Continuing the crusade against any constitutional amendment numbered in the teens, here’s Kentucky Senate President David Williams:
Williams, a Burkesville attorney, told about 50 UK law students that most of the problems with the federal government stem from the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1913.
He contended it prevents state legislatures across the country from having input into the ever-growing role of the federal government with its various mandates, such as this year’s health insurance overhaul.
So, 13-17 (repealing slavery, birthright citizenship, universal suffrage, income tax and electing senators) are definitely out. Prohibition (18) is a question mark, but, judging from the predominantly white male composition of tea party rallies, 19 (women’s suffrage) is probably next on the chopping block.
4tehlulz
I’m sure Sarah Palin will start calling for the repeal of the 19th any day now.
Probably over twitter.
Benjamin Cisco
Gotta love the consistency of their drumbeat.
__
Actually, no, not so much.
TR
Only someone in a state legislature would think increasing the power of a state legislature is a good idea.
As some comic once said, the people who serve in state legislatures are usually politicians who have some dark secret that prevents them from running for a real office.
DBrown
If this is what passes for intelligent discussion by repug-a-thugs that this country needs in these times, then we need a law mandating that to be a voting member of that party, a person must first be water boarded thirty times in thirty days, for non-gay be sodimized while held down, forced on live on food stamps for one year and finally, live in their own waste (human) to learn a little of what our environment really does for us.
The Dangerman
Bear with me a moment, but if 19 were to go down, presumably, Palin couldn’t run for President. Also, we would get rid of Bachmann. It could be worth it.
steviez314
I wouldn’t mind getting rid of all those amendments if we also went back to the original 13 colonies.
WereBear (itouch)
It’s really those years beginning with teen that’s the problem. 19xx, 18xx, 17xx; folks got uppity and didn’t appreciate monarchy.
Kryptik
But what about the will of the people? Didn’t we get all that bullshit about when all those Republicans got seats or the teabaggers nearly won? What about that shit?
But I guess the idea of repealing the 17th means one more step to having a senator with the designation ‘R-Exxon’ or ‘D-Morgan Stanley’.
Zifnab
Yeah, why don’t state senators have more say at the federal level? That’s a damn good point. And, while we’re at it, why don’t governors get a bigger say in electing the President? And when, oh when, will the state Supreme Courts have a co-equal voice on the SCOTUS?
Politics is just so damn unfair, with all it’s divisions of powers and checks and balances. Perhaps we should just pick one guy to make and enforce all the rules into perpetuity. That would be a lot more fair and a lot more simple.
Kryptik
@The Dangerman:
Conservative women movements have always been stupidly oxymoronic. Phyllis Schlafly made a career as a political activist who railed against the idea that women should ever be employed outside the home or allowed to properly vote.
Tara the antisocial social worker
I feel obliged to point out that Pam Geller has also demanded that we repeal the right to vote for 18-20 year olds. Which is technically the 26th amendment, but it does deal with teens, and it’s not like she can count anyway.
taylormattd
Sorry to be off topic, but RIP Dave Niehaus. :(
Zifnab
@The Dangerman:
Are you kidding? Neither of those people are winning the female popular vote. Might as well suggest that if men weren’t allowed to vote then Richard Simmons would never have a chance at becoming a Senator.
Scott
@Zifnab:
Yeah, why don’t state senators have more say at the federal level? That’s a damn good point. And, while we’re at it, why don’t governors get a bigger say in electing the President? And when, oh when, will the state Supreme Courts have a co-equal voice on the SCOTUS?
Hell with that. Why don’t local city councils get to dictate terms to Congress? Shouldn’t the local county judge be allowed to overturn Supreme Court rulings? Why must the feds get in the way of other people’s desires to be big shots?
Michael
I know David Williams. He’s a douchebag of the lowest order.
Culture of Truth
Also 4, 5, and definitely 8.
