Reply #46: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...." Ralph Waldo Emerson

[No Elephants]

Full quote: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

The wise are not reluctant to change their minds, when there is reason for change.


Read the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Do you not think that its authors knew that Legislatures make political choices about filling vacancies? Do you not think that they knew Legislatures change, repeal and replace laws at will? Yet, both the Constitution as originally written and the 17 th Amendment put filling vacancies in Senate seats solely in the power of the Legislature. Think they may have had good reasons? I do.

Try reading some prior threads here on this subject, too. Maybe start with this one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4065482&mesg_id=4066284

Also, your example about tax raising has nothing to do with this. The Massachusetts Legislature never said they would never change the law about vacancies. In fact, if they had said that, they may have violated the U.S. Constitution, which left this issue to legislatures, knowing legislatures amend and replace laws all the time.

People need to stop looking at this through a "Democrat or Republican lens" and start thinking about why the Constitution reads as it does and what represents what the people of Massachusetts would have chosen for themselves in 2004 and what they would choose today.