17th Amendment

Prior to the 17th Amendment, states could shut down the federal government.
Chief Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833, page 488:
“Section 510. In the next place, the state governments are, by the very theory of the constitution, essential constituents of the general government. They can exist without the later, but the later cannot exist without them. Without the intervention of the state legislatures, the president of the United States cannot be elected at all; and the senate is exclusively and absolutely under the choice of the state legislatures. The representatives are chosen by the people of the states. So that the executive and legislative branches of the national government depend upon, and emanate from the states. Every where the state sovereignties are represented; and the national sovereignty, as such, has no representation. How is it possible, under such circumstances, that the national government can be dangerous to the liberties of the people, unless the states, and the people of the states, conspire together for their overthrow? If there should be such a conspiracy, is not this more justly to be deemed an act of the states through their own agents, and by their own choice, rather that a corrupt usurpation by the general government?”
 
Answer: Yes, the 17th Amendment was a conspiracy of the states to overthrow themselves. 
Government Overreach
“We The People” now means nothing to the civil servants who swore oaths to obey our Constitution

You may also be interested in my article A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, or my book Why We Don’t Have Rights Anymore. 

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