Assignment #5 TSewell

In the article “Will: The continuing fall of federalism” originally published in the Washington Post and posted on The State website, George F. Will states that rather than amend the 17th Amendment, it should be repealed. Mr. Will’s comments are based on a statement issued by Senator Russ Feingold on Jan. 25, 2009 that said “I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute. As the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, I will hold a hearing on this important topic soon.” Mr. Will apparently wants to go back to a time when the legislators of each state appointed their state’s senators as originally written in the constitution. Mr. Will argues that the House is meant to be responsive and not the Senate. He also argues that the 17th Amendment has allowed the states to be administrators of the Federal Government and that state legislators could help to monitor and teach the Senators they appoint. This sounds like the Senate could easily be manipulated by legislators and since this didn't work, it was amended. At the end of the article, just in case you weren’t angered by what he sees as “vandalism against the Constitution”, Mr. Will throws in his argument against the McCain-Feingold Act. After reading the McCain-Feingold Act, I don’t believe that it threatens freedom of speech and neither does the U.S. Supreme Court. I am glad that Mr. Will is not a state legislator as he likes to manipulate his readers and would undoubtedly manipulate the Senate to his way of thinking.