The Senate doesn't march to the drumbeat of the people any more...
I was always under the impression that they never did and that it was by design. The House of Representatives is supposed to fulfill that requirement whereas the Senate is supposed to act as a brake on the House. The two legislative bodies are supposed to compliment/oppose each other in that way. You have the House where everyone is up for re-election every two years: very responsive to the will of the voters. And then you have the Senate which only has a third up for re-election every two years with each member locked in for six: very unresponsive to the will of the voters. (Of course there were other considerations*) The idea being that it was supposed to make it rather difficult to get legislation written and that goal is a good one. Obviously, it has not worked out exactly to plan.
*The other distinction between the two legislative bodies being one is representative of the population of a given state and the other was not so as to prevent states with lots of voters from ransacking lower populated states...i.e. we have to put up with places like Rhode Island.
I have not read Levin's latest book but having heard him speak of it I get the sense that his main thrust is that the entire legislative system has been corrupted to the point where even the House is not responsive to the voters, that other forces are driving the legislation or lack thereof, and that his prescription is for the states to take power back by way of Constitutional amendment. I personally think that it is too late even for that last ditch effort because the corruption has roots that reach into the states themselves. The state legislatures and the state executive branches are, for lack of a better allegory, the farm leagues for the federal legislatures. The wheeling and dealing, the conniving and treachery start at the state level now. Take, for instance, the Colorado state legislature which couldn't wait to pass anti-tun measures even in the face of massive voter objection. These lawmakers didn't run on this platform but they acted on it just as soon as possible. Why? They are Democrats and this is how you get noticed in the big leagues...this is how you get selected to make speeches at the national conventions and how you eventually get nominated to run for higher office within the party. A couple of them got recalled and that will put the brakes on any further far left craziness, the high profile stuff, anyway. But they got their way and the laws are still in place so big victory. I wouldn't count the recalled legislators out, either. There is a good possibility that they will get picked for some nice position somewhere. They take care of their own.
So...I am just not sure that Levin's strategy is going to bear fruit. I understand what he is trying to do. He doesn't want to give up and let it burn. That's admirable. But I'm afraid that it is also a doomed strategy. Our country is like a seriously down and out alcoholic who, as bad as he is, hasn't hit bottom yet and therefor clings to his bottle and refuses to dry out once and for all. He will eventually hit bottom and reform or die. Same with the country.
You are correct about the Senate's role. It was never intended to be a representative body like the House. Instead, it was meant to be a body patterned similarly to the House of Lords - a body of fewer politicians, from wealth even, but who were beholden to the States as opposed to the people directly.
I said it poorly -- without the 17th Amendment, the Senate would have adhered to and remained accountable to the States' legislatures and, indirectly, to the people in that fashion. Consequently, the Senate would not be subject to the whims and the fancies of the people necessarily, in the same fashion that the more numerically superior lower House of Congress would naturally be.
And yes, Levin absolutely promotes the idea that the politicians have corrupted themselves (and we have allowed that) by themselves believing that they are superior to the people who put them there. The Framers believed firmly that those serving in Congress were actually demoted from the People in order to serve there; and for that reason, politicians were never intended to be professional or even to collect anything but an honorarium for the
privilege of serving. After their period of service, they would return to private life and thus be
promoted.
Those who seek political office -- on both sides of the proverbial aisle -- are really nothing more than selfish ideologues who have their eyes on the Great Public Teat From Which to Feed. No sense of service there, but they like to have us believe that.
These days, of course, politicians actually believe their chosen job is a career path. Their first thought after election is re-election and form their necessary committees and fundraising to assure that happening.
I couldn't agree more with you about the decline of our country. Barry is determined to make that happen, and he's succeeding. He has lots of help, too. The sheeple and those who are utterly blind to see beyond their TV sets while it portrays people of dubious talent while they're being judged by people of even more dubious talent in the guise of entertainment known as American Idol stand by while our way of life swirls down the crapper.
