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Sunday, February 22, 2009

The 17th Amendment & 21st Century Crosses of Gold

Wisconsin's own Senator Feingold wants to amend the constitution to require the election of Senators when a vacancy arises between normal elections.

No doubt the ongoing Blago/Burris saga will at least lend some momentum to his proposal.

Enter the bespectacled pundit, ABC's own George Will.

George, of course, can't simply refute Feingold's proposal as foolhardy in its own right. He goes ol' Russ one better and argues things just haven't been the same since we stopped letting state legislatures elect Senators. Read his column by clicking on this link.

All this 17th ammendment talk makes me wonder: If William Jennings Bryan were alive today where would he stand on the stimulus? TARP? Mortgage modifications?

Instead of a 'Cross of Gold', would he decry a cross of debt? Of toxic assets? Of credit default swaps? (None of these have the rhetorical force of gold, however)

Things are indeed confusing when a Democratic President has to try and beat back what is essentially a populist argument made by a guy in a suit standing on a trading floor.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hear,hear!

Anonymous said...

Hear,hear!