In his article "The continued fall of federalism", appearing in The Washington Post, George Will is arguing against Feingold-McCain, an act designed to force states to have an election to fill vacant Senate seats. His main argument against this falls back on "Framers intentions", which is a really weak argument because it is based on the assumption that he knows exactly what the framers had in mind for every situation when the Constitution was written, or that the framers could even begin to imagine what politics would be like in 2009. However, I do agree with him on the point that federalism should be protected and that states should be able to pass their own laws to protect their own interests. An argument could easily be made that popular vote is a horrible way to pick officials, all we have to do is take a good look at some people elected in the past (McCarthy, Blagojevich....Bush). Having some people sitting in the Senate not elected by the generally ignorant masses isn't such a bad thing.
While the general idea Will is trying to put forward is a good one, his use of negative and sarcastic language greatly degrades his argument. Such negative attacks on those he disagrees with has become a Republican trademark and does a disservice to the people that might actually agree with him. In fact his language is so negative that it might sway some people to disagree with him just because it is so painful to read. In my opinion he is blinded by party loyalty and unable to see some of the logical fallicies that are so apparent in his thinking. He uses sensational language and greatly exaggerates the actions of his opponents. Apparently drowning ones opponent in an overwhelming amount of policitally raised money is an issue of free speech, and stopping said drowning amounts to a "gutting" of the first amendment. I'm sorry that you feel that way Mr Will, but a corporation giving millions of dollars to a policital candidate is not an act of policital speech; it amounts to the buying of loyalty from a candidate and a monetary investment for some type of gain later on.