Cat Lady
@steviez314:
This. And I’m just gonna say yet again, don’t blame me, I’m from Massachusetts.
scav
Well, after their little Tea Party, clearly the next on the menu is Constitution as Smorgasbord. They have, to their minds, established that the object is not a suicide pact and they cherry pick their religious beliefs to omit the tricky bits and re-enforce their prejudices so it’s not that far a conceptual leap. They can see the Applebees Salad Bar of Freedom from their front porches!
Omnes Omnibus
@Cat Lady: Scott Brown.
Cat Lady
@Omnes Omnibus:
His days are numbered. He’s not making anybody happy here.
The Dangerman
@Zifnab:
You misunderstand me, Sir; in my made up world, where the Dangerman is King and all bow down before him, if women can’t be trusted to vote, they surely can’t be trusted to hold elective office.
Ryan
Reinstating the 3/5th compromise can’t be too far behind. The tea-patriots just want to get back to the Constitushun, and the libruhls just cry RAAAACISSST!
Omnes Omnibus
@Cat Lady: I’m just saying. You can’t be too smug. Then again, I am in Wisconsin, so what room do I have to talk? Of course, Madison, where I live, voted overwhelmingly for the good guys.
Roger Moore
If we’re going to repeal any amendments, can we start with the 11th. Giving states sovereign immunity was a bad idea, and we should revoke it.
fanshawe
Just so I have this straight, to a wingnut, when the state or local government prevents citizens from choosing their own municipal trash haulers it is tyranny, and when the state or local government fails to prevent citizens from electing their own senators that is tyranny also, too?
Ash Can
@Kryptik:
They never really say which people, now, do they?
Loneoak
I struggle to see how this all fits in with their Constitution fetishism. Is it because they have now actually read the damn thing since someone with a Gadsden flag worn as a diaper passed it to them at a teabagger munch?
Violet
Every so often Rush Limbaugh points out that America started going downhill when women were given the right to vote. So yeah, I think his audience (mostly white men over 50) would be happy to repeal women’s suffrage.
Omnes Omnibus
@fanshawe: To a wingnut, if government does something, it is tyranny. Unless it it something the wingnut wanted government to do, in which case it is not tyranny, it is mandated by the Constitution (even if nothing in the actual Constitution says anything remotely similar). Is this so hard to understand?
Loneoak
@Cat Lady:
Yeah, I have to say that ya’ll from Assachusetts should STFU. Ted Kennedy’s bullshit kept us from getting national health care reform a long time ago and then you gave us Scott Brown, the first teabagger victory. You are not FSM’s gift to the universe, yet in every single thread someone is claiming that Assachusetts is practically Sweden with all its cloudberry-scented soshulism. It ain’t. And the Sox are just the Yankees in red now.
MattF
Not to mention the first ten amendments– pretty soon we’ll be hearing that the prohibition on an established religion is merely an acknowledgment that the demand that everyone must adhere to the single true and correct faith comes directly from God.
fanshawe
@Omnes Omnibus:
So I think what you’re saying is this: You know who else didn’t allow state senators from Kentucky to select members of his national government? Hitler!
scav
@fanshawe:
Basically: yup. Might be simpler to work from the other direction: What isn’ttyranny>?
I’ve got building pink prisons to protect their chillin and wimmin and precious bodily fluids from brown people and those of different opinions and paying for weaponry to kill those brown people that live outside the sacred borders. Oh, and I guess someone has to protect the rights and property of bankers and hedge fund managers. What am I missing?
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“Bear with me a moment, but if 19 were to go down, presumably, Palin couldn’t run for President. Also, we would get rid of Bachmann. It could be worth it.”
Nah, let’s double down on the 19th. No males allowed to vote or run for office. All those pasty white middle-aged GOP douchebags out of office. Vitter. Hatch. Shelby. DeMint. I think there’s lots of win.
We’d lose Obama, but we’d get Hillary, so that’d be OK, plus Lieberman would go.
