In order to understand why Washington has grid lock and everything is so bi-partisian one has to go to the beginning. The Constitution is the beginning document which lays the framwork by which we have law in this country. When this document was being sold to the territories as a form of government, The Federalist Papers were written to help the colonies understand what was the purpose to this thing called the Constitution. They were the really only documents that talked about what the framers had in mind back then.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote The Federalist Papers as were presented to each of the colonies as a "pitch to join these United States".
One of the areas I will examine is how from the beginning U S Senators were elected and why the framers wanted it that way. Federalist Article 62 written by Hamilton and Madison talks about the need to have 2 Senators from every state represent in this body as not to advantage either the small or large state but to create a body powerful to deal with the STATES business and that of the militia etc. So the U S Senators would be elected by the individual STATE SENATE Bodies to represent that particular state.
They wanted to have something different that how the House of Representatives were elected. The House did the peoples business the Senate did the States business, ratifications , treaties and the militia.
People elected members of the house , but State Senates elected the 2 from every state for the Senate.
This is how it was done from 1776 to 1912. Bet you didn't know that!
Stay tuned to see how all that changed in 1912 with the 17 amendment and how gridlock was born.
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