme Court appointments, the national controversy and public pressure comes around only because it is an appointment to a body of nine members. Two votes out of 100 is nothing, and and so the issue of Senatorial appointments would never be an issue in local elections, not really would the time come when the appointments raised much public interest. If anything the people of the states would demand professional, qualified, and educated people to serve. I cant imagine people writing their state legislators demanding that a billionaire from the state's largest agricultural company be appointed to the Senate, yet we elect people just like that every six years, and we elect them without term limits.

There is another issue: I think the terms to which people are elected to the Senate would change, mostly because there are term limits on the State legislatures, and a new group means a chance for new Senators. But also, you remove somewhat the public perception of a Senator, or at least you remove the nagging problem of people voting for someone simply because they know his name - a real travesty in a democratic nation. And I think that spells out the true purpose for why we used to have a senate that was elected by the State legislatures...

The public is often times too ill-informed. We are emotional, our moods change with the winds. That is why the Senate was removed from the people by one degree and each given a six year term. They enjoyed some autonomy, a little bit of what the Supreme Court members enjoy, having life terms. ... Oh, and just in case your wondering why the President enjoys so much power, and appears to control the more powerful branch of government... Its because of public opinion, and the fact that for some reason the popular will of the people has had some bearing on how the Electoral College makes its decisions on who should be president. Our constitution would work if we just allowed it to.

"You are Here"

A Washington Times article today detailed the disturbing results of surveys conducted with 510 persons from Dec-Jan of this academic year. Geographical illiteracy is becoming a major problem in the United States.

It is very sad to see the state of the education young people are getting. Being a product of the public education system in Florida I know all too well how poor education is. I practically taught myself throughout high school.

The new initiative being launched by National Geographic is called “My Wonderful World” and it is meant to help teachers educate students about geography. National Geographic is coming together with 4-H, American Federation of Teachers, Asia Society, Association of American Geographers, National Basketball Association, National Council of La Raza, National PTA and the Smithsonian Institution and hopes to enlist businesses, all to help promote this important goal of teaching America’s children about geography.

WeakleyReport.com is thrilled to announce that (well I am thrilled to announce) that I will be helping to promote these important educational goals on my website and in my local community. I encourage you to do the same. I will be launching a new segment of my website, since this story has given me the kick in the pants to actually get motivated to doing it. The section of my website will be devoted to education, and its importance to a strong democratic society. If we do not know our history, we do not know our freedoms, and we will loose them.

I appreciate your support of WeakleyReport.com and your support for “My Wonderful World.” Help educate America!