On the recordJuly 16, 2012
I was thinking back to a book that a friend gave me to read. It was called ``Treason of the Senate.'' When I first heard him speak about it over the phone, I think he was saying he had a book about the reason of the Senate. It turned out to be not the reason, but the treason. It was a series of articles, I believe about 20, that were written during the muckraker period. It was each month taking a different Senator, how they had basically been put in office through a particular company in a different State-- different powerful interest. This set of articles apparently was one of the things that led to a constitutional amendment because it helped the public mobilize against the indirect election of Senators and pushed for the direct election. So here was the public saying: You know, we the people have this system, and it has been violated. So we have to try to change the system so we can reclaim it. I think that is maybe some evidence of the role of excessive power and money and its corrupting influence or its corrosive influence on the electoral process.
