Pragmatic

Joy Hakim in her historical series "A History of Us," has some pretty good descriptions of the past, particularly as she describes Americans as Pragmatic. The best example she gives is in book eight of the seires, "An Age of Extremes: 1880 to 1917, is where she describes Ben Franklin as the pragmatist.

Pragmatism means being practical minded. Or, as she words it:

Pragmatic people don't worry much about theories. They just see what works and stick with that. We Americans are known as pragmatic people. We inherited that trait from a Founding Father. Can you guess who?

Well, it was Ben Franklin. He was a pragmatist. Ben looked at the world and used his practical mind to try to make it a better place. The first half of his life he worked hard at his business -- printing -- and became successful and wealthy. Then he retired, at 42, and devoted the rest of his life to science and invention and his country. He made himself useful.

She continued to describe the 19th century as being full of pragmatic people. Some people were like franklin, practical people who were also altruistic. While others were more selfish. Yet they took what was available to them, wisdom and stuff, and they made something of it using common sense.

And in either sense, America was all the better for it. We had many inventions come of this. We had railroads, factories, assembly lines, cars replacing horse and buggy, paved roads, faster production, oil tycoons, larger newspapers.

It all started with practical Thomas Jefferson and George Washington along with Ben Franklin. These were Americans who we could look back upon with pride.

As Hakiim writes, "Those leaders had been practical and responsible, pragmatic and idealistic. Their example meant that every time someone got greedy and mean-spirited, a voice from the past spoke out. It was a national conscience. It said things like: Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise." Or, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Or, There never was a good knife made of bad steel."

In the past decade we have seen our leaders make decisions for this country that are not practical. They have made decisions that are not based on what has succeeded in the past, but on what has failed. And as a result we have lost confidence in our country. Poll after poll shows this.

This is why we are at a crossroads in this nation. We need to vote for practical people to run our nation, people who will look at the wisdom of our practical Founding Fathers like Ben Franklin to make the right decisions for our future.

James Madison versus the 17th Amendment

James Madison wrote into the Constitution so that Senators would be representatives of the state, not of the people. He basically knew if the Government had too much power, too much representation, that it would abuse it's power. And, after Woodrow Wilson pushed for the 17th Amendment, that's exactly what happened.

The 17th Amendment changed Madison's wording in the Constitution, and changed it so that senator's were directly voted in by the people. The reason for the change was that progressives, like Woodrow Wilson, believed senators, since they were representatives of the people and not the states, would be more likely to vote for certain things that were not in the best interest of the states, and may be in the best interests of special interest groups and lobbyists. In essence, the 17th amendment turned senators into lobbyists for Washington.
A good example is the health care program that just passed through Congress. If the senators were representatives for the states, they never would have voted for it because that law does not have what's best for the states in mind. This is exactly how Woodrow Wilson and the progressives wanted it. They knew they would never get their radical, socialist agenda passed without the 17th amendment, or without the support of Washington.

Madison new checks and balances were needed, and having the senators be representatives of the state was one of them. When the people don't support something, which they did not support the Obama Health care Bill, the progressives new they could still get it passed if the senators that were elected did not represent the states.

This is exactly how much of the progressive agenda was passed, however unpopular. The rest of it is made law by radicals in the judicial system who make laws from the bench that would never be passed through the legislature. A good example of this is the 1972 Rowe Versus Wade ruling that essentially made abortion legal from the bench.


The 17th amendment basically trampled on the 10th amendment, and therefore trampled on state rights.