They seem to succeed in making you mad and angry, that's for sure.
http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/fir...rick-want-do-/At last Thursday's Clear Lake Tea Party debate between the four Republican candidates for lieutenant governor, both the in bent, David Dewhurst, and one of his challengers, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, declared their support for repealing the 17th Amendment to the Cons ution, a Progressive Era reform that provided for the direct election of U.S. senators by the people, rather than by state legislatures as the Founders intended.
... because once the red staters have gerrymandered enough districts to be safely, eternally red, they will have enough district reps to elect red senators, even while losing the senators lose the popular vote (like Gore 2000 and the anachronistic electoral college disaster)
there's no chance the 17th Amendment will be repealed. being for such a repeal is a pure sop to Tea Partiers.
The article is revealing to me because I had no idea that politicians running for state-wide office would actually say such a thing in public. Even in Texas.
Moreover, learning that Scalia is similarly minded just made me scared.
The notion that all the Tea Partiers are in favor of this strikes me as consistent with their belief that they do not trust 'the people' to get it right. If 'the people' as a whole cannot vote directly for senator (and by logical extension, President), then the Tea Party has more influence beyond their current voting support status.
It is consistent with trying to get what you want by means other than elections as they have operated in this country for over a hundred years.
The Tea Party folk seem more than willing to upend most anything to effect their vision of 'right'. They have great energy. What they don't have yet is votes to be a majority. This is simply one more attempt to mitigate the extent to which they can enact their vision without voter support. I keep wondering why they are in America. If one is unwilling to abide by 'one person, one vote', why don't they go somewhere else and start a theocracy from scratch.
They keep threatening secession...why not just leave?
It is just the newest flavor of Cool-aid.
The groupthink of the nutty right is not to be underestimated.
I wish they would. Find two or three good contiguous good bible-thumping states in the south, and GTFO.
The rest of us can carry on quite nicely on our economic union.
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