Texas to repeal 17th amendment

[josephpalazzo]

Here's an idea: abolish elections for senators, and let the legislature do the picking. Another hairbrain idea from the Tea Party -- Let's reverse the clock and cronyism be the way.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/ ... 901820.php

[entropy]

Well, what are going to do if the primary demographic (old white people) that is giving you your electoral victories is dying away from old age? You threaten to shoot the world economy in the head if you can't get your way because you can't elect the necessary representatives to get it done otherwise*. You suppress the vote. Just before the election, you purge large numbers of voters from the voting register using bogus criteria (see Virginia). Basically, you give up on a democracy that won't elect your preferred candidates in sufficient numbers because your prime demographic (old white people) won't let you change your policies to attract more people.

I've actually gotten into discussions with Tea Partiers that were trying to tell me that the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy. I tried to point out to them that the U.S. is both a republic and a representative democracy, but they wouldn't accept that. Gack! But it does show that they don't have a strong attachment to democratic ideals. As far as they are concerned, they are blessed with THE correct vision for the country, so the hell with democracy.

This is one area where Tea Party interests and wealthy elite interests tend to overlap. Wealthy elite interests have always fought against democratization.


*Another sign of the undemocratic character of too much of our politics - the number of people voting for Democrats for House seats in 2012 was actually almost a million votes more than the Republicans got, yet the Republicans ended up with 32 more seats in the House than the Democrats.

[stromboli]

So what exactly is the Tea Party trying to accomplish? I thought the idea was to put the power back in the hands of the people, not remove it.  Everything done by Repubs and Tea Partiers is contrary to that. Gerrymandering districts to not reflect the will of the people but the will of the controlling white demographic and so on. It just shows how pinheaded the general population is. I know a couple of Tea Partiers and have tried to explain this shit to them, but they just deny it outright.

[Shiranu]

Slightly misleading title, since the article makes it pretty clear that it is impossible to do and it is only a minority of Texas politicians and not the one's with real say on what happens in Texas. Like saying New York is going to legalize murder because a couple of minor politicians there say they want to.

That said, what a bunch of idiots.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

What? YOU PEOPLE think you're better at electing people than trained, career backroom politicians? The nerve! :-k

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well, if you think the Texans are brainfucked, and they are some shitferbrains fleabag in Idaho has 10, countem, TEN kids, eight foster kids on medicade yet is opposed to any kind of government healthcare.. In case, he's opposed to almost everything government provides..that he gladly uses.. :roll:
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1248637

[aileron]

Christ, I'm getting sick and tired of people wanting to "restore" or "preserve" our Founding Father's intents.  Let's restore slavery... Ho-ray!  We've gotten back to our Founding Father's intents.  Let's really get back to original intent and end voting for women, men who don't own land, and Indians... Founding Father's rock!!

[entropy]

So what exactly is the Tea Party trying to accomplish? I thought the idea was to put the power back in the hands of the people, not remove it.  Everything done by Repubs and Tea Partiers is contrary to that. Gerrymandering districts to not reflect the will of the people but the will of the controlling white demographic and so on. It just shows how pinheaded the general population is. I know a couple of Tea Partiers and have tried to explain this shit to them, but they just deny it outright.

Tea Partiers tend to think of "the people" as people like them - white Christians - and they'll leave the others (you know, the brownies, gays, atheists, anti-lifer/pro-abortionists and such) alone as long as those others keep their hands out of "the real American's" pockets and behave like whatever some charismatic evangelical minister thinks the Bible says how you should behave. They aren't so sure that the others have earned the right to vote. I bet if you scratch the right spot on most Tea Partiers, you'd find they have an itching to tell you that voting should be dependent on working without getting welfare - unless you are retired, in which case it's "Keep government out of my Medicare and Social Security!"

[Atheon]

A person can be honest, intelligent, or Republican, but not all three. Two, yes, but not all three.

By the way, call them Teabaggers. They hate that, even though they once used the term themselves.

[JamesTheUnjust]

Here's an idea: abolish elections for senators, and let the legislature do the picking. Another hairbrain idea from the Tea Party -- Let's reverse the clock and cronyism be the way.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/ ... 901820.php

I really hope they try to do this. It would finally make people face the reality that the Tea Party wants to take away peoples choice in government, not enhance it; they want to make politicians more immune from public dissatisfaction. All the talk about freedom, liberty, and the bill of rights is just a cover for the kind of government that they really want.

As somebody from Texas all I can say that it's what Texas and Oklahoma liberals have come to expect.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The real crazy coming out of the TP is coming from Texas especially. The NYT rips Texas pretty hard, but think of the clown show when both Tricky Ricky Perry and Teddy the Dolt Cruz run for president ïn 2016.
Here's the NYT take on it.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/op ... orner.html