Birth to An End

May 1912 and April 1913 two huge dates in our American history and politics was rewritten those days.
It was the end of the Taft presidency and the beginning of the Wilson Era that the 17th amendment came to be born. This took away the State Senates right to vote for its senators to send to Washington to represent their respective states. The framers wanted protection, a sorta of layering between corrupt individuals and powerful groups influence . By this amendment senators were elected right from the people. This will prove to be 75 yrs later the beginning of direct corruption, vote peddling and control by union bosses and the likes. This is what the framers did not want.The reason this amendment was enacted because western states were dragging their feet electing their Senators and Washington  at times was in session with maybe 90 senators.Even at times not a clear majority to get the business done and was causing a problem in government. Today this would not be the case.

Before Taft was president Teddy Roosevelt, Republican was not convinced this was the way to go and Taft another republican stood neutral on this. But then came Wilson Democrat and boy was he the liberal. Thank him for the income tax law and a slew of other laws that we live with today.

We will examine the politics on our next visit the reason and ramifications of what that amendment has done to modern day politics.