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submitted 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry earlier this week supported a resolution that would repeal the 17th Amendment and strip American voters of their right to elect U.S. Senators.

The joint resolution, introduced by Texas Congressman Keith Self, aims to “restore the Founders’ original vision for the United States” and return the selection of senators to state legislatures.

“Our Founding Fathers designed the Senate to protect state sovereignty and act as a check on federal overreach. If senators are supposed to represent their states, then the states should choose them. Repealing the 17th Amendment will restore that constitutional balance and make the Senate more accountable to the people of Texas and every other state in the union,” Self said.

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[-] osanna@lemmy.vg 20 points 2 hours ago

They aren’t even hiding the fascism anymore

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago
[-] osanna@lemmy.vg 5 points 2 hours ago

Heh yeah. They haven’t been hiding it for a long while.

[-] Serinus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

This one is a distraction. It's intended to distract from the methods they're really counting on.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago

It cracks me up that the cons have been able to paint liberals as being "elitist" based on aspiring to be better educated (see Santorum squealing that wanting everyone to have access to a college education is "elitist" for example).

Meanwhile, they openly do nakedly extremely elitist things like this.

Not to mention being positively giddy in their support for a billionaire like Donvict. It doesn't get much more elitist than that. SMH, the cons seem to delight in perverting the English language.

[-] MinorLaceration@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago

Interesting that all the cosponsors are Republicans. The midterms have them quaking in their boots.

[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 19 points 4 hours ago

Repealing the 17th Amendment will ... make the Senate more accountable to the people of Texas

You think not letting people vote will make senators more accountable?

What kind of nonsense is this?

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago

Facist logic

[-] BlueZen@lemmy.world 98 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

it cant be repealed, it must be a new amendment to nullify the 17th. like the 18th, prohibition, was nullified by the 21st.

that will require:

  • 2/3 congress (both houses) must agree, (thats 288 representatives, and 67 senators)
  • then, 3/4 of the states need to agree (thats 38)

this is all political theater

[-] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 40 points 5 hours ago

Its Overton window work. Just like the roe v wade overturning, they are talking about the impossible now so they can you their base get used to the idea and in the long run make real pushes for it. The Rs have always been transparent if you listen to them. Horribly self centered that they are.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 5 hours ago

it cant be repealed

I mean, we'll see what the SCOTUS has to say

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

the insanely partisan right wing supreme court wont save us.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Except enough Democrats might vote for it too. Their fighting against this cant be assumed. Somehow theres always just enough Dem votes for the republicans to get their way on key votes. Need 4? heres 5 Dem voters. Need 20? heres 22 Dem voters.
It happens all the time.

[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

I know you mean to say it can't be repealed by an Act of Congress, but the word "repeal" also applies to constitutional amendments. This is what the text of Amendment 21 said:

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Not "nullified". Repealed.

[-] Fishnoodle@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago

Yes... But who's it theater for? I don't think it's for his base, so then it's a form of terrorism to make people comply. Start talking to the working class peers you have. Make the concept of organized resistance one that people are comfortable with.

[-] freshcow@lemmy.world 41 points 6 hours ago

The problem for Republicans is that senate races can't be gerrymandered. Sounds like this provision would solve that problem for them. You can just smell the desperation and fear.

[-] AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

I vote we kill any sponsor of this resolution.

[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 45 points 6 hours ago

uhhhh... dont the people of those states elect their own local senator? how the fuck does that equal federal overreach??

overreach by representation? are they saying the problem in the united states is that we are over-represented?

ohh right.. the fascism isnt even whispered anymore

[-] ActualGrapesTasteGreen@piefed.zip 31 points 6 hours ago

That's the slip. It reveals who he thinks the state is: the legislation, not the republic.

[-] Fishnoodle@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

No that's the design fault in a republic. You can't condense the political opinions of hundred of thousands of people into 4-5 individuals that can be readily identified and easily swayed. You end up getting a binary decision that's supposed to represent an analog spectrum but that's fucking impossible. Just like Plato's allegory and just like mp3 bitrate All you can do is approach the original quality of true democracy. It cannot be represented with 100% accuracy through binary interpolation. That's what bit rate is The higher the bit rate the more samples you get.

The current vote rate for voters in America is like fucking . 00005 kv at best once you get to the state level. That means that it will take 50,000 actual dedicated voters who make their opinion heard and show up to vote in a pack to have any real impact on a house election. And that's just a house seat. At the same time through ads, social media, public deceit campaigns, etc you can buy 1kv for probably 100-200k depending on the area and the amount of deceit that you need to perform.

And ultimately if you buy a representative enough they'll do what you want regardless of what their constituents want. Which is how and why republics fail. When you dilute true sentiment with luxury and profit for the few, we all become doomed

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Read Democracy In Chains.

[-] toast@retrolemmy.com 14 points 5 hours ago

Well, if we're going to be thinking about the original vision, we'd better uncap the house as well. Having a couple thousand representatives in the house, each representing a much smaller group of voters, would certainly make the country run much more as intended.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Another win for accelerationism. Man who thought the republicans would speedrun the destruction of the republic like they have. I thought it'd take more than just a few years.

[-] transarchistcuddleslut 1 points 1 hour ago

Everyone who took project2025 seriously knew they would.

[-] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 15 points 6 hours ago

If he wants to amend the constitution, there’s a process for that. It would probably take two years, minimum. I wish him luck.

[-] lettruthout@lemmy.world 20 points 6 hours ago
[-] Triumph@fedia.io 22 points 6 hours ago

@TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com didn't specify good luck.

[-] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 1 points 4 hours ago
[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 hours ago

the odds of a repeal of the 17th being ratified is exactly ZERO. maga nuts would have to fuck with so much at the state level in so many states, it's just not gonna happen. and that's on top of the fuckery needed over several election cycles to scam, cheat, and steal their way to super-majorities in congress to even get it sent to the states.

[-] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 1 points 4 hours ago

ELI5 does this even matter? The state legislators are elected by the people, why does it matter if those reps are electing the federal senators or the the people directly? Its not like you're going to get a bunch of lords nominated arbitrarily by the ~~King~~President?

[-] gloog@fedia.io 8 points 4 hours ago

State legislatures can be highly gerrymandered, and it would also eliminate primaries for the senate candidates which which means senators would functionally become whoever the party leadership wants per state.

[-] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 1 points 2 hours ago

Thanks! Given the system the US uses for party primaries and the current climate of public manipulation through captured mainstream and social media, aren't those things already problems? Would it be any worse than it already is?

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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