Bachmann would be speaker, but hey, that might be good for 2012.
mikefromArlington
Repeal the 28th!
Punchy
No offense, mistahmicks, but the teatards have been screaming this since at least July. So it’s not really news. I guess it is news that some clown in a state office has finally gone on record supporting it.
When do we sell Kentucky and Tennessee to China (and throw in Mississippi as a freebee) for some debt relief?
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“Ted Kennedy’s bullshit kept us from getting national health care reform”
Nixon might not have offered Kennedy health care reform if he wasn’t, umm, Teddy Kennedy. It was a mistake, and Kennedy acknowledged it, but he thought he could get a better deal from a future Dem president.
It’s not like he could have predicted the Oil Crisis, the Iran Hostage Crisis, Reaganism and the rightward turn in the country and the descent of the GOP into douchebaggery.
Loneoak
@Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan:
Not claiming it is an accurate history, but it is a mocking history.
Mumphrey
Are there really people calling to repeal the 13th Amendment? Banning slavery? Really? I read that and all I can say is that I can’t believe there would really be people in 2010 who want to bring back slavery. Then I take a look at the teabaggers, and all of a sudden, I can kind of believe that after all. I guess it’s harder for me to believe that they’d be willing to say so aloud… And in front of other people…
Funkhauser
For the record, Ann Coulter has already advocated for repeal of the 19th Amendment.
I would link, but it goes to WingNutDaily, and that’s gross.
El Cid
Does the 10th amendment count as “teen”? I think so. And right wingers love that one.
It’s pretty much only the 2nd and 10th that they think aren’t communist.
Linda Featheringill
See what you guys do to me? I was forced [forced, I tell you] to look up how to repeal a constitutional amendment. The tyranny of the BJ commentariat!
Pangloss
In the 70s, Republicans wanted to take us back to the 1950s. In the 80s, they wanted to take us back to the 1920s. In the 90s, they wanted to take us back to the 1890s. And now, they want to take us back to the 1850s. I’m sensing a pattern.
ocean man
The ammendment needs to be ammended very true. Why does Kentucky and North Dakota have the same amount of senators as California. How many people in total voted for republican senators and how many voted for democratic senators? Sorry this is a serious flaw in our system and a huge injustice. I believe Wyoming has 250,000 voters.
Mnemosyne
@The Dangerman:
Nope. Victoria Woodhull ran for president well before women were given the vote, so it wouldn’t be an impediment to Palin.
Given that the vast majority of Palin’s “popularity” (such as it is) comes from men, removing women voters from the picture would be disastrous.
Nutella
@Punchy:
Too bad Kentucky didn’t jump ship to the Spanish empire in the 1780’s. And as far as I’m concerned Spain would have been more than welcome to keep Florida, too.
Bruce Webb
Put the 18th back on the list.
Prohibition was carefully crafted to screw over working men while giving the bosses a free pass. Under the 18th Amendment it was illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell alcohol but perfectly legal to possess and consume it. That is once a millionaire got his bootlegged wine, brandy and scotch safely into his spirit closet or wine cellar he was free to serve it to his guests even if they included J. Edgar himself. On the other hand the working man only had the choice of being on the other side of a clearly illegal transaction in a speakeasy.
And the dirty little secret of Prohibition is that it worked. For the bosses. Drunkenness and absenteeism dropped among the workforce even as the booze flowed freely in the executive boardrooms and the city and country clubs.
(Which BTW also probably explains the vast differentials in punishment between powder and crack cocaine in our days, back in the eighties the Masters of the Universe were hoovering up coke off of mirrored tables like there was no tomorrow with drugs only becoming a drag on productivity when they got in the hands of workers and potential workers.)
The Prohibition Movement was led by women but it was voted in by their capitalist husbands in a desire to fatten the bottom line. The Repeal Movement was explicitly sold as allowing workers to have their daily beer back, it wasn’t because capitalists had any problem finding a drink at any point from 1919 to 1932.