Jack of Harts

It’s Debate Day and what do we have to look forward to? We still don’t know whose crack it was they found in the White House, so who knows what the docs are pumping into Old Joe. And Big Don is still under a gag order so who knows what all he can say about when the question of his recent court case comes up. I don’t expect the moderators who have compared him to Hitler in the past to play nice with him on that point, so we’ve got that going as well. Now the rules say that they’ll cut the mikes so Old Joe can’t interrupt people like he has in debates for decades, but how well will that work out for him? What will Old Joe say, all alone, in front of a mic, with no audience to distract him? We know Big Don can talk big, but what will he say, all alone, in front of a mic, with no audience to feed on? Enquiring minds are going to find out…

Another 1913 Amendment, the Seventeenth changed the election of State Senators from being performed by the State Legislatures to being selected by popular vote of the citizens of the State, like the House of Representatives. The original Constitution had granted that power to the State Legislatures with the intention of granting the States direct control of their representatives to the Federal government. This would give them some power to keep the Federal government from growing out of their control. The combination of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments granted the Federal government the power to largely break free of this State influence to follow the path of Federal Supremacy we know today.

Another of the Post-Civil War amendments, the Fifteenth was focused entirely on voting. Just to make things clear to everybody, it says that right for citizens to vote shall not be denied based on race, color, or whether or not they used to be a slave. And just in case anyone thought they weren’t serious, Congress said they had the power to enforce it. While good intentioned, we all know it wasn’t enough. Democrat States would go on to institute Pole Taxes and other ways of stopping the former slaves from voting that had absolutely nothing to do with their race, color, or previous slavery. It would be another century before enough Northern Democrats joined ranks with the Republicans to end those particular tactics.