In a typical year, someone like [Colorado Senate candidate Ken] Buck would be an almost cartoonish right-wing nut, and the subject of national ridicule. After all, the far-right candidate supports repealing the 17th Amendment, eliminating the Department of Education, scrapping the federal student loan program, banning certain forms of birth control and all abortion rights, even in cases of rape or incest. He’s said Americans he doesn’t like are a bigger threat than terrorists, and is on record talking about privatizing Social Security, the V.A., and the Centers for Disease Control.
And now Buck is insisting sexual orientation is a choice and gays are like alcoholics.
I like to think Colorado is better than this, but I suppose we’ll find out in 16 days.
I’d like to think America is better than this, but I’ve already been proven wrong on that score. For the record, the 17th Amendment provides for the direct election of U.S. Senators. Prior to its ratification in 1913, there was a different process. Let me see if I can tickle your irony-bone:
Originally, each Senator was elected by his state’s legislature to represent that state in the Senate.[1] It was believed that while an unqualified candidate might win a popular-vote majority through demagoguery or superficial qualities, the legislature, which could deliberate on its choice, and whose members had been selected by their constituents and had experience in politics, would be safe from such folly.
Demagoguery and superficial qualities? Does that describe any of the Republican office-seekers this year? Does that describe Palinism to a ‘T’? Our Founding Fathers weren’t stupid. They may have been somewhat elitist, but they weren’t stupid. They foresaw that the direct election of senators might lead to an infusion of the The Stupid into the Upper Chamber of Congress, and they wanted to guard against that. It doesn’t get more ironic than a demagogue with superficial qualities like Ken Buck running for direct election to the Senate on a platform that the people will never be permitted to vote for or against him again.
