[BRIEF NOTE] On the confusions of Tea Partiers

Tim Gueguen recently pointed to the news that some Tea Partiers would like to reform the US Senate by repealing the Seventeenth Amendment that requires Senators to be selected by popular vote. Instead, in an effort to decrease the influence of the federal government over the states, senators would be appointed by states themselves.

In the past couple weeks, at least two mainstream Republican candidates have found themselves walking back from pledges to support repealing the amendment, suggesting there’s a limit to how much support the tea parties can provide.

The “Repeal The 17th” movement is a vocal part of the overall tea party structure. Supporters of the plan say that ending the public vote for Senators would give the states more power to protect their own interests in Washington (and of course, give all of us “more liberty” in the process.) As their process of “vetting” candidates, some tea party groups have required candidates to weigh in on the idea of repeal in questionnaires.

Tim’s observations are quite right. The Tea Partiers want what Canadians have at the same time that some Canadians want something like what the Americans have.

This is ironic given that the most common idea for Senate reform in Canada is to make it elected, although there are also those, like the New Democratic Party, who want the Senate abolished. Alberta has had elections to fill its Senate candidates, and the current Saskatchewan Party government in Saskatchewan wants to do the same, but the results of these elections are not binding on the Prime Minister. So it’s kind of amusing to see the Tea Partiers move in the other direction.

Me, I think it seems to contradict the Tea Partiers’ insistence that American politics be much more responsive to the people. It is hilarious that they just want to redistribute the “authoritarianism” they denounce to different levels